's Candy

Part 1: New Housemate

Few things in life are as traumatic as changing housemates. I was unfortunately in dire need of a new housemate - Sheila's transfer for her job had been moved up, unexpectedly, leaving me in the lurch for someone to share expenses.

After meeting a couple of girls who answered my ad and not getting a good feeling from either of them I was starting to get a little antsy. But there was one more person I hadn't met yet.

Katherine arrived punctually. A good sign. One has to look at lots of intangibles in this situation. She looked to be about my age, pretty, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Tall. Well-dressed, another good sign. She most likely had a good job, so getting her half of the rent money each month shouldn't be a problem. A quietly confident air about her, something unspoken.

I showed her around and she seemed to genuinely like the place. At the end of the tour and after a little small talk, she looked at me.

"So, Marsha . . . are we roommates?"

Her directness caught me a little off-guard. I'd been planning to think about it, at least a little bit. But she seemed really nice, she obviously wanted to move in, and I was in need of a housemate right away.

I gave it my best smile, attempting to be convincing that it was my idea to offer it to her, and told her "yes."

Katherine smiled as though she knew the answer before I did.

"Great. I'll move in this weekend."

We talked a couple of minutes about logistics and then she left. I closed the door behind her and sighed with relief.

* * *

Katherine showed up Saturday with her stuff. I let her in and made myself scarce for a couple of hours. One, because I wanted to give her some space and privacy and two, because, well, after working all week lugging someone else's stuff around wasn't exactly my idea of a fun Saturday. So I told Katherine I was off to run some errands and would see her in a couple of hours.

I came home from my errands, having stopped and brought us some lunch, figuring I'd make a nice opening gesture. Katherine seemed happy to see me, happier still when she saw that I had lunch with me. We plopped down on the couch and had our lunch, Katherine's boxes in various states of disarray around the place.

I asked her if she went by Kate, or some other nickname. She smiled, sort of, and said, "No. Just Katherine." Then she laughed, as if to herself, and said "well, I've been called other things." There was a semi-awkward silence for a moment, which I broke by giggling a bit, and the conversation moved on.

"What about you, Marsha? I have to admit when I saw that your last name is Cane, I wondered if people ever called you "Candy." Katherine laughed and looked at me, her blue eyes seeming to really focus on me for the first time.

I felt an odd desire to look away, for no apparent reason. I laughed a little and said "hmm, not that I recall."

"Well, it suits you, I think . . . Candy."

We both laughed.

Katherine said she thought that today it was more important to get to know each other a little better as opposed to her going nuts trying to get everything unpacked and settled, and for us to discuss what she called "some practical aspects." I listened.

"I have to admit, Candy, that I'm really horrible with all the domestic stuff. Grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, ironing, etc., frankly I'm terrible at them and I hate them. So I thought that we could work out a deal along those lines."

She went on. "My proposal is, I pay ¾ of the rent and utilities instead of half, in exchange for which you take care of all the 'domestic' stuff.

She smiled at me as she ate her turkey roll-up. "What do you think?"

I went into a long think. Being able to save all that money every month was certainly attractive. It

would

be more work for me, but, really, how much more could it be? And this whole area of who shops, who cooks, who wants the kitchen when, who ate who's food, and all that, was often a major irritant. This arrangement would avoid that.

Katherine eyed me as I thought it over. "To make sure that you don't get screwed on the deal, I'll kick in some additional grocery money over and above the ¾ of the rent and utilities. Deal?"

I agreed. I've always been the kind of person who tends to go along, and in this case there was a definite financial advantage as well.

She hugged me. "Thanks. That's a load off my mind." We smiled at each other as we ate lunch. Katherine told me that she thought we were going to work out great together. I had to agree.