Laura had taken over this apartment from her friend, when she had moved here to teach and her friend had married and moved in with her husband.

The landlords were a divorced couple. She had never seen the husband since he had gone back to his military service and the wife was out of town a lot, too.

Laura would not have minded if she didn't have to chase the wife because the apartment was a mess. She was grateful to have this size at the price that it was, but more and more, it was falling apart

The toilet was continually flushing just a little bit. The showerhead had fallen off completely so she was showering with just the hose for now. The electrical socket next to the fridge was not working properly since the fridge had leaked after a power shortage. And that was just the start.

Every time Laura tried to get something fixed by her landlady she just got a dismissive "Yes, I called someone, they should call you this week." "No, they called me, they cannot make it this week. Sorry, forgot to tell you." "Sorry, I'm out of town and have very bad reception." "My husband used to take care of that." and many other not very original excuses.

But now her time had come! When she woke up this morning she heard a car door slam shut and a man in military uniform walked up to the house and vanished into the landlords' apartment.

His wife had moved out last week. Laura had chased behind her while she ushered the moving guys from room to room. She would have at least expected a short note that she was moving out and leaving all affairs to her ex-husband.

Laura was walking up and down in her apartment contemplating when would be an appropriate time to go talk to him.

She did not want to come off as too pushy and a pain in the ass, but she also wanted to make it clear that her patience had finally come to an end.

After she had made lunch and eaten she had decided that there was no time like the present so she put on a little bit of extra lipstick and walked down the flight of stairs and up to the door of her "new" landlord. After all, they have never met before.

She heard rustling and banging from inside, but knocked anyway.

After her knocking she heard another loud bang and a short deep scream. The door opened moments later.

"What?" the man in the doorframe barked. He held his thumb in his mouth.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this a bad time?" Laura asked, seriously doubting her decision to come down now.

"Obviously! I just smashed my thumb with a hammer."

He was taking a look at his thumb. Laura could not see any serious injury. But his mood had obviously taken a downturn now. Should she just introduce herself and leave?

"Oh, I'm so sorry. It just..eh..My name is Laura and I rent the apartment upstairs and I was wondering if you could...eh I mean there are some things that...need to be fixed. I already told your...ex-wife multiple times but.." she let the sentence trail off as she saw that his features only got grimmer once she had mentioned his ex-wife.

"Yeah, I can imagine that she had better things to do. Like screw all my old buddies and waste my money with expensive trips with her new lover. She scored a banker, you know?"

Laura shook her head. He was visibly furious and she was plotting a way to get out of this situation as fast as possible...

He seemed to contemplate his ex-wife while putting his thumb back in his mouth.

He snapped back into the moment and realized that Laura was still in front of him.

She was a bit shorter than him, her long auburn hair cascading over her shoulders and her green eyes watching him questionably.

"Sorry. I'm Bill," he said while offering his hand for a handshake.

Since it was the same hand with the thumb he'd been sucking just seconds ago, Laura was a bit hesitant to shake it, but didn't want to be rude, so she took it.

"You said there are some things that need fixing?" he asked with raised brows.

Surprised by the sudden turn in his mood, she just nodded.

"Well, then, let's take a look. Haven't seen the apartment in ages anyway."

He led the way and Laura was not sure what just happened, but was just happy that finally somebody seemed to care about her home.

A/N: Thanks to okaynextcrisis for proofreading:)