When Claire Dearing got the opportunity for a promotion at work, she never thought it'd come with a three-sixty life altering experience. She was a hard working woman, the kind who seemed to never have time for friends, family, or a love life. She was the type who would spend her Friday nights with a glass of wine and working on her laptop, while society expected her to be out at a bar meeting handsome bachelors and getting free drinks from strangers.
She was young, beautiful, intelligent, and radiated the kind of confidence that made men fall on their ass wondering what was it that had just hit them, and left them asking for more.
As a Political Science graduate, Claire had successfully accomplished the first stage up to her dream job. Since she was a little girl, she had unconditional love for animals. She always felt it was unfair that there weren't enough laws out there protecting them and she vowed to change this once she was old enough.
She worked for an animal rights organization. Their goal was aimed to work to preserve animal habitats and protect animals both in the wild and living domestically with humans. Headquarters had handpicked her to be the leader of their new office in the northeast side of the country. She was not only known for her hard work and determination, aside from her great leadership skills, but also as someone whose intentions and motives to save animals in extinction and her determination to give any other species a voice were genuine and came from the heart.
She had immediately taken the opportunity that had been given to her, even if it meant she had to move to a new city and start her life from scratch; find a place to live, the restaurants that would fit her eating habits, and many other things.
The redhead never left anything to chance, she had to know exactly where she'd be standing three steps ahead. Taking advantage of technology, she had already started searching for an apartment to rent. She had spent the last few days making calls and making sure she found something she could not only afford, but that was in a safe neighborhood and close to work.
She had elaborated an entire chart, her top five choices listed in the order of her personal preference. She then graded them by expense, safety, and location. Many would think she was overreacting, but for Claire there was not such thing when it came to choosing the place where she'd settle and start the new phase of her life.
By the time her plane landed in the city that never sleeps, she had everything already taken care of. She had booked a hotel room for the first couple of nights, given that she still had some arrangements to take care of. She had narrowed her list of five places to only two (her almost final choice and a backup) and wanted to take the final decision after standing in her potential new home in person and meeting who could become her new roommate, before taking the ultimate decision.
If there was something she had noticed during this process was that Manhattan was expensive, so sharing expenses had become a requirement in her list.
She had talked to the guy over the phone a few times by now; discussed terms of rental fees and other bills. He also wanted a quick meeting before closing on any agreement, he had kept making emphasis on how he wanted to do an evaluation on prospect driven by chemistry. Claire figured she'd have to keep her claws hidden and be on her best behavior if she wanted to impress this guy. She had an appointment to meet him so he could show her the apartment the following day.
Owen Grady had lived in New York City since he was eighteen. He and his best friend had promised they would live together in a place where they made the rules which were as follow; rule number one, No rules. Rule number two, no one told them what to do. It was one of those places that lived up to the ideology of 'bros before hoes' ...until one of them ended up falling in love.
Love, ugh. Owen Grady always felt that was an overrated state of mind. Why fall in love when he could just enjoy the fun part? A true charmer by nature and handsome, he had ladies eating from the palm of his hand. He could have a new woman every night if he wanted to, but he wasn't a 'dog'. He liked to be selective, even when all he would do was have them for one night, two if she was really hot.
The man was feeling a little disappointed and betrayed lately, his best friend had finally gotten married to his long time girlfriend and had moved upstate with her. Owen was now left with a half empty apartment and a full rent to pay. He was so pressed about this, he didn't realize that was the pitch he had used for his ad when looking for a new roommate. He was used to living with someone he trusted and someone he got along with. He could be an eight-year old at times, and that's how he ended up publishing an ad seeking for a new best friend who would pay him.
It was until one of the calls was from a woman, when his entire thinking shifted. Why haven't he thought about this? A female roommate... better yet, a hot female roommate. At times, he had to stop himself from asking her to send him photos. He didn't want to scare her off (in case she was good looking). However, he found a way to tell her that even if the ad didn't state it, it was clearly advised between the lines that first impression chemistry would be an important aspect on his decision making, among other evaluations — read if she was hot, smelt good, and was straight.
He had agreed to meet her once she made it to town, she had told him she had taken on a new position at work and was flying out that coming weekend.
Owen was in front of the television watching his cartoons that Saturday morning. He was having a bowl of Lucky Charms for breakfast, on his boxers, when a knock to the door made him remember he had that one appointment with the hopefully very hot girl he had been talking to over the phone.
