page 4

Page 4

Roxi with teary eyes mumbled, “I have been living in my apartment for over 25 years now. Have never been late with the rent, you sure this is no mistake?”

That’s when one of the large carved doors was pushed open from the inside. Some lady with long red hair, wearing a white blouse, red mini skirt, and red high heels, appeared, and she didn’t really look the happy go lucky way, more like being totally embarrased, ashamed and flustered, as she stormed out of the office. Roxi barely noticed her, she was focused beyond her, on the man, sitting behind a large carved desk. This was no other than the Steve she knew as Godzilla Steve. He was still smiling and waving goodbye to the long-legged, short-skirted woman. Roxi didn’t hear Steve’s “Bye Cindy honey, I stop by tomorrow, we’ll work on it some more, you are good!” She stormed through the open door, the 60-day notice in hand, to face the monster who had dared to interrupt her near-perfect life. Her “You signed this? What’s the story behind it? Why? What did I do wrong?” was answered with laughter and a: “Good afternoon my friend. Roxi, dear, I was expecting to see you!” Yes, Roxi knew the guy, this Steve guy. When she saw the name on the 60 days to vacate notice, she thought it was a different Steve, a Steve G.D. Zilla. Somewhat surprised she realized, yes this was the same she knew as the fellow she knew from the bar. She had always been under the impression that Godzilla Steve was a banker, because in most of his talks at the bar he had talked about money, loans and interest rates, unless he talked about women.

At one of Roxi's three jobs, not counting the driving for the PickMeUp rideshare company, she worked at the Sassy Station & Bar, serving drinks and food. This week she was only scheduled for one shift at Sassy’s because business was slow. During the busy months, she had done three, sometimes four shifts a week. Roxi was paying $1450 a month for her 2 bedroom apartment these days, having raised her own rent twice in the past 5 years, first from $1200 to 1300, and last year another $150. She wanted her landlord to be happy, and because she knew that she paid about half what others were paying for the same size of apartment lately due to a housing shortage and high demands on the peninsula. Roxi knew she couldn’t afford to pay more, not in the offseason, not at the time. The three jobs being minimum wage and tips, and the fourth job driving for the PickMeUp company wasn’t much either, it all barely added up to a $2900 income a month on average.

https://www.amazon.com/author/helmut