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“I could use some help around here if you’re looking to make extra cash.”

Jon spent his days climbing trees after wayward cats, doing repairs, and mediating between arguing tenants. I didn’t want any part of that. Being called at midnight to rescue a cat or opening an apartment door when someone forgot their keys was my idea of a nightmare. I just wanted to be left alone.

Jon thanked me for my help and said he’d cook dinner one night as a thank-you. He’d probably forget or he’d remember at the eleventh hour and order a pizza.

The corner by the window still had a trace of that scent or I’d talked myself into believing it had. My dragon hadn’t let it go, and he tucked himself away for most of the afternoon, somewhere I couldn’t reach him. And when he finally spoke, he told me it was possible.

Maybe the new guy is our mate.

Maybe.

Jon and Indigo might be right and he’s a dragon. He rambled on about the guy overlooking all the silly rules the dragon flight had in place about scars being imperfect.

Letting him wallow in that was kinder than the truth. He’d had a hard enough year without me taking away his hopes and dreams. Besides, deep down he knew.

I turned off the light in the empty apartment and went up to my own.

4

SHERIDAN

Tyler and Jason were pissed when I told them I wasn’t going to pay the shortage of rent. They were even more pissed when I told them I was moving out. We’d been on a month-to-month for the past four months, so I wasn’t technically breaking a lease or anything. If they wanted to stay, they could. I just wasn’t going to be there with them.

There wasn’t much to move. My bed was a metal platform frame. And my dresser was tiny. Once I took the frame apart, I was able to get everything into my car with the exception of the mattress, which I strapped to the roof. It was a one trip and done.

I toured my new place after signing the lease. It wasn’t fancy, but it was better than I thought it would be given the price and ease of application. According to Jon, who was the one who left me the key, they were going to be fixing it up some before I arrived. In theory, that meant it was going to be nicer than what I’d already seen. We’d see how true that was. My old landlord was supposed to fix the bathroom fan the first week I moved in, and he still hadn’t touched it. The chances were good that this would be a similar situation.

No one was around when I moved in. They were probably all at work. Jon, the manager, said he would get here as soon as he could but was dealing with some plumbing part he’d ordered. He probably assumed I had a lot more than I did and that there would be plenty still left to do.

“This is our new home.” I carried Pierogi in his travel case into our new home first and looked around the place. It was so much bigger than what I was used to. But then again, I’d been pretty much forced to stay in my own room and not allowed in any of the common spaces at my old place, so everything was bound to be larger. “You’re going to have to stay in the corner here for a while while I bring everything in, then I’ll get you all set up.”

I still hadn’t figured out where I was going to put his hutch. My plan was to possibly add a play area for him as well. We’d have to see after everything was moved in and I got some other furniture. I couldn’t exactly have people over with only a twin bed to sit on.

After a quick check to make sure the fridge was on and set to temp, I stared out the window, wondering what it was going to be like to live here. Were the residents nice? It was a lot smaller than my last building. Maybe it was the kind of place where everyone knew each other. Or possibly it was always like this, where it was quiet and desolate.

I still hadn’t been able to piece together why it had been so inexpensive. There had to be something. The neighborhood was in a good location, the building was dated but kept up well, and the apartment was a decent size and had no holes in the walls.

“Pierogi. What do you think?” I opened his carry cage and pulled him out. “It’s not too bad, right?”

There was a knock on the door. When I opened it, a man was standing there with a plumbing wrench.

“Jon?” I asked.

“Yeah. You must be Sheridan. Sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived.”

“It’s all good. I didn’t have much to move up.” There were a few small boxes left, but I wasn’t going to trouble him for them. “Did you want to come in?”

He stepped inside. “Let me know if anything isn’t working. I checked all the appliances and outlets, and all the walls were painted. But if more needs doing, I’m the one who’ll be doing it, just let me know. Well, not just me. We all kinda pitch in around here.”

“How so?” Had I accidentally moved into a commune? No. That didn’t make sense. They for sure would’ve wanted me to interview for that.

“We are a community. Like painting this room, for instance. I didn’t do it all. I had help from Radley who lives just above you. We all kinda help where we can.”

That was the opposite of what I was used to, and that sounded nice.

“Why don’t you let me show you the mail system and trash and all that? And while we are at it, we can check out the courtyard.”

Jon was a quirky man, and it was not easy to keep up with the conversation as he showed me the property. He bounced from idea to idea, forgetting halfway down the hall where we were going. I didn’t get the sense that it was any sort of memory issue as much as it was his brain was going a mile a minute. The tour ended with me knowing all of the necessities for apartment life here, along with the story of why the stairwells were yellow and why they moved to carpet in the hallway.