Matt sighed as he hung up the phone.
"Man, what is the deal?" he said to himself.
The third applicant for his roommate ad had just contacted him; this one edited textbooks for fun.
"It's one thing to pay the rent, but is it too much to ask for a roommate with just a bit of personality?" he asked the empty room.
The two bedroom apartment was the top floor of a large, renovated house. The bedrooms doors faced each other from opposite ends of the apartment with an open kitchen/dining room and living room in between.
It was a handsome, well kept place in a great part of town; close to the hospital and university. Matt was counting on being able to choose a roommate within the first week of putting the ad online, but here it was two weeks later and only three applicants had expressed interest.
"I guess beggars can't be choosers." he said, deciding on which applicant seemed the least boring.
Just then his phone chirped. An unknown number.
"Hello." answered Matt.
A frantic female voice exclaimed
"Hello! Is the room is still available?"
"Uhm, it is."
"Oh! Thank god! Ok...please tell me you accept pets."
"Pets?" asked Matt.
"Well, one pet: a cat." said the woman.
"Sure. A cat is ok. No problem."
Matt was startled by a whoop of joy through the phone speaker.
"That's something none of the other applicants ever did." Matt thought to himself.
"Oh! I'm so relieved. Can I come over, like, right now to look at the place?"
"Yeah. That's fine. I'll be here."
"Awesome! See you in a few minutes."
Matt only realized after he hung up that he hadn't even got the woman's name.
"Hmm. A female roommate?" Matt pondered. "I've never lived with a girl I wasn't in a relationship with." Matt wasn't sure what to pin his expectations on, but he knew that it probably wouldn't be boring.
About fifteen minutes later a knock was heard.
Matt opened the door to a pretty young woman holding a cat carrier covered with a blanket.
"Hi! I'm Janice." she said extending her available hand to greet. "I was the crazy one on the phone earlier."
Matt took her hand and chuckled "Hi Janice. I'm Matt. Pleased to meet you."
Janice stood about 5'5" with beautiful blue eyes. She had a pleasantly round face with plump cheeks and a bright, genuine smile. Her shoulder length hair was dyed bright pink.
"Ok. Pink hair isn't boring, so far so good." Matt noted internally.
Janice stepped through the door wearing a bulky winter coat and a scarf to battle the November chill. It looked to Matt as if she might be carrying a few extra pounds underneath the thick jacket.
Janice looked around the apartment with a smile.
"Wow! It's so charming!" she exclaimed.
"I'm glad you like it." Matt answered leading her to the empty bedroom.
"The room has a huge walk-in closet, it's own full bathroom and a nice little sun deck through those glass doors."
Janice squealed with delight.
"This place is even nicer than the apartment I was supposed to move in to!"
"What happened there?"
Janice shuddered in frustration recalling the events of the day. She spoke of how she and her boyfriend, Bobby, were living together up north. He got accepted into law school on the other side of the country and the couple decided that they would live apart so he could focus on school. Meanwhile, Janice would accept her company's offer to transfer to this city with a pay raise.
"My boyfriend insisted on setting up my living arrangements for me" she explained "but when I arrived today to move in I discovered that the landlord doesn't accept pets of any kind! Well, I had no choice, I had to cancel the agreement. Giving up Bubsy is simply out of the question."
Janice lifted the blanket of the cat carrier to show Matt a cute, black feline blinking calmly.
"Long story, short: I have all my belongings stuffed in my car outside, I start working in a brand new office on Monday and I'm homeless." she sighed.
Matt felt genuine sympathy for her. His favorite pet growing up was his cat, Whiskers, who looked almost exactly like her Bubsy cat. She was obviously upset and desperate. He would have been too, if it were him.
"Well, let me ask you this, Janice" Matt said after a pause "Are you messy?"
"No, in fact I'm a neat freak. And you'll never have to clean up after Bubsy either. He's a very good kitty."
Matt smiled. "Ok. Are you loud?"
"Hmmm. I'm 'atmosphere appropriate', but I usually like peace and quiet when I'm home." she replied. A smile was growing on her face.
"I like that." he smiled, "Are you a vegan?"
"Uhhm...no"