Thus, I found myself on my way to a Kensington address on Saturday afternoon. Auntie Eleanor proved to be a feisty sixty-five year old woman, dressed in jeans and a loose-fitting shirt. She could easily have passed for fifty-five. I even saw a leather jacket hanging on a chair in the living room. The house was stunning, I hadn’t seen the room yet, but I already wanted to move in. To my surprise, Lucy was there as well, I didn’t know whether to feel awkward or relieved by that. I really wanted to find a place of my own, and I realised this was a pretty unique opportunity. Lucy’s presence made me nervous and I didn’t want to screw things up.

Eleanor informed me that Jane, who lived on the first floor, was running late but would join us in twenty minutes. It was important that we all got along, so she wanted Jane to meet me as well. While Lucy made tea, Eleanor escorted me up the stairs and told me about how she loved to have young people in the house. Her partner of twenty years had died five years earlier, it had been their home, and rather than moving to a smaller apartment, Eleanor had the two upper floors converted to small flats. She said, “I hope you don’t mind stairs, dear. The vacant one is on the upper floor.” Little did she know I had lived in, cheated on a friend, found love, and had been kicked out of another attic room, across town, recently. I wasn’t going to tell her that.

Once I had seen the flat, I knew I had to have it. I mean, it came with an en-suite bathroom. I had been living with shower schedules and bathroom rules for too long. It was perfect. I flashed Eleanor my politest smile and told her I loved it and would be honoured if she would consider me as her new tenant.
“You’re the first and only candidate so far and I trust Lucy to have good judgement. After all, I half-raised her myself,” she said. Then she completely shocked me with the amount of rent she charged. Hundred pounds per week. I almost had to pick my jaw off of the floor.
“I told her to at least jack it up to one fifty, but she’s a stubborn old broad,” Lucy said.
“I’m not doing this for the money. I do it for the company. There is a catch, though,” Eleanor said.
“You have to be a lesbian,” I joked.
“There’s that,” she said. And she meant it. “Also, you won’t be signing a tenancy agreement. If you can live with that, of course, if you can’t, you’ll have to look elsewhere.”
“Really? Is that leg−”
“Auntie Eleanor wants to have house guests, not tenants.” Lucy cut me off. She probably did so for a reason.
“No contract and no rules in this house, only respect. Respect is all you need.” Eleanor stated. I wanted to raise my glass and say ‘Hear Hear!’ but I only had a cup of tea and I would have sounded silly.

A couple of minutes later Jane, the other house guest, arrived and we all had a little chat. Jane was a thirty-year-old nurse who had been staying in the house for more than three years. I was relieved to not find her sexually attractive at all, I had had enough of that in combination with house mates. I told them about my situation, that I was staying with Liz, I left out the parts that reflected too poorly on me and that was that. I could move in with two brand new lesbians next week.

To be continued…

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Next Thursday, May 26th, I will release a short story titled The Final Blow, the sequel to A Stray Hand. To celebrate the birth of even more dyke drama, A Stray Hand is now available as a free download. Prepare for The Final Blow and get it here!