Emily POV
Walking into the apartment, seeing so many shelves already empty and so many boxes crammed on the floor gave me a reality check right in the face. I couldn't believe that Lana was days away from leaving home. While I had once imagined it would happen, I had never thought it would be so soon, let alone with a baby in the way.
The situation itself was already overwhelming, but what really had my nerves on edge was that I hadn't even gotten a place yet and I was a long way from doing so. Everything was too expensive, too far away, too ugly, or too weird roomies.
This was my perfect place, and now smelly Peter was taking that away from me.
"Emily, is that you?" Lana's voice interrupts my thoughts and lands me in the earthly world. I search with my eyes where her voice comes from and then I see her coming out of her room with two boxes in her arms, and with her face barely visible: "Oh, yes it is you, how did it go?"
I walk over to where she is, maneuvering between the boxes on the floor, and take one of the ones in her arms to help her.
"Why are you carrying so many things at once? Isn't that forbidden for you or something?" I evade her question, put the box on the floor on top of others, and then I hear her grumbling.
"I'm pregnant Emily, not handicapped" She then puts her box on the floor and looks at me seriously, with both hands on her hips: "Nor retarded, do you think I didn't see what you did? You evaded my question."
She points, making me sigh heavily. The last thing I wanted to do was tell Lana that my search had turned out to be a complete failure. The woman was pregnant and I didn't want to make her feel bad for like me, she very well knew what happened if I didn't get a placement before she left.
"I am not doing that" I swear and put the best smile on my face, but she doesn't swallow it whole.
"Still nothing, right?" She questions with concern on her face: "If you need more time, Emi, I can give my part of the rent this month, and..."
"No way Lana, you need that money as much as I do. A baby is expensive, that little joke is going to be expensive" I point to her belly, that still shows no signs of harboring anything but food, she laughs: "It's only a matter of time, I have to find something."
Then the room goes quiet.
"I know, take a seat on the couch and start looking for proposals on the laptop while I make you one of those coffees you like" She proposes, making me smile.
"You already sound like a mom Lana."
"I sound like a woman who feels bad for putting her best friend on the spot" She points out and I can only agree with her: "Come on, sit down and start looking for your new home."
She extends the laptop on the table and I obey her, I take the most comfortable seat on the couch and start scanning the web. I could already tell that I had my eyes squared from looking at so many real estate pages, so many rental portals and so many ads that turned out to be nothing. My feet were already aching from walking the city from end to end, and I was about to become a premium user of the subway.
The couch sinks down next to me, Lana takes a seat and extends a steaming cup of coffee to me.
"Nothing provocative?" She asks, fixing her gaze on the web. I take a sip from the coffee cup and deny.
"Is there any way to verify that they haven't committed homicides in these places?" I point her to the list of apartments the page shows, she denies and taps me on the leg.
"Stop being pessimistic Emily, let's see let me see" She takes the laptop from my lap and starts searching on her own. Looking at the quality of rooms that are offered on the page, she agrees with my opinion: "Look at this one: no kitchen service is included, so where do they expect you to cook this asshole? On the pavement in the sunlight?"
I take another sip of coffee, close my eyes and start massaging my temples in an attempt to align my energetic auras. Otherwise, I would end up throwing the coffee cup in the shit.
A moment later, the page notifications chime with a new ad.
"Room for rent in Kensington includes own bathroom and parking, plus kitchen and laundry services. Cost negotiable, including household utilities. The lease is subject to specific requirements and conditions to be met. If interested contact as soon as possible." Lana finishes reading and excitedly exclaims: "It looks perfect, doesn't it?"
She expands the ad, but there are no photos attached of the apartment. Only of the building, which itself looks too expensive for my regular living quarters.
"Perfectly anonymous, who uploads an ad for a rental where there are no pictures of the place you are renting?" I pointed to the computer screen and I see her roll his eyes: "Also look at that building Lolo, how much do you think a rental in that place could cost?"
"Even without photos of the place, it is a very tempting proposal compared to the rest of the monitors that are published here" I remain silent, looking her in the eyes to confirm that she is serious. She gets desperate for my refusal and speaks again: "You know what happens if you don't get a room soon, don't you?"
She asks me, making my stomach churn with all the thoughts that have been drilling through my head for the past week. The fact that Lana was pregnant meant one thing, Lana had to leave home to go live with the baby's badass father so they could downsize their cats and save money for the baby's birth.
The fact that Lana was leaving meant that I had to go. The owner of the place did not approve of me in any way, and if I had been living here all this time it was because Lana had personally asked him to.
So with no place to stick my head, I had to go back to my little town and give up my scholarship at the university's economics faculty.