The Anticipation

Countdown to fall semester: nineteen days

The former girlfriend has made an appointment to go look at a place in Wichita tomorrow, and this afternoon got the fuel filter on her car fixed/replaced, free of charge.

The problem is that, like most places, she has to fill out an application to get into this complex, and that includes information on previous addresses, previous landlords, etc. Including the place here in Newton where we've been living and where I plan to stay.

Note: our original lease here in this place ended almost exactly a year ago. After that, it switched to a month-to-month system, with 30 days' notice required when we were going to move out. Obviously, if references are being asked for in the application for the former girlfriend's new place, there's a strong possibility that our current landlord could be called -- and he doesn't know anything about our breakup or her moving out yet, as it just happened on Sunday. Because of this, and the fact that we're no longer on a formal lease but the month-to-month system, I don't exactly know what could happen -- so, tomorrow, I have to call our current landlord and see what we can do about taking the former girlfriend off the lease, see what I have to do myself, etc. Here's the possibilities:

1. Best case scenario: he makes the note in our file that I am now the primary householder, says not to worry about it, and that everything is fine and I can continue living here as per the usual month-to-month thing now that the original lease is over. I pay the former girlfriend the security deposit she originally paid when we moved in out of my own pocket, so that no money actually has to change hands with the landlord, and she goes on her way. This is sincerely what I'm hoping for and will suggest it if the possibility to do so comes up.

2. Second-best case scenario: he renews the lease to take her off it, keeps the original security deposit and this month's rent (as both have already been paid), and I get a new one-year lease agreement in this place by myself with no money needing to change hands with him. I pay the former girlfriend the original security deposit out of pocket, of course, but still no major changes.

3. Bad case scenario: With the former girlfriend leaving he must refund the entire original security deposit to her no matter what, and won't let me pay her out even though I'm renewing the lease under my name, and an entirely new lease would have to be drawn up with me paying everything but this month's rent. Possible house inspection occurs and nothing can change hands or names formally until the first week of September, going by the 30 days' notice policy.

4. Worst-case scenario: The former girlfriend moves out, gets all of the deposits back, and the landlord decides not to renew the lease or let me continue living here as the new primary, but instead wants us completely out so that he can rent to someone new -- leaving me to find a new place as well with what little time (and very little money) I currently have to do so.


Granted, the last two of those aren't likely to happen at all; the guy that owns this place likes us, and we've gotten nothing but praise from him and his wife about how we always pay the rent on time and how, if something goes wrong, we always tell them immediately. However, I'm still a bit worried, to be honest, about what could happen. I mean, it is possible and probably likely that the former girlfriend moving out would necessitate a completely new lease agreement (which I am, of course, fine with), but that is going to be one completely nerve-wracking phone call, because there is always the possibility that I will be in the same boat as the former girlfriend, having to find another place to live -- and this time, completely by myself somewhere different and somewhere new. I really can't afford that right now. I can't afford that until my loan disburses and until I get paid by the school a month from now. If something like that happens, I just have no cash to spare or spend at all, and would more than likely run my bank account down to mere pennies before I get paid with either the loan or our regular paychecks -- which I desperately need to actually come in soon.

Regardless, the call must be made tomorrow, before 2PM (when the former girlfriend looks at this place in Wichita and turns in her application for it, if she wants it), so that our landlord doesn't get a call out of the blue from some rental agency down there asking if the former girlfriend is "a good tenant" and wondering why. I really, really don't want to make this call. Really don't. I have an aversion to the telephone anyway, and can't express myself vocally on it as well as I can via text, such as in a letter or an email. Because of this, as well as my ability to get super-flustered and nervous, I've handwritten a list of questions to ask during the call so that I can get absolute answers to them.

I will update you, of course, on what I find out.