Wow my Beta’s are phenomenal!
RIDING THE RAILS
Chapter 4: Property
SM owns Twilight and characters – I’m only taking them for a ride.
The next morning at ten, Alice sat in front of a huge
duplex. She had received a phone call yesterday evening from Mrs. Cope, the
realtor she was working with, advising her of the time change for their
appointment. While she waited for Mrs. Cope, she took the time to look at the
outside of the property. It was situated in the middle of the block, and the
garages served as the connecting point, with the living quarters on each end. Perfect,
she thought, I won’t have to worry about disturbing my landlord with my
music. Alice had a tendency to play some
rather loud music while working on the various couture designs she envisioned.
After taking in the structure of the building for a
few minutes, Alice noticed a nondescript car pulling up next to her. She climbed out of her car to meet the driver, figuring
this was the person she had the appointment with.
“Well, hello, dear, you must be Alice Cullen. I’m Mrs.
Cope,” the woman introduced herself. “Ms. Swan, the owner, couldn’t be here
today. She had to work a double shift, but I’ll be happy to show you around and
answer any questions about the property and such. Shall we go in?”
Alice nodded and followed Mrs. Cope into the front
entrance. She stopped and gazed around in awe, her jaw dropping at the sight
before her.
“Wow! This place is huge on the inside!” she
exclaimed, staring at the large open plan living room that led to the kitchen.
As she stepped further in, she saw a separate dining
room with a bay window that overlooked a rose garden. Entering the kitchen, she
noted that it appeared professionally designed but was missing appliances.
“Am I to provide my own appliances?” she asked Mrs.
Cope. That wasn’t something she’d been planning on when factoring in the money
she would need to spend for the move.
“Oh, no, dear, the appliances should be here next
week,” Mrs. Cope assured her. A rather relieved Alice continued touring the
house to review all of the amenities.
When Alice entered the master bedroom, she was amazed
once again at the size of the room. Her eyes zeroed in on the huge walk-in
closet with built in drawers, and she giggled like an excited schoolgirl. Oh.
My. God! I’ve died and gone to heaven, she thought to herself. She passed
through to the en suite and was rendered speechless—a rarity for her. At this
point, she’d already made up her mind that this place was going to be hers, but
she continued on, eager to check out everything the house had to offer.
Following Mrs. Cope through to another area, she took
a moment to look into the backyard. It was huge, with a built in pool and deck
area. She noticed that the pool was situated between the two properties, which
she hoped meant that it was available for her use as well. She asked Mrs. Cope
about it and was told that the pool had just been installed last year and that
no one had been in the unit since then, so she would have to ask Ms. Swan about
it.
“Why hasn’t anyone lived here recently? Is there
something wrong with the place or Ms. Swan?” Alice asked.
“No, not at all. Ms. Swan just
bought the place last year and had it remodeled. She lived in this unit while
the other was being worked on, then had the work done on this one afterwards.
They’re duplicates of each other, right down to the drawer pulls.”
“Wow. That had to have cost a pretty penny. How much
is the rent?” Alice asked, more than a little nervous to find out. Looking
around at everything, she surmised it wouldn’t be cheap but desperately hoped
it was within her price range.
“It’s eight hundred dollars per month, plus
utilities,” Mrs. Cope replied.
Alice shook her head in disbelief. That can’t be
right, surely?
“Excuse me, did you say eight hundred per month?”
“Well, yes, dear. Is that too much? We can look around
for another property, if you’d like.”
“No, no!” Alice answered quickly. “It’s fine. I’ll
take it.”
“That’s lovely,” Mrs. Cope said, smiling broadly.
“Let’s head back to the office so we can put together the lease agreement and
answer any questions you may have.”
Alice hopped in her car and followed Mrs. Cope to her
office, where she put down the required first and last month’s rent. She would
have liked to have moved in that coming Saturday, as it was the first of the
month, but with no certainty of when the unit would be ready for occupancy, due
to the status of the appliances, she knew that wouldn’t be possible. Guess
I’ll have to stay at Edward’s house for a little while longer.
Suddenly Alice had an idea, and she asked Mrs. Cope if
it would be all right for her to have one of those portable storage containers
set in the driveway until the unit was available. That way she could at least
get the rest of her belongings moved out of her place in Galena.
“Well, I’m not sure, dear. Let me call Ms. Swan and ask her. I’m sure it would be all right, but I would never like to assume. Oh, I almost forgot—I’ll have to leave her a message, since she’s working a double shift. She can call me back during her break and then I can let you know what she says.”
Noting that it was the second time Mrs. Cope had
mentioned Ms. Swan working a double, Alice asked if her new landlord was a
waitress, a police officer—a profession that required strange hours. She really
didn’t want to have to worry about disturbing her during her time off. “Oh, no,
she works for the railroad,” Mrs. Cope informed her.
Alice left the office shortly after that with the key to her new home and ideas of how to get
Edward to help her with the move.
Two hours later, she received a call from Mrs. Cope
advising her that the unit would be available for her to move into next weekend
and that she’d be more than welcome to leave the storage unit on the driveway
until then.
That evening, she picked Edward up at the train
station with a plan.
“Hi, there,” she greeted Edward as he casually walked
up to the car. “Was your day okay?”
“Just fucking awesome,” he replied after giving her a
quick hug.
“Well, I’ve got some good news!” Alice started with a
slight bit of trepidation.
“And?” Edward asked when she paused, noticing her
nervousness.
“I took the duplex. I really like it, and I think it
will be perfect for me,” she told him excitedly.
“Great! That means I’ll finally get my bathroom back,”
Edward joked. “So, when do you move in?”
“That’s the thing. I have to wait until the unit is
complete. There are no appliances in place at the moment, but that should be
rectified this week. So, I guess you’re stuck with me until then. I’ll be going
up to Galena to arrange for movers to start packing up the large stuff. Do you
mind if I take the car?” Alice asked.
“Well, I guess it’s okay. The weather is supposed to
be good this week, so I guess I can walk to the station for a couple of days.
It couldn’t hurt me to get some extra exercise in. Just be careful with it.”
“Gee, Edward, thank you for trusting me with your baby
so much,” Alice said, rolling her eyes at her cousin. “I’m not going to be gone
that long. I should be back tomorrow night.”
“Okay, okay,” Edward replied, taking the keys from
Alice and climbing into the driver’s seat. “If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t
let you drive my car at all. Now get in. I’m hungry… You can make me dinner to
thank me for being such a wonderful cousin who lets you borrow his car.”
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