wanted:

[vitaedolce]

An ad goes up in the Nexus on Friday afternoon.

It's small, and reasonably discreet, with minimal shorthand. It's listed under apartments and real estate, accessible both online and on paper.

Wanted: one Nexus-savvy roommate for Brooklyn carriage home, five bedrooms. Two female renters currently, both easy-going, one with infant child. Pets OK

Comments

[quietsideways]

Madeline saw it after she took care of some errands and stopped to read it several times, biting her lip.

She doesn't really need a new place to live. She's fine where she is. Someone else probably needs the space more, and besides, she doesn't know these people, whoever they are. There's no reason to be interested. But it would be so nice to be living with people, and they have a baby, and at least she'd know she wasn't alone at night. Besides, if she knew someone she knew would have to clean it up she wouldn't-

She dials the number, telling herself that someone had aleady called before her and gotten the place. It would make sense.

[vitaedolce]

The woman who picks up the phone sounds a bit harried at first, and youngish. "Hello--? Sorry, one sec--"

There's the sound of a door closing, and some of the ambient noise quiets down. "Anyway, hi, Maria speaking!"

[quietsideways]

"...Maria?" Madeline sounds a little bit taken off her guard there. "Uh, hello, this is Madeline Yi and I'm calling about an ad I found in the Nexus?" She's quiet, nervous, and non-descript. Faint eastern seaboard accent.

"The one about the house," she clarifies.

[vitaedolce]

"Oh, yeah? We're still looking for people, are you interested?" It's kind of an obvious question, presumably people do not call about a house they're not interested in, but they're establishing some preliminaries here. Maria settles down on the edge of a nearby coffee table, pushing her hair away from her face, phone cradled by her ear. She's hoping this is a prospective roommate.