Friends With All the Benefits

4 Ethan

I lived my life according to my master plan. Do well in school—check. Finish my degree in accounting—check. Get my CPA—check. Get a job as an auditor—check. Buy my own house—check. The next big milestone on that list to check off was to find a good wife. Then the rest would follow from there.

I liked rules, and I liked plans, which was why my work suited me to a tee. And work was where I was currently working on the wife bit of my master plan. I had my eye on Renae, a girl on my floor, and I was working on ways to chat her up longer than the usual perfunctory workplace conversations allowed.

There was progress. She knew my name. She remembered what department I worked for. Now the only thing left was to figure out a way to spend more time with her. Then, when she was comfortable with me, I would ask her out, get her to fall in love with me, date for a suitable period, then marry her. It was all in the master plan. Maybe I should hint that I was a homeowner, signal that I was a good provider and all.

My only issue was the hefty mortgage repayments that hit my pocket every month. That was why I had to sublet my one spare room. All my previous tenants had been mostly okay until Dave. Thank goodness I was finally rid of him. But now I needed to find a new tenant. Thank goodness the universe saw fit to provide. Everything had fallen into tidy place when Ellie needed a new place to stay.

I liked Ellie. She was a friend, and she was always easy to get along with. There would be no dramas with Ellie. What you saw was what you got, and she was someone who had her act together in all the right ways. She would be moving in this weekend, and I knew she would be a good one. Ellie always was.

But before Ellie could move in, I had to fix up her room for her. Dave did not leave it in good shape.

Contractors had already fixed up the worst of the damage to the floors and walls, but there was still plenty left to do. Paint was peeling off the walls from whatever shit he stuck on it. The skirting boards were warped from I didn’t even want to know what.

I spent all my hours after work fixing it all up. Callum came over to help.

“Are you sure about letting Ellie move in with you?” He asked carefully as he helped me paint the room one evening.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Joyce had a point that Ellie would be a good housemate.” Then I gave him a wary look. “Unless you’ve found out otherwise. How’s she been as your housemate?”

Callum put any niggling fears to rest. “She’s been great. She’s considerate, cleans up after herself… Cleans up after us even though she doesn’t have to. And my pantry is the most organised it’s ever been. And the food she cooks…So good. I don’t think Hannah wants her to move out.”

I gave Callum a wry look. “But you do miss your sofa.”

“I do miss my sofa,” Callum admitted with a sigh. “Although she clears out of it until it’s bedtime. But it’s not the same.”

Then I remembered his first question. “If she’s great, why’d you ask if I would be okay with letting her move in?”

Callum gave me a piercing look. “Ethan. You know why.”

I grimaced. I did know why—Ellie had feelings for me. Feelings I could never return.

When I first met her, it had been obvious. She got more flustered when I was around. Her eyes lit up when I spoke to her. Sometimes, her gaze lingered on me when she didn’t think I was looking. But over the years, Ellie had gotten a lot better at hiding it.

“It won’t be a problem living with Ellie,” I assured Callum. “We’re good mates. Besides, she’s never done anything to make either of us uncomfortable, and she’s not the kind of person who ever will. She knows it’s a one-way street, and I’m sure she’ll get over me once she finds someone else.”

Ellie never acted on her feelings, which was great for the both of us, because rejecting her would have been awkward, especially since she, Hannah, and my sister were tight.

I had to admit, the first time I met Ellie, she intrigued me. It was at Hannah’s birthday party over two years ago. Ellie had been wearing a short dress that accentuated her curves in all the best ways, and she was swaying like she didn’t have a care in the world while holding a nearly full cocktail glass. The sight tickled me so much that I went to chat her up. She had been witty and funny and easy to talk to, despite the terrible music volume in the club. Maybe something would have happened between us that night, but then Nat showed up and completely bowled me over with her looks. I never gave Ellie a second glance after that. Years later, and especially after seeing how Nat treated Ellie lately, I never regretted it more.

The second time I met Ellie, she looked completely different from what I expected. This Ellie was a lot more reserved. More buttoned up. Less relaxed. I didn’t know what I expected, but after that sexy dress, “stern librarian” was not it. She dressed in a tight black turtleneck and a long skirt. Everything she wore was modest. Everything screamed “I have my shit together,” and there was something about the way she carried herself that said, “If you don’t watch out, I will get your shit together too.” The more I got to know her, the more I realised that wasn’t far off from who Ellie was.

My sister had been right. Ellie was a good girl.

She was conscientious, thoughtful and, in my opinion, just a tad too straitlaced. One thing I liked to do whenever I was around Ellie was to tease her about how good a girl she was. She took it all in good-natured stride, which made my teasing all the more delicious every time I got a reaction out of her.

