My boyfriend moved in with me for a couple of weeks while he looked for a place. Six months later, he was still there, and his contribution to the rent was still coming out of his next paycheck. I’d heard about that paycheck so many times I felt like I ought to know somebody in payroll.
After a while I quit asking. The conversation had gotten predictable enough that I could have done both parts.
Then my landlord emailed me about renewing the lease. I wrote back and asked if he’d send me a separate quote with the rent $300 higher. The request itself was easy enough to type. The embarrassing part was explaining that I had a boyfriend who’d been staying with me for six months and that I wanted him to move out. My landlord sent the quote.
I showed it to my boyfriend. By Sunday he’d found a room with two friends. It turned out he’d known about the room for a month. I’d spent longer working up to emailing my landlord than he apparently needed to arrange a move. He took his stuff out last weekend.
Yesterday he called to complain that his friends wanted the $650 on the first, even though he gets paid on the third. I almost asked him how he’d managed to find $650 for them when he’d never managed to give me anything. Instead, I told him to ask if he could pay on the third.
After we hung up, I realized I’d basically given him that same extension for six months. His friends had made it all the way to the first.
