15

01:48:00

Julia considered the situation strange but she was tempted by the location and the price. People were renting their flats for various reasons. Sometimes the price fell due to an unexpected death in the family, or something shameful happened there like murder or suicide, occasionally it was about the fungus or the faulty plumbing. Or they just couldn’t sell the place, since there was a kindergarten downstairs or one crazy woman singing religious songs lived upstairs and couldn’t just die. At times they just didn’t like the place.

The woman sounded quite reasonable and suggested a meeting. They exchanged a few messages and she used her temporary holiday outside of Norway to see her face to face and welcome her to the flat. She showed her a spacious living room, the second bedroom, the kitchen and the first bathroom with a toilet. The flat was big as in the past they used to build them quite spacious. She was obviously impressed. She was still studying and she realized what the conditions of accommodation presented themselves to young non-working individuals. She was from outside of the city. Her parents couldn’t afford a flat, her only possibility of finishing her studies was to rent rooms in people’s apartments and somehow she got used to it. There were far worse places to live and she was well aware of it.

The flat looked fine with its quite a new set of furniture, with its windows cleaned, carpets hoovered and books on the shelves, displaying the rainbow of colors and authors.

‘He lives here’, the mother pointed to the door ‘He rarely leaves the room. He works from home.’

She moved in on Friday. Carrying the suitcases along the stairs was exhausting and irritating, and she swore in her mind at the fact that she had to move so often. She gained a few kilograms over the holidays and it was increasingly difficult to push herself a few steps up, not to mention to drag her belongings.

He was in his room, locked and isolated. On the kitchen table, there was a note.

‘Welcome. Unpack and feel at home. The bedroom, the living room, the second bathroom is all yours. The kitchen is shared but I rarely cook. The washing machine is in the kitchen. It didn’t fit in the bathroom. The manual is somewhere in the kitchen. Possibly in a drawer. Don’t lose the keys, as I don’t know where I put my set. There will be a problem with making the additional one. If you have any questions, just ask.’

Then she heard his voice from the room.

‘You have a note on the table. Will you manage with everything?

‘I will manage,’ she answered with a dose of confidence.

When everything she owned was placed in the wardrobe, the chest of drawers and on the shelves, she went to the bathroom to have a shower. She heard his footsteps in the corridor. Good that she locked herself in. She was used to all kinds of roommates. Once she was standing nude in front of the mirror, brushing her teeth, when her roommate’s boyfriend opened the door out of the blue and had a glimpse at her body. In shock, he turned away and closed the door. Apparently, the masculine instinct won the battle with decency, because a second later he opened the door to look at her again. She wasn’t sure if it gave him an erection or any visual pleasure, but she was certain that she wasn’t ashamed of being naked. She was quite comfortable in her body, even though it was far from being perfect. She didn’t have low self-esteem. She actually pitied those girls who starved themselves to meet someone’s silly requirements. Or those who wanted to look like a pop-star or a malnourished model. She couldn’t sing. Neither could she fit in size zero. She enjoyed food and she embraced the fullness of her figure. She liked her curly hair, even though she played with their natural curliness, having some time ago a permanent wave done in an inexpensive hair-saloon. She loved putting all kinds of moisturizers into her curly ringlets and drying them after taking a shower.