Alice sighed looking at the applications of the 4 remaining candidates, knowing accepting a roommate was already a personal defeat.
Like most young adults in the country, when she finished college she was determined to not going back to live with her parents and seeing how expensive living on rent was she took a big decision to invest all her savings and get into a long term debt in exchange for buying a relatively small but recently built apartment, a place she could call her own at last.
It was a sensible decision that Alice thought it paid off nicely, she could see how nobody was able to buy an apartment or a house anymore, but it also meant she missed out on a lot of things from younger years because the money simply wasn't there. Instead of partying or traveling like some of her old college friends did, she just spent the time working as much as she could to live within her means while paying off that debt without having to ask anyone for help.
She became more introverted and lonely as a result, the lack of free time took its toll and the people she used to call friends at college moved on with their lives after enough polite rejections to do something together because she was just so busy. But after a few years at last things were looking up and Alice felt she was making good progress, finally she felt the so called financial freedom when her wages were able to cover the monthly payments and living expenses, and she still had some money to spare, to keep saving it or just to treat herself to some nice things.
Or at least that was the case until the recent layoffs, that left her with a nice severance package but having to settle for a job with a lower wage and go back to square one, to the point the numbers no longer added up and she needed an additional source of income. At first Alice thought about getting an extra job but she found herself resenting the idea, she finally had some free time and wasn't willing to give that up. Moreover, she was no longer that ambitious young girl that really wanted to stay away from asking her parents anything, but an adult with other priorities that appreciated the value of working to live instead of living to work.
That's why she accepted defeat and decided to get a roommate, an easy way to get some extra income at the expense of.. having to live with someone else. Because her apartment was so close to the college she wasn't surprised that all the applicants were students, and because it was her first time doing this she didn't really mind they were younger and if they were men or women. Alice was willing to give it a fair shot first before making some damning judgments about the experience, feeling that in the best case scenario she might be able to get some friends and even live some of those things she missed out on for having to spend all the time working back then.
She just needed to decide on someone, all of them had something that she liked and something that she didn't, all of them brought the fear of her life at home being ruined, so she felt it was something that deserved serious consideration. She just kept looking at their pictures in the applications, trying to guess what would be like to live with them.
The first application was from James, who was studying computer science and definitely looked like it with that "nerdy" look on him, the application gave no red flags so she guessed he would be a good roommate to have, but he probably would spend a lot of time at home too and Alice didn't feel like he was the person that would help her get some social life again.
The other guy was called Jason and to be honest the application wasn't that promising, no experience living by himself, not knowing how to cook, and apparently only had the money for a couple of months, but unlike with James something about him called Alice attention. He looked quite cute in that picture, and in fact it reminded her of the guy who she crushed on back then when she still had time to worry about those things. Would she be willing to try with someone younger? Alice didn't know, but she could give it a try and see how things went, reminding herself she wanted a fair shot first.
The other two applications were from women, who Alice had no romantic feelings for but they were both good candidates. In both cases she had the same problem, their vibe was a bit too different than what Alice was used to and she wondered if they would click as roommates, assuming they don't just spend all the time outside anyway because both seemed to have quite a busy social life.
Ashley looked like someone who could afford paying rent on her own, but apparently she was having trouble with her parents and that meant she had to settle for something more humble. Alice could relate to that at least, but she was worried the admittedly beautiful girl would leave as soon as those problems got solved and she would have to search for another roommate.
And finally there was Kiara, who looked like she would spend all her free time outside training and as such not be a nuisance as a roommate, but then again she wanted someone who she could talk about things and Alice was no sports fan at all. At least athletes at college are popular right? Maybe things could work out.
Alice sighed again and finally took her decision.
What happens next?
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