Chris was getting excited, at nineteen years old and having finished technical college he was due to start his first job in Plymouth next month. His parents had paid for him to spend a few days down there before he started to find somewhere to live, growing up in North Devon it was too far to commute. After traipsing round loads of dingy bedsits and overpriced flats he stumbled across an ad in the local paper. Ringing the number he was delighted to find it was still available and arranged to go straight round to view it.
The landlord met him at the front door, "I'm Dave. You struck lucky mate, I am down here for the week tidying up after the previous tenant. Did a bunk on us without paying up on his rent arrears."
"Won't be a problem with me, I can assure you," replied Chris, "I start my first job with one of the dockyard engineering companies next month."
"Well thats good to hear. My wife and I run a couple of these properties in the area, bit of an investment for our kids when they grow up. Sarah deals with all the paperwork and that stuff, as I'm away a lot with the Navy."
He led Chris into the house. It was a two storey house, a shared kitchen and living room on the ground floor along with one of the bedrooms and a downstairs loo. Upstairs were two more bedrooms and the communal bathroom. Then stairs led up to an attic room.
"All the rooms have a sink and shower, but you have to share the loos and the bath. The attic room is ours, Sarah uses it if she is here working or down to check on the properties. This is the one that's available." he explained opening the door to a room opposite the stirs up to the attic room.
"Wow!" gasped Chris, "this is much better than I expected. Nicest I have seen so far!"
The room was bigger than his own bedroom at home, with a double bed, desk, chest of drawers and a wardrobe. In the corner was a shower enclosure and small vanity sink. The window at the back of the room looked out over the small courtyard and then onto the cemetery.
"not the nicest view, " laughed Dave, "but it's quiet! There's a copper, Jane, living in the ground floor room, she works shifts so would appreciate some consideration noise wise. The room across the landing is Geoff, he's a phone engineer travelling around the region, so not necessarily in all the time. There's limited parking in the street, or buses down to the Torpoint ferry and dockyard from the end of the road. You each get a key to the front door, only you get the keys to this room. Although we have a master key for when we do a routine check and you're not in. If you want to give a spare to one of the other tenants that's up to you. We do a check every four months, if we can we'll arrange it in advance with you. But occasionally we might do a spot check if we are concerned about anything."
"That's fine. I don't have a car yet, so the bus thing is perfect. Where do I sign?" Chris responded.
Dave handed over a sheaf of papers, "Get those filled in and sent back to us, so we can get the references verified. It will be a months rent in advance, plus a months rent security deposit. We can take all that on the day you move in. We don't use a letting agent, that way we can set a lower rent without paying them fees. The deposit goes into a separate account which you will be a signatory too so we can't run off with it."
So it was that three weeks later Chris was back at the house on a Saturday morning, with his parents ready to unload all his stuff from their car. He knocked on the door and a lady opened it.
"You must be Chris? I'm Sarah," announced a rather attractive looking lady in a skirt suit. "Bring your folks in and we can sign all the boring stuff and let you get settled in."
After signing everything Sarah handed over the keys. "Hope you'll be comfy here, it's not a bad area and the other two tenants are pretty nice. If you need me for anything I'll be up in the attic room, I'm here for the weekend and a couple of days next week with work and sorting some issues at our other places."
"If you dont mind me asking what do you do, besides being a landlady that is?"
"Oh I'm regional manager for a supermarket chain, covering Devon. Dave and and I have our home up on the North Coast, near the beaches. So I use this as a bit of a pied a terre when I am visiting the shops in the South of the county."
Chris couldn't help staring at Sarah's legs as she went up the stairs to the attic room. Her tight skirt showing off her bum and legs, the latter he was sure he could see suspender straps outlined against the tight skirt. He wasn't sure but he guessed she was in her thirties, definitely a good few years younger than her husband.
After unpacking the car and going into the city for lunch with his parents and picking up some food shopping, they dropped him back at the house and headed off home. He collapsed onto the bed and spread out.
"My own place!" he laughed to himself. "No-one checking what time I get in. Just need to learn to cook I guess."
He dropped off at that point and dozed for an hour or so. Only waking up to the sound of female voices downstairs in the kitchen. Grabbing his mug off the desk he headed down to make himself a cuppa. Wandering into the kitchen he announced himself.
"Hi, you must be Jane?" he said looking at a lady in her twenties or so wearing a police uniform. "I'm Chris." he finished as he wandered over to shake her hand.
"Yes, the uniform is a bit of a giveaway I guess!" she laughed, "nice to meet you. But must be going my shift starts in an hour and I need to get there."
With that she wandered back to her room and then off out the front door.
"She's a good tenant. so please don't upset her!" said Sarah. "If you are in during the day please keep the noise levels sensible, as she will be sleeping until lunchtime when she is on nights like this week."
"Oh no worries there, I'll be lazing in bed tomorrow seeing as I don't have to get up to keep the parents happy! So she should get an undisturbed sleep. I'll be out most days, but I'll try to keep it down at weekends if I know Jane is on nights."
"Well make yourself at home, I need to go and get ready. Night out with a couple of the girls from one of the shops this evening."
Chris settled into one of the armchairs in the living room after switching on the TV and lost himself in an old film. An hour or so later he heard Sarah coming back down the stairs, her heels clipping on the wooden stairs down from the attic room. She poked her head into the living room as she passed.
