Bette turned the key in the brown and green lock. She pushed the gate aside and held her breath. The hallway always smelled of cat piss and mayonnaise, she passed the filthy mat and gingerly held open her mailbox with a tissue. She had nowhere to throw it so she carefully folded it over and stuck it in her leather jacket. She tucked her mail into her bag and ran her fingers through her curly locks. She started up the narrow seven flights of stairs to her apartment. When she had rented the attic space, she had thought it was very romantic, very “Barefoot in the Park” of her to rent out the top closet of an apartment with the gorgeous views. Now, eighteen months later it wasn’t quite so romantic. She was no Audrey Hepburn and she was still quite broke.

    “Yes, you are Audrey Hepburn!” yelled a voice from the last landing. She looked up right into the blonde smiling face. Bette gave a start, it was eerie the way her girlfriend could always read her mind.

    “I’m sorry to say, but Bette, you would still look good with a brown bag over your head.”

    Bette stepped into her warm, lit apartment, past the left over seventies beads hanging in the kitchen that her girlfriend had insisted on, ducking her head under the obligatory Nepalese prayer flags, that she had so naively asked her girlfriend, Tina if she had brought them back from Nepal.

    Bette smiled as she unrolled the very, very ugly green and gray scarf that Bette had put on in the car in front of the apartment because Tina had made it for her. She remembered Tina’s reply when she had asked about it, “No silly, everyone sells Buddhist prayer flags on Telegraph!” Oh, if Bette had only known that she would be living in a vegan house and that Bette had been forced to buy a fake leather jacket. Bette slumped into the chair and rubbed her temples. Tina sat in the other chair with the red duct tape seat and super glued back that kept falling off. Tina carefully lifted one of Bette’s feet into her lap and slipped off her stylish yet affordable four inch heel and started rubbing, making sure to rub in between the toes. Bette leaned back and closed her eyes, slumping farther into her chair.