A New Roommate, You Say?
It's nearing 10:30 pm, and Ginny's shift is about to end. She was folding all the linens in the staff room when she remembered the note she received from her landlady. Apparently, the boarding house she’s currently staying will be permanently closed at the end of the month. The reason her landlady gave was that the house will be renovated as it will be used as a resting house for her son and his family who will be arriving from another country.
She must admit that the place is really in need of a thorough renovation as the wooden floor and the wooden walls are starting to get broken with all the termites invading them. Also, the house is visibly one of the oldest structured houses compared to its neighboring houses. If she were to choose where to rent a room, she would’ve chosen other boarding houses with modern structures but because she’s on a tight budget, she must stay on a cheaper renting options. Although perks of staying in her current boarding house means that there is no curfew for the tenants as most of the house’s tenants are working either from a call center or from a 24 hour convenient store.
“Hey, Ginny, are you going somewhere after your shift?”
Looking at her back, Ginny saw Adrian, her co-worker that has the shame shift schedule as her. Adrian is known as her suitor, however, she’s not into relationships as she is focusing on her survival in studies and in life.
“No, and don’t make an effort by offering to go home with me. I can handle myself,” Ginny replied.
Ever since that Adrian confessed to her, Ginny clarified it to him immediately that entering romantic relationships is the least of her priorities. As she is still studying in college, with no parents to lean on, she must make all the ends meet in order for her to finish studies and earn money for all her needs.
Adrian awkwardly smiled at Ginny and muttered “okay” as he looked at Ginny and the woman beside her. “I’ll just go ahead and fix my things before ending my shift. I still am offering to accompany you going home, Ginny” he said before gently closing the door.
“Don’t you think your choice of words were too harsh for declining Adrian’s offer? You could have just said no, you know,” one of her co-worker who’s also folding the linens told Ginny.
“Lou, I know Adrian won’t take no as an answer since he’d still be following me on my way home. So politely declining him won’t make him stop. Besides, why does he need to ask me every time if he’ll still be following me whenever I decline his offer? He’s so annoying”
“Annoying? Ginny, he’s asking you every time hoping that you’ll say yes so he won’t be just sneaking around and putting some distance between you when he accompany you going home. It’s not annoying because he’s just being a gentleman to you,” Lou explained. She then sighed as she knew Ginny won’t understand what she meant.
“Well if that’s the case,” Ginny said. She stopped folding the linens and looked at Lou while smiling. “Why don’t I tell him that it’s you, who wanted to be accompanied going home?”
Lou gasped. “Of course not! You know what, I give up. I don’t have any romantic interest to Adrian, okay? I was just... disappointed? For the way you decline his offer. That’s all.”
“Well it’s called the bitter truth. He must know that I won’t give him any sign or action for misunderstanding so he won’t expect anything from me”
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“Hey, Ginny, have you heard?”
After just checking in from the worker’s logbook, Lou immediately went up to her and asked her.
“About what?” Ginny answered.
“There’s a newly hired housekeeper, the youngest among us, they say. And she aced the test, they say”
Ginny raised her brow upon hearing it. Say what? The newly hired aced the test? And she’s supposedly the youngest? Ginny said to herself.
“Are the inn looking for additional housekeepers? I didn’t see any posted flyers about that,” Ginny replied.
Lou pulled her into a corner of the room and whispered, “according to what I’ve heard, that girl is actually an ex-convict and that she was hired because she was given the address and the contact details of the inn owner. Although she looked timid and shy, as they say, but once she started cleaning, it’s like she’s a whole another person.”
“You sounded like a story maker, Lou. I don’t believe anyone at a young age would be able to ace the test at first try. No one in the younger generation today liked cleaning very much.” Ginny replied.
“I know, but believe me, she’s the talk around the higher floors. You know that higher floors consist of those who were hired because they aced the test, right? And they say she might be placed there immediately”
“Wait, what?!”
“Yes, and she’s an ex-convict as they say.”
“What’s her name?”
“I don’t really remember her full name, but it’s B… Blaire Andoreal, I think?”
Upon hearing the name, Ginny set her mind into researching every name of Blaire Andoreal she could see or encounter on the internet. After the talk, they continued as if nothing happened, but deep inside Ginny, she badly wanted to go home to make a research about her profile.