"Coming!" He called out, milk dripping down his chin after talking with his mouth full. He cleaned his face with his hand and wiped it over the cushion before trotting to his room to find a pair of pants and a shirt. He managed to get half decent while getting dressed on his way back to the door.
Owen opened it to find Claire standing there. She was wearing a pair of plum skinny jeans, which made him give her curves a solid ten. A cream long sleeve v-neck loosen top, his eyes unable to stay away from the freckles sparkling through her collar bone, and plum high heels that perfectly framed her firm legs. Her beautiful long red locks twirled over her shoulders, her fine fingers holding a golden clutch. "Mi casa is now su casa." He offered a cheeky smile, "do you need help moving in?"
Owen hadn't been the only one to notice how attractive the person standing in front of them was. Sure, Claire wasn't the type to go touching around, but that didn't mean she didn't look around. She had found herself biting on her lower lip once her green eyes took on his biceps, almost missing the stains on his tank top. She tilted her head a title, almost wishing she could turn him around and check his ass. She blushed lightly at this thought. He was also very handsome and she had never found messy sleepy hair as cute as she did right now, "did I wake you?" She wondered apologetically.
Owen kept the door open for her to step inside, and in that moment Claire felt how it was like to have a spell broken. How Cinderella went from feeling in a fantasy world with a prince taken out of her wildest dreams (Okay, maybe for Cinderella they weren't wild dreams), and out of the sudden... she was back in rags, horses were mice, and everything in front of her was a nightmare needing cleaning and tidying up.
The redhead gulped, it was after she took the dirty clothes lying all over the living room area and the mountain of dishes stacked in the sink, when she realized his television was on and he had been watching old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Then she saw that hand print on the couch, his personal napkin.
"Cool huh?" He nodded pointing at the television once he had closed the door and joined her. "Imagine living in an era where dinosaurs are alive and you get to have your own raptor." He was a Flintstones fan.
"Weren't those supposed to be lethal?" She chuckled, taking a step backwards to the door.
Owen fetched his cereal bowl and went back to his breakfast before sitting back down. He filled his mouth with a spoon of milk and gulped it as he shook his head, "Come on, sit down." He pointed out at the couch beside him. "You live here now, take your shoes off, get comfortable."
"I would, but...I'm afraid something will jump on me or—." She wrinkled her nose.
"Nah, I don't have pets."
"What about pests?" Claire wondered.
"C'mon, the couch won't swallow you!" He insisted, motioning her over with his arm.
"Maybe because it's already stuffed." She cleared her throat and hesitantly sat on the single couch beside him. She frowned and shifted around, unable to get comfortable. She reached under the cushion and started to feel around. She felt something soft, which couldn't be the thing causing the couch to be so uncomfortable but she still pulled it out.
She wrinkled her nose and blushed lightly while her fingers were pinching what it seemed to be a dirty pair of boxers. She parted her lips and snorted.
"Um, I was in the middle of doing some laundry." He snatched the pair of boxers away from her and stuffed them between the cushion in the couch he was sitting on.
"When, last week?"
"So, um... you can have access to everything. Like, if you get hungry just grab whatever and you can use the tv and the PlayStation." He pointed over. "I'll give you the WiFi password, ours is the one called ' '... but don't worry, it's completely safe." He explained, "my EX best friend and I had to deal with the punks across stealing it our WiFi, so." He shrugged.
"Um.." Claire tilted her head.
"So yeah, you can grab and use anything, except my Lucky Charms. I don't share those." He added before he went back to eating. "But feel free to lurk around." He invited her to take a self-guided tour through the place.
Claire frowned and sat there watching him go back to eating his cereal and watching his cartoon. She casually stood up and looked around the place. She wished she had something where to do a pro-con list, or re evaluate her choices. Her green eyes were careful to examine every corner of the place, it was exactly as described on the ad, it was just that it looked completely different than how she had imagined it; she pictured something clean and came to find his laundry sorted out all over the living room.
She mentally compared her budget and what she could afford opposite his mess. She found the room which was to be hers was already furnished and the bed was practically new. His former roommate didn't seem to be as big of a mess as this guy was, which she appreciated.
She took her cellphone out, sat on the bed, and started to work on a quick chart which started to suggest that the place was still her best choice even with the messy roommate added to the con column.
After about ten minutes, Claire went back to the living room and decided to take the place, "so when can I move in?" She wondered, a soft smile in her lips.
Owen sipped the last of his milk from his cereal bowl and smiled at her, "I thought you already had." He smirked.
