Katrina breathed a sigh of relief. After weeks of searching, she had finally found a place to live, within her price range.
The school year was coming to an end, and she would soon need to move out of her dormitory for the summer. With exams still ongoing, the stress of finding an apartment was an extra burden she did not need right now. Finding an apartment that she could afford proved almost impossible.
Luckily, with so many university students moving out, many advertisements had started popping up with rooms for rent. Many of these ads were dead ends—either too overpriced, or too dingy for her tastes.
Katrina was not exactly a "high maintenance" girl, but she did have some standards. Finishing her second year of university while working part time, she knew that she would need to make sacrifices... but she also needed to find a home that felt like the right fit. It needed to be a place where she had some privacy, she felt secure leaving her belongings unattended, and where she could enjoy coming home each day.
When Dr. Joseph—her professor and current boss—told her about an advertisement for a room that his neighbor was renting, it seemed almost too good to be true.
It was a moderately sized bedroom, on the second floor of beautiful home. The ad boasted a small walk-in closet, a bathroom that was shared with one other tenant, and dedicated space in the pantry, fridge, and standalone freezer. The house was located in a quiet, residential neighborhood, only 20 minutes away from the university. While the price was on the upper end of her affordable range, the room was being rented well below comparable rooms anywhere else in the city.
It felt like a steal, and Katrina was nervous as she first stepped up to the door for a showing.
Katrina was not a very outgoing person. She genuinely wanted to be more confident and extraverted, but at the end of the day she usually came across as awkward and shy. She regularly hung out with other girls that embodied who she wished she could be, and she was often jealous of how easy they made it look.
She knew that she was attractive. Or, at least she did not consider herself ugly by any means.
As the daughter of a South Korean immigrant and a Caucasian man in a predominantly white town, she had grown up feeling like an outsider. While there was always a stream of guys that were into "Asian girls," the novelty of being "exotic" wore off in high school. She had grown up cursing her genes, feeling destined to be just another small-breasted Asian girl that nerdy guys would awkwardly flirt with.
In retrospect, she had probably been the envy of many other girls. 5'7", toned from years of volleyball, and with B-cup breasts that looked quite large on her small frame, Katrina knew that she had nothing to be ashamed of. Moreover, she was had heard multiple times that she had an innocent smile that made people warm up to her quickly.
She suspected that smile was partly what helped her secure her new home.
The owner of the house, Spencer, immediately set her at ease. When she arrived for her first meeting, she thought that Spencer was going to be evaluating her, deciding if she was a trustworthy tenant to live in his house. On the contrary, it seemed like from the start, he was trying to convince her that this was the place for her.
She did not need much convincing. While the house was at least fifteen years old, it was newly renovated with a new kitchen and new washrooms, and centralized air. As advertised, the tenants shared one washroom on the second floor while Spencer predominantly used the en suite washroom attached to the master bedroom. The previous tenant had already cleared out and Katrina felt an immediate connection as she stepped into the empty room.
They signed the paperwork that day, and she began moving her things in as soon as exams were over.
The first few days felt strange, but Katrina welcomed the adventure of trying something new. Aside from the dormitory, she had never really lived away from home. For the previous summer, she had gone back to her hometown to stay at her parents' house. However, this year she had started volunteering as a research lab assistant for Dr. Joseph in the Psychology department. When the opportunity arose to take a part-time paid position in the same lab, Katrina had jumped at the opportunity.
Although the job offered fewer hours than her old fast food summer jobs, the hourly rate was better. Overall, she ended up clearing just slightly less money in this position, but the job itself was infinitely better and the experience looked better on a future resume.
The bigger hurdle was having to pay her own rent, but she was determined to make it work.
Fortunately, Spencer made her feel immediately at home in the house. To her surprise, he even helped her move her things from the car into her room. In the first few days it felt like she barely saw him, as he spent a lot of time working from his basement office.
The other tenant in the house, Elizabeth, was nice, but largely kept to herself. In fact, Katrina had been living in the house for a full day before bumping into Elizabeth in the kitchen one evening.
Katrina liked her, even though they barely chatted.
Elizabeth was an English major at the same university and had just finished her third year. She seemed older than Katrina, but only by a few years. She had dark hair and pale skin, and was maybe an inch taller than Katrina. Elizabeth's frame was a little wider than her own, although she was not quite overweight. During their first meeting, Katrina could barely control her own stare, as her eyes kept drifting down to Elizabeth's large breasts, braless and barely contained in a loose-fitting tank top.
Within the first week, the two girls learned that they had several mutual friends, or friends of friends. In fact, Elizabeth was in casual relationship with another girl that had lived in Katrina's dorm.
Before long, things started to normalize, and Katrina got into the routine of her new life.
She worked three days per week, mostly recruiting participants and collecting data for several ongoing research projects that were being run by the grad students in her lab. Occasionally, she would conduct literature reviews or proof-read some material for Dr. Joseph. Overall, she loved the work and it solidified her goal of eventually applying for post-grad studies.
In the evenings, she cooked, read, went for runs, and sometimes watched TV if the den was free. It felt strange to occasionally see her professor, who now lived on the same street, on her way to campus or during her daily runs.
While lounging around the house, sometimes Spencer would join her. Rarely, Elizabeth would join them. Katrina had always been a shy girl, especially around men, but she knew it was silly and she wanted to get better.
Spencer seemed like a very friendly guy. He was clearly older, but she had a hard time estimating his age. If she had to guess, she would place him somewhere in his late thirties... perhaps forty at most. He was a financial investor, and although he was not rich, he seemed to do alright. Katrina suspected that the house would be outside his price range if it was not for the tenants, but she envied him for having a place of his own.
Ideologically, they were very different people, but it did not really matter. As an overtly proud progressive, she knew that most of her opinions fell on deaf ears. She quickly learned to avoid more controversial topics, as this typically resulted in a glazed over expression and polite nods.
But Katrina was not naïve and she did not believe everyone had to share her worldview. Despite their differences, she grew more comfortable around him. Within days, they were making small talk. Within weeks, they were regularly exchanging jokes. After almost a month, she dared to say he was like a friend.
The living arrangements were better than she had anticipated. As promised, the washroom was mostly just shared between herself and Elizabeth, without any drama or conflicts. Aside from the occasional visitor that Elizabeth invited over, the girls mostly knew each other's schedules. In fact, as the girls grew more comfortable around each other, they occasionally used the room at the same time to do makeup or dry their hair.
Over time, things started to get more stressful at work. Or perhaps, Katrina was just starting to feel more disconnected from her friends after so many of them had gone home for the summer. She occasionally texted Miri or Steph, or sometimes Mandy, but it felt like many of her friends had their own stuff going on.
Either way, Katrina found herself chatting more and more with Spencer. On more than one occasion, they even had a beer together on the weekend. She did not usually drink much, but it felt nice to try and reinvent herself.
This is what university students do
, she told herself.
They drink and they make new friends
.
She sometimes detected a hint of flirtation from her landlord when they drank, but Katrina knew that it must all be in her head.
