Alien Mate by Gloria Martin

Author:Gloria Martin [Martin, Gloria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gloria Martin
Published: 2017-06-25T22:00:00+00:00

*****

Darlene felt stupid begging the librarian to sign her up for a library card with no proof of residence in Los Angeles County.

“Please, I need the library so that I can use the Internet so that I can find a place to live so that I can provide proof of residence to the library.”

At first Darlene was afraid that her dry, Midwestern sense of humor wouldn’t work on the middle-aged, Hispanic librarian. She thought she might have to reduce to batting her eyes at him, but luckily he cracked a smile.

“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll let you log in for a couple hours, and if you haven’t found anything after that we’ll negotiate. I might need you to shelve a few books if you’re going to need more than that.”

He was joking with her, too. “That should be plenty of time,” Darlene said. It felt nice to actually receive some sympathy for a change. The librarian walked Darlene over to one of the computers in the center of the room, logged in her, and pulled up the browser for her.

“Good luck.”

“Thank you.”

Suddenly Darlene felt like she was back in college, trying to figure out the confusing campus computers again. She started with the first place she could think of, even though her instincts told her not to—Craigslist.

The first hour of Darlene’s free Internet time resulted in more Google maps searches than apartment listings because she was so unfamiliar with the area. Thankfully the librarian was able to offer his opinion on how the various areas of the sprawling metropolis compared to others.

After a long daunting conversation of which areas were affordable but sketchy, which areas were pricey but you live in a room the size of a cubicle, and which areas were mid-range ones like the Robertson area, where it was only a little sketchy, moderately priced, and you got two cubicles and a parking spot.

“I’m from Detroit,” she told the guy. “I may have very well seen the worst of the worst.”

The librarian laughed.

“You ain’t seen nothing. This city can really surprise you.”

With the advice he gave her, she decided to look in the Robertson area. She found a listing for a one-bedroom apartment for $1,000 a month, and that was the cheapest one she could find in the area. Back home a two-bedroom apartment would only cost $850. For some reason she was afraid of getting ripped off, although she knew the cost of living was higher in Los Angeles than a lot of cities in the world.

The apartment she looked at did in fact come with a parking spot, a kitchenette, a parlor, a bedroom, and a bathroom. She thought it was odd that they even needed to list that there was a bathroom in the apartment. Do some apartments not have bathrooms in Los Angeles? she wondered. The listing stated that the renter would have to pay for the first month’s rent, last month’s rent, deposit, and down payment.

Maybe she could talk the landlord down. The price seemed astronomical, even for Los Angeles.

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