Chapter 3

I wasn't exactly on pins and needles waiting for Jen to call me but, after a couple days, I began to worry about what had happened. I called her.

"Sorry I didn't call you. We've got a problem and Brenda and I are trying to figure out what to do."

"What's up?"

"Sallie moved out."

She went on to tell me that, five minutes after I had left, Johnny and Sallie had shown up. The gist of it was that, after a brief discussion, with Sallie away in the bathroom, Johnny and the other two decided to go ahead with the plan with Johnny taking my place.

One of the girls started the cameras and Johnny took Sallie into the bedroom and started making out with her. Sallie seemed okay with it at first but, when his intentions to have full sex with her became clear, she began to resist. He insisted. She resisted more. Finally he'd had enough of the bullshit.

"Dammit, if I'm paying half your rent, I should get the same benefits as your landlord does from the other two!"

Well, that had the obvious, if undesired, effect. Sallie went ballistic.

"Well, I'm not a cheap whoring slut like those two," she screamed.

"What makes you any different? Seems to me you got real friendly before you asked me for the money."

That took her aback and she had no quick response.

"Actually you ARE different from them. You not only whored for the rent, you lied about it. They aren't liars. They told me exactly what was going on."

"Those ... those ... Sluts!"

"Well, there you might have something. They may be sluts, but they are honest sluts. You're a dishonest whore, but I sure can't call you a slut. You probably don't even like sex."

Predictably, Sallie started bawling. Johnny got up and walked toward the door. Seeing it had no effect, Sallie turned off the tears and screamed.

"I hate you! I hate you all. I never want to see you or them again!"

That evening, Sallie was packed and gone. No one knew where she went. No one really cared, but it did leave the other two girls in a bind.

They tried to talk Johnny into moving in with them, promising him the second bedroom by himself and hinting they might be willing to supply his physical needs occasionally. Johnny considered it but he also had roomies who depended on him for part of the rent; and he was honest with the girls, he thought it might cramp his style.

"So ... we don't know what to do. We talked to some other girls but the story is the same. They already have rent sharing deals and it wouldn't be fair to their roomies either. Guess we're going to have to hope for someone who's enrolling late and take what we can get, if and when."

I thought a bit.

"Don't worry about it right now, sweetie. I need some time to think and I'll get back to you in a couple days."

"Well ... err ... what about our arrangement?"

I HAD thought about that.

"You know, I never did enjoy sex I thought I was paying for. I mean I had fun when I did it with you and Brenda, both. But if we carried on with it as a 'deal', it would seem like I was paying for it."

"We had fun ... both of us did."

"Okay ... if you girls want to have some fun with me, we'll see. But I told you I wouldn't throw you out and I won't, whether or not you fuck me. You have till the winter break, whatever, but I wont throw you out as long as you pay some rent. I do need the agreed minimum, though."

Jen wasn't dumb, she came right back with:

"You mean including Sallie's share?"

"Jen ... I said don't worry. I'll think about it and call you back."

Within a day, even without worrying on it, the solution struck me. It was so obvious; I wondered why I didn't think of it immediately. I went to Excel and built a spreadsheet and it worked out.

One of the problems with owning older properties is how to go about keeping them in good shape. Renovation in older buildings is a net cost and usually gets no return other than keeping the units rentable in the local market. You really cannot raise the rents to pay for updating the heating and plumbing, you have to balance the costs against occupancy. If you want to keep occupancy up, you can't spend a lot of time doing reno. And doing reno fast is expensive, you have to hire a contractor to do it. On the other hand, I could refurb myself but it requires loss of at least a month's rent, usually two if you do the job right in spare time.