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Chapter One
“You can move back in tomorrow afternoon,” the balding man says, and I give him a nasty stare and walk to my car with my head hanging low.
I’ve had it with this guy. My landlord. He conveniently showed me an ideal apartment that fit my budget in Koreatown on a Sunday, without bothering to tell me about the thriving carryout restaurant directly beneath my unit that would open again on Monday. And if the banging of the pots and pans coming up through the vents and the high-pitched laughter of the customers wasn’t enough, the smells of the cooking oil and garlic wafting under my nose while I tried to sleep had me thinking about using all manner of instruments of torture on the guy.
That inconvenience, however, was a walk in the park compared to the day two weeks later when the cockroaches began crawling up from the cracks in the floorboards, so many, I knew I needed more than a can of Raid to get rid of them.
Now, here I am, escaping the fumes of the pest control treatment. They told me to leave all the windows open and my cheapskate landlord won’t foot the bill for a hotel. He said roaches are a “reasonable expectation” when you live above a restaurant. I counter with telling a prospective tenant about the restaurant is reasonable, but he won’t listen.
It was either call Beth or sleep in my car. Luckily, my best friend Beth is happy to welcome me for the night, since my wallet gave me a what are you looking at me for stare when I checked to see if I could afford a hotel.
And the beat goes on. “Don’t you do this!” I growl under my breath as my Honda Civic stalls. The last thing I need is a broken-down car. But as if afraid of my idle threat, the engine roars to life, and I gratefully pull out of the small parking space, counting my lucky stars.
It’s about time I caught a break, because this year has been one for the record books. Everything that could go wrong did. Twice. The roach-infested apartment is only the latest obstacle in a year I would simply describe as “the worst ever.”
Thinking back, I know my bad luck began when I walked in on Justin with another girl. The look of shock on his face is still ingrained in my memory, along with the shriek from the beautiful blonde lying naked on my side of the bed. The asshole tried to blame me for catching him cheating, bitching to me about why I was home early, when I told him I’d be working late.
From there, things just seemed to snowball. Of course, I moved out of our shared apartment because I’m not going to tolerate blatant disrespect. Real estate is expensive and vacancies are rare in the City of Angels, which is what led to me first living in a private bedroom in a bad neighborhood on the east side. The landlord would only allow me to rent weekly, which I thought was a huge inconvenience, but later found myself grateful when the building burnt down just two weeks into my stay.
Thankfully, I was at work at Richey’s during the fire, but I lost everything that wasn’t in my storage unit – including my computer and entire wardrobe. Missy, my boss at the gourmet shop, was nice enough to give me three days off to get my life together, but what she failed to mention was that would be my regular schedule going forward.
Turns out not so many people in LA want gourmet cookies, and the shop had to cut my hours to part-time to make up for the slow pace of business. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, because I needed money to move into the roach coach, as I know thought of my apartment.
It’s really been a shit of a year, but it’s all going to shape up for the better, I’m sure of it. This past summer, Beth convinced me to book an all-inclusive cruise right after the New Year. While it seemed so far away at the time, it was coming up fast, and it couldn’t come soon enough.
I decided this trip is going to be our rebirth, since my best friend had experienced her own fair share of trials over the past twelve months. We would drink ourselves into oblivion and have the time of our lives while cruising through the Caribbean.
My bank account might not agree, but I know this trip is just what I need. Besides, everything was paid in advance, so it shouldn’t cost me too much more, and a little girl time with Beth always livened my spirits.
I pull up to her two-story townhouse and draw in a deep breath before grabbing my duffle bag from the passenger seat. Soon enough, this year of bad news will all be behind me and I’ll laugh about the time my apartment was infested with roaches, forcing me to stay at Beth’s while the fumigators worked their magic.
For now, it was anything but a joke, so I brace myself. No matter what is going on, Beth always sees the good in every situation. There are some moments when I just need to wallow in a little pity party and get it out of my system, but sulking is not in Beth’s comfort zone, so I give myself a minute before I stroll across the lawn.
Beth opens the front door before I even make it to the porch. Her smile is infectious, and I find myself relaxing as I take the final steps into her home.
Unlike me, Beth comes from a wealthy family who gifted her with a townhouse on her twenty-first birthday. Walking into the marble-tiled foyer, I’m engulfed by her thin arms as she drapes herself around me.
“I’ve got a surprise to cheer you up, Maggie!” she yells before planting a wet kiss on my cheek.
“Okay, okay,” I giggle, shrugging her tiny figure off my shoulders before asking, “where’s the wine?”
“Don’t you worry, I’ve got everything lined up.” She smirks in the way that lets me know she has something up her sleeve.
“Beth, what are you planning?” I ask with my head tilted, my long brown waves cascading over my shoulder.
“Oh, just relax. I’m not going to have you jumping out of planes or anything,” she teases, leading me to her kitchen, which is fully stocked with Styrofoam boxes of takeout food.
“You’re starting out on the right foot,” I mumble, heading toward the alluring smell of Indian curry.
Opening the first box, I see skewers of tandoori chicken so appetizing my mouth waters as I look a
cross the kitchen island, watching my best friend climb into a bar stool.
“I got us the hottest tickets of the year, and I’m not taking no for an answer.” She grins at me, reaching across the marble countertop to pick a skewer from the takeout box.