As for her looks, she had a pleasant face, but it wasn’t anything special. But she was nice, and she was genuine, and she was even funny. She worked as a document archivist, which fit in with the librarian image I had of her in my mind. Hannah used to work with her, and from everything Hannah told me, Ellie was a good worker.

She was perfect as a housemate. After the nightmare that was Dave, I really needed a good one. I knew she would never do anything about her feelings for me. In fact, I was banking on the feelings fading over time. If it wasn’t for Joyce trying to matchmake me with Ellie on the odd occasion, I would have thought she was already over me.

Ellie was friendly, but there was a line drawn, a clear wall between anything that could have happened, and she was responsible for erecting it. There would be no problem with her attraction to me because she would never let it become a problem.

Besides, she wasn’t the kind of girl I was attracted to. I knew exactly the kind of woman I was attracted to. I saw her at work every day. Renae in the next department over was the woman who featured in the next step of my master plan, even if she didn’t know it yet. She was smart, sharp and oh so hot, and I had been trying to engineer ways to see more of her for weeks. But a woman like Renae required patience, and I was going to take my sweet time getting to know her before I asked her out on a proper date.

“Are you going to tell Ellie you’re actually the landlord?” Callum asked again. There was an oddly protective air about him. He liked Ellie, and he was looking out for her best interests. That was good. Somebody should.

I shook my head. “It won’t be necessary. And it’s less messy that way. The whole drama with Dave proved it.”

“Ellie’s different though. For one, she’ll be your first tenant who won’t be a stranger coming in. And I thought you two are good friends,” Callum frowned.

“We are. But she doesn’t need to know I own the house. Hell, you’re the only one of my friends who knows, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Callum pursed his lips, but he didn’t say anything else.

This house was my pride and joy. It was a restored historic cottage in Fremantle, the historical port city turned suburb south of Perth once the greater metro area swallowed it up. I had visited Fremantle—Freo, as it was affectionately known to locals—when my family first moved to Perth more than two decades ago and fell in love with it at first sight. Freo had several beaches and multiple café strips. I had finally found the house of my dreams in South Freo, just a stone’s throw away from the main Fremantle city centre and near a smaller café strip, and it didn’t come cheap. My grandparents had left my sister and me a small bequest each when they passed. Joyce had used hers to start up her photography business. I used mine as the down payment for this house, and it still left me with a sizable mortgage that ate up the bulk of my paycheque every fortnight, hence the need for a tenant.

Once I got the house ready to move into, I engaged a property agent to help me sublet the place. The age and style of the cottage meant it only had two bedrooms, so I could only ever have one housemate. I had heard nightmare tales of landlords who managed their own rentals, and it had been worth the cost of hiring someone else to handle it for me. None of my other tenants ever thought I was more than a housemate, which made some landlord-skewering jokes kinda awkward, but it had absolutely been the right call once Dave started making trouble.

Dave didn’t raise any red flags when he was first vetted as a tenant, but my property agent had made sure he was put on a rental blacklist after my ordeal. He had known all the legal ins and outs required to evict Dave and handled it deftly. The agency ended up covering my property damage as an apology for letting Dave slip through. The experience reinforced just how important it was for me to keep that distance from anyone else who lived in my house. I doubted Ellie would be as much trouble as Dave was, but it was still the smart thing to do.

~

E llie moved in that weekend. Callum and Hannah helped her lug over all of her possessions, which had been sitting boxed up in their storeroom over the last few weeks.

“No furniture?” I had expected her to come with more stuff.

That got an angry snarl out of Hannah as Callum shook his head.

“Nat kept it all,” Ellie explained with a mournful look, then added, “She did end up paying me for it, so there’s that.”

“Good. And it was still less than she should have done,” I growled. Any initial attraction I felt for Nat before this was long gone. After how she treated Ellie, I wasn’t feeling very charitable to her any longer.

I tried to make light of the situation by joking, “Hopefully, we won’t have the same kind of housemate drama, eh?”

The hurt look in Ellie’s eyes told me it had absolutely been the wrong thing to say. “You have nothing to worry about from me.”

“I was joking, Ellie.” I tried to do damage control, but thankfully, Ellie had already moved on.

Ellie’s eyes took in the entire cottage. It was the first time she had seen the place in person. When we discussed her moving in, I had directed her to my property agent who showed her photos of the place. Callum vouched that it was liveable and that the place had no mould or pest problems or anything else to worry about, and Ellie had signed on as a tenant.

“Oh my God, I already love it.”

