Read Online Hot Mess by Julie Kraut - Free Book Online

continued her spiel. “I’m looking for tenants who won’t break anything, because I’m not exactly handy with big tools.” She paused before adding, “Well, any tools. And,” she continued, looking sheepish now, “we kind of don’t have a budget for repairs anymore. But if you need five bottles of Grey Goose and the name of a great masseuse, I’m your girl!”
    “Why do you keep geese in a bott—” Rachel started to ask, and then abruptly shut up as I kicked her in the shin with my flip-flop. We’d totally just found the deal of a lifetime, and I didn’t want to screw it up with our suburban high school dorkiness.
    “The repair stuff is no problem,” I said, trying to look useful. “I have a cousin in the city who could probably help us out with any handyman stuff.”
    Before Jayla could even respond, Rachel and I were unfolding the signed checks our parents had given us and filling them out for Jayla.
    “Fab, fab,” she said, taking the checks and casually throwing them on the kitchen counter. “So now that I have your checks and stuff, you guys can move in whenever.”
    We made plans to move in first thing the next day, and I totally wanted to hug her, but refrained. My sweat would probably eat through her skin or something.
    “I’m so glad this worked out! The thought of talking to sweaty strangers all week long was making me ill,” Jayla said. As soon as she closed the door behind us, Rachel and I did a silent celebration dance in the hall. The dancing kind of made us look like epileptic crabs, but who cared? We were so close to being glamorous New Yorkers, I could almost smell the party invites and designer bags!
             
    We got back to our room without getting lost once. The hotel looked more like a dungeon than ever now that we’d seen the splendor that was to be our summer home. Rachel and I jumped back and forth from bed to bed like ten-year-olds.
    “That place is so awesome! It’s like where they stay on
America’s Next Top Model,
but those skinny bitches have to share rooms and we don’t have to look at Tyra’s face every time we turn a corner!”
    “Totes. And Jayla’s prettier than Tyra anyway. She’s totally going to be our hook-up for all of the cool stuff that happens in the city. She probably has a ton of friends from going to NYU.”
    Rachel leaped from her bed to mine and I noticed what she was wearing, actually what we both were wearing: khaki shorts and colored tank tops. God! Compared to Jayla we looked like bums. She probably thought we were modeling L.L. Bean’s new line of suburban lesbian wear. I made a mental note to wear something trendier to move in the next day. Would kitten heels be trying too hard?
    We went back to the diner down the street for a celebratory dinner. Not the glam champagne-soaked night I would have liked. But twelve dollars doesn’t get you too far in the city that never sleeps. We congratulated ourselves with grilled cheese, onion rings, and an ice water toast.
    I e-mailed Jacob about our new digs when we got back, bragging about our sweet Union Square location. He insisted on helping us move in. Each of us only had a rolling duffle and our laptop cases, so there wasn’t much to help with. But a totally nice gesture, I guess.
             
    Jacob was meeting us in the hotel lobby at noon. Rachel and I stood at the reception desk at about 11:58, checking out and hissing at each other.
    “Your minibar binge wound up costing us thirty-two dollars!” I growled.
    “How was I supposed to know that three ounces of rum cost nine-fifty? That’s crazy!”
    “You could have read the card thing they have laminated to the door of the minibar. That’s how you were supposed to know!” I hushed my yelling because I thought we were scaring the receptionist. “Here’s the thing, we’ve already blown through five hundred dollars on this hotel, eighty dollars each for the subway passes, and
at least
two hundred dollars eating every