ERNIE AND ERNESTINA: Searching

Book Two, Chapter 202: Business Talk

My lessee, Steve, calls me. “May I talk to you for a few minutes?”

He tells me he’s moving.

“I don’t want to move. The room is a sugar cube. I really like it, and I like living in this building. There’s always someone to talk to, if I feel like talking. And the studio looks out on the terrace, where I can sit anytime I want. But it’s time for me to move on. Still, I guess no one will kick me off the terrace if I come back to sit there every now and then.”

Steve and I have had a few truth-telling talks since our Derby Day encounter. He knows I’m in a Twelve-Step program, recovering from relationship addiction, and I know he’s in Recovery, too. That’s partly why he’s moving, to live with others also in the early stages of Recovery.

“It’s summer,” he says. “People are looking for apartments now. I hope you don’t have much trouble finding my replacement.”

The tiny condo brings in nearly forty percent of my monthly income, so I have the same hope.