Her eyes swept across the large front verandah that spanned the entire front of the house. Carved wood columns held up the tin roof overlooking the verandah, and iron lace decorated the ends of the tin roof. The wooden deck I had painstakingly restored overlooked a small overgrown garden I hadn’t had time to deal with yet, and the property was enclosed by an ornate, low wrought-iron fence.

The house itself was solid brick, its design typical of houses from the 1800s, albeit with a few modern updates. All the ornate verandah lights were now all LEDs, the plumbing had been completely replaced just ten years ago by the previous owner, and I had just cleared my savings to update all the electricals and the kitchen.

I felt a swell of pride at Ellie’s words. I loved the place too. So much so that I had unwisely sunk too much money into it the moment I saw it on the market several years ago. It had been tight for a while, but I never regretted it.

“Come on, let’s get your stuff into your room, and I’ll give you a tour.”

It was all getting off to a great start. Callum’s worries about Ellie’s feelings for me weren’t a problem at all. Right now, Ellie only had eyes for the house.

“I love the tiles,” Ellie gushed when I showed her the one bathroom we would be sharing. The tiles were one of the best bits of the house, and most of it was still original with its intricate patterning. “And the bathtub. You can fit two people in there. You don’t mind if I use it from time to time, do you?”

“Go ahead, you’re a tenant too. Besides, the water bill is included in the rent,” I assured her, although somewhat hesitantly. I doubted a few bathtub soaks would bring the bill up too much, but if it ever got out of hand, I could always tell my property manager to increase the rent.

Once again, I patted myself on the back for the ruse. It did away with so much awkwardness.

Unlike modern houses, the cottage wasn’t quite open plan. The one living room was its own walled-up space and sat formally in front of the house on the right of the entry hallway. My room was on the left of the hallway, which ran through the entire house, opening to the joined dining and kitchen area on the right side of the house at the back. Ellie’s bedroom was on the back left of the hallway. It had a view of the back garden, which I thought she might like, despite the fact that the back garden was currently an overgrown wasteland. The one bathroom she was currently drooling over sat in between both bedrooms. It had two entrances—one to the hallway dividing the bedrooms from the rest of the house, and the other into my room. As with other tenants, I emphasised the importance of locking both doors from the inside when any of us were using the bathroom.

That was the only time I got a blush out of Ellie, but she didn’t say anything else besides, “Will do.”

At least there were two toilets in the house. A modern one had been put in at the back of the house by a previous owner, and it was a smart decision, especially when more than one person lived here.

The rest of the day was spent helping Ellie unpack and settle in before Hannah dragged Ellie to the beach for a quick walk before it got too cold. Then Hannah and Callum stayed for dinner. After that, Ellie decided to get an early night. She seemed to have settled in nicely, and everything was going smoothly so far. Having Ellie around would mean that I would see my friends more. Plus, all signs pointed to her being the most considerate housemate I had ever lived with. It all boded well for our future living arrangements, and when I went to bed, I was still feeling pleased with myself that she had moved in.

~

T he next morning, Ellie’s infatuation with her new place still hadn’t dimmed. Despite it being a Sunday, she was up bright and early. When I got up and out of bed, I found her walking around the overgrown backyard holding a steaming cup of coffee. I hadn’t had the chance to deal with either the front or the back garden. The back garden where Ellie was walking down the pathway was full of dead plants. I think underneath all that growth was a mostly dead lawn, but I hadn’t had time to check. And yet, Ellie looked at it like it was the most amazing place in the world.

Her pyjamas were exactly what I expected them to be—a matching checked flannel set underneath a plush robe. Even her lightweight cable knit bed socks looked proper. During the colder months, I just slept in a ratty old hoodie and shorts. I always ran warm, and it looked like Ellie was the complete opposite. For some reason, I found it ridiculously cute. I didn’t tell her that though. Instead, I greeted her when she trooped back into the kitchen with, “Ellie, you even look like a librarian in your sleep.”

Once again, I was extremely glad that it was Ellie who moved in. Because we were already friends, there would be no awkwardly feeling our way around our relationship as housemates for weeks before we got used to each other.

Ellie just snorted. “I sincerely doubt it. How would you know what librarians wear to sleep? Besides, you know I’m an archivist, not a librarian.”

“Same difference,” I teased. “I can just imagine you in bed, filing documents away before you sleep. What’s missing is a pair of glasses, and I know you’ve got a pair.”

Ellie laughed. “I only wear those when reading or using the computer. I won’t be doing any archiving work in bed. I don’t bring my work home.”

“Good policy.”

Ellie watched me eat my peanut butter toast with hungry eyes. “I should have gone to the shops yesterday,” she muttered.

“You can have some of my bread if you like,” I offered.

“Thank you, but there’s no need,” she replied, then looked towards the front door. “I’m thinking of walking to the café strip and grabbing something from one of the nearby bakeries.” Her eyes lit up. “I still can’t believe we live here, so close to the South Freo café strip. Nat and I used to drive all the way here to the cafes for breakfast, and that was only once in a blue moon.”

Then her eyes turned sad. She was thinking of Nat and the circumstances that led to her moving in here. I couldn’t have that.

“And now, you can walk to the strip any time you like,” I told her. “There are three bakeries within walking distance, and you have all the time in the world to try them all.”

That got Ellie to perk back up.

“So awesome.” Ellie disappeared into her room to change.

When she came out, she was wearing something I had not seen her before. When I hung out with Ellie, it was always after work, so she was always in work clothes. Even on the occasional weekend when we hung out, her casual clothes were always a bit more dressed up. What she wore now wasn’t anything remarkable—just a sweater and a pair of exercise tights, but those tights hugged her ass like nobody’s business. I already knew Ellie had a nice ass from the work skirts and casual jeans she usually wore but seeing it in tight tights was something else. I knew we were just friends, but there was nothing wrong with admiring the view. When no one was looking, of course.

Before I knew it, I found myself asking, “Care for company? I’ll take you to my favourite bakery.”

“Oh, yes please,” Ellie chirped, then stared at what was left of my sandwich and frowned. “But you’ve already had breakfast.”

“I always have space for second breakfast. Come on.”

We walked down my quiet, leafy street, turned down another one and walked all the way to the end until it joined the main thoroughfare and café strip in South Fremantle. The smell of fresh bread found us long before we found the place. We followed the scent of yeasty, malty, sweet and somewhat savoury freshly baked bread, down past several shops right to my favourite bakery where the line of people snaked out the door.

The line moved quickly, and within two minutes, Ellie’s eyes were goggling at the array of baked goods in the glass display.

“I want to try everything, but I can’t…” She turned to me in despair. “Where do I even start?”

I laughed. Just at that moment, a bakery worker called out to us, asking what we’d like to order.

“Let me take care of this,” I told Ellie, then turned to the counter and picked out several things.

Ellie insisted on paying, but I wouldn’t let her. When we got outside, I took her to an empty standing table overlooking the main street.

“Where do you want to start? Sweet or savoury?”

“I think you over-ordered,” Ellie still looked overwhelmed as she stared down at the five paper bags of baked goodness.

I shrugged. “This way, you get to try a bit of everything. And anything leftover can be lunch for either of us.” I patted one paper bag, the one containing a continental roll—a long sandwich made up of multiple layers of cold cuts, pickled vegetables, fresh vegetables and thinly sliced, thickly layered cheese, all packed into a soft, crunchy baguette. “This one is definitely lunch.”

“Oh, good. That’s one less thing to pick out.”

“This one’s a pizza slice, so we can set that aside for lunch too. I’ll split both with you so you get to try them.” The pizza slice was as large as whole pizzas in other places and eating it for breakfast would ruin her appetite for anything else.

Ellie’s eyes lit up. “You didn’t have to but thank you.”

“Now we have three things left, and I think we won’t have a problem eating all of it.”

Ellie looked unconvinced, but the moment she took a bite out of the first pastry I handed her, all doubt flew out the window.

“The pastry is so flaky,” she gushed as she bit into what the bakery called the morning bun, made from rolled-up croissant dough dunked in orange juice then baked into a cylindrical shape, then finished with a dusting of cinnamon sugar. She had to tear herself away from it to hand the rest to me, and she attacked the rest of the baked goods with just as much gusto.

She balked at the size of the almond croissant, but after eating half of it, she was almost reluctant to give it up and hand me my share. The entire savoury ham and cheese pastry, I let her have. I already had breakfast, and the moaning noises Ellie made while biting into it told me she would have no problems finishing the entire thing.

It was highly entertaining watching Ellie enjoy herself. I was glad she seemed to be happy with her new place.

“I want to go walk to the beach after this. No, wait, I need to go to the grocers, and I’ve heard that shop—” Ellie pointed to an organic grocers and small goods store several doors away, “—is good and I’ve been meaning to check them out. And there are all these art galleries. And cafes, but we’ve already got lunch…”

“Ellie,” I stopped her with a laugh. “You live here now. You can do all of that anytime you want.”

“I can, can’t I?” Ellie beamed. She looked into the distance and her expression grew sober. The enthusiasm seemed to drain out of her.

“I’ve always wanted to live here or somewhere like here,” she finally admitted, but there was something tight in her voice. “To move out from the apartment in