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“Great. That’s just great. It’d bewonderfulif this site would tell you everything you had to do before you press submit instead of allowing you to submit half an ad with no application,” I muttered. “What am I going to do now?”
If I took down the ad and put it up again with the proper application, would I get more bites? Or was it going to be a waste of time? How much did I need a pool of interested applicants to pick from? Was one query really going to be enough? What if they’d already found somewhere else to live in the three days while I was at the ranch?
I pursed my lips. Decisions, decisions.
I decided to keep the ad up. Instead of using the application process on the website, the fact that those who were truly interested would have to make more of an effort to get ahold of me would tell me who was truly interested in this place and who was just poking around to see what they could find in a price range they could afford.
Or at least, that’s what I told myself to feel better about missing the “application” section of the posting. I just hoped and prayed that the right person would find their way to the ad.
I was a little disgruntled that this person had only used the form. Somehow, I’d expected to be called directly since I’d listedmy phone number. It seemed odd to just click “send” on a form when you were applying to share someone’s house. It felt weird, and I didn’t like it. Sure, the person had submitted their own email and phone number, but it still felt impersonal and shifty.
“People are stupid to pass up this well-priced rental because they don’t want to go the extra step to email or call,” I muttered.
I emailed the lone interested party back with a thanks for their interest, and a few times when we could talk on the phone about details. I saw on the application that they were out of town so I figured offering a tour wasn’t an option.
After that was done, I took a deep breath.
I had all afternoon to do anything I wished. And after the hard work I’d done at the ranch, some pizza sounded great. I ordered a plain cheese pizza to the house, then settled in to watch the news for a little while as I waited for something more to happen.
By the time the newscast had ended, I had finished my pizza and cleaned up the scraps. I put the leftovers in the fridge. Those would be good for breakfast before I left for the station tomorrow morning.
Unfortunately, there was no inkling that anyone else was interested in the rental by the time I was getting ready to go to bed. Perhaps that was for the best. I had started thinking about how I would have handled going through a large number of applications and realized that I was nowhere near equipped to deal with talking to that many people to let them know that I had already rented the unit out when I found a tenant.
Or even to send that many emails out.
I was far more equipped to spend my days in solitude, away from the large cities. Though I only lived here to make my commute and life easier when working at the fire station, I preferred the situation at the ranch. Most others would probably prefer the situation here in Lantana, which is why I had firststarted thinking about renting out the upper floor of the house to someone else.
I shook my head. That might have been the reason I wasn’t getting any interest in the property, and not the broken application process.
The next morning, I woke up naturally to get up and get ready for my shift. I had to be there by nine, so waking up at seven was fine. It gave me two hours to get ready and to the station.
After making sure I hadn’t missed a message, I heated up the leftover pizza from last night and got ready for the day at the station.
Just after I walked into the station, my phone rang. It was from out-of-town. I figured it was probably the only renter who was interested in what I had to offer in Lantana. Her voice did not quite match what I thought it would be, though I supposed I didn’t have much to base my assumptions on. All I knew is that she had some nerve calling me an hour before I’d said I’d be available today.
“Hello? This is Jade Santana. I emailed you about your rental?”
I hadn’t realized I had zoned out.
“I’m still here. Yes, this is Mr. Delaney,” I replied. “Are there any questions you have that were not answered in the listing, Miss Santana?”
I quietly hoped that this was not her backing out. Her voice quivered as she said ‘hello’ earlier, and I hoped it was just because she was nervous. If she backed out, I would have to pull this ad off the internet and start again, making sure that I went through the process with a fine-toothed comb.
I did not want to take the time to list this again. The process was arduous as it was; to have to do it again and domorewould have been pointless, in my opinion. People were already lookingelsewhere, and I didn’t know why. Until I knew that, perhaps it was best not to relist my ad.
“No, no,” Miss Santana said. “I was just curious about move-in availability and the application process. I, well,” her voice hesitated on the other end of the line. “Well, I have a great work opportunity, but it means moving to Lantana as quickly as possible…”
I frowned. “As quickly as possible? As in…?” I waited for her to elaborate.
“Would Wednesday work?”
I blinked in surprise. Now that her voice had evened out, it sounded quite chipper and ready for the move. However, asking me if she could move inearlierthan the end of the week was bold.
“Wednesday, you say?” I repeated her question, just to make sure that I understood her properly.
“Yes. Provided my application is approved,” she added hastily.
I pursed my lips.