She doesn’t know why, but she’s starting to hate that girl immediately.
-----
It was the truth! She was really hired because she aced the test! There’s no way that Marge would lie about Blaire, so she trusted her words very well. Besides, Marge isn’t the type of person to hold back at saying truths.
After hearing how Blaire definitely finished cleaning before time runs out, Ginny looked at her with wilderment in her eyes, refusing to believe that the girl she hates is actually an excellent housekeeper. But why? Why so excellent at such a young age?
Blaire slowly turned her direction to look at her and upon locking their eyes, Blaire flinched and avoided looking into her again. She bowed her head and saying something to excuse herself when Ginny grabbed her arm and stopped her from escaping.
“I don’t believe that you really aced the test, Blaire. No matter what you do, or achieve in the future, I will still hate you, not because of what you’ve achieved, but because you took advantage of the situation of having a backer. I don’t know who your backer is, but I will see to it that you won’t be able to climb your way up using such tactics. Every single one of us in the staffs looked for thousands of job offerings before landing on this job while you, a newly released prisoner, already has a work just hours after your release. You will never, EVER, be able to use that tactic again. Get it? Not. On. My. Fucking. Watch. Bitch”
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After she arrived on her boarding house, Ginny wasted no time in looking for any nearby apartments where she could transfer because two weeks from now, the boarding house she’s staying will undergo renovation. She wasn’t able to fully look thoroughly on the neighborhood of the inn where she’s working because she had so many issues to think about, and at that time, she was too busy gathering information regarding Blaire Andoreal. She immediately forgot the fact that she just threatened Blaire this day because after she left the hallway, her shift ended and she was reminded by her landlady through message that she should be transferring any time of the week to avoid hassle.
She was getting too sleepy to continue her search until she came across a post on a social media where the owner of the apartment is still looking for any tenants. She looked at the rent amount and it seemed that it was enough to wake her up. Computing her daily and monthly expenses including the rent, she was too happy that she would be able to save some penny. She informed immediately the owner of the apartment on her interest in taking up a room.
Ten minutes later, the owner replied. However, Ginny was informed that all the individual rooms were full so she won’t be able to avail that room type. However, the owner also informed her that there are slots left for shared unit for two, where the two tenants would share a veranda, kitchen, dining, and living room, while they would have individual rooms with their own restrooms. The rent amount is half the amount of individual room rent. Without caring whoever she would share a unit with, Ginny reserved the slot. Luckily the last unit will be reserved to her as the apartment owner was dealing with lots of inquiries from other people.
This would allow her to save more money since the apartment is also much nearer to the inn where she’s working. Tomorrow is her rest day so she would be visiting the unit and would start transferring her things.
‘I just hope that my roommate would be good to me, please,’ she silently said in herself before drifting off to sleep.
Ginny loved the unit and is now transferring her things into the new apartment. Fortunately, her roommate wasn’t around so she could be messy at the living room where she will place all the things she packed from her old boarding house.
She was so happy to find such a cheap apartment with beautiful amenities so she vowed herself to get along with her roommate once her roommate arrived to prolong her stay.
It was around 5 in the afternoon when Ginny finished unpacking so she decided to eat the food she ordered during lunch that wasn’t opened. Looking for her jug of water, she saw the refrigerator in the kitchen. Thinking that she placed her jug there, she opened the refrigerator and what she saw amazed her. The organized containers in the fridge, each containing labels of different foods, fresh and frozen, from raw vegetables to meat in the freezer section, they were all organized and arranged in an orderly way that Ginny was admiring the view, temporarily forgetting her jug of water located at the lower side of the fridge.
“I already liked the personality of my roommate. My, what an orderly view to see!” Ginny exclaimed. As she drank her water, she became curious to know anything about her roommate. She decided to look for any clue that will tell who her roommate is. She went to her roommate’s door and to her surprise, she saw series of letters posted on the door. She didn’t notice it before, so tried to read the letters.
She gasped, shocked, and not believing that this is happening. Of all the person, why her?! She read the words again, hoping she was just hallucinating at first.
But no, what she read before did not change.
A N D O R E A L , B ' S R O O M
Oh no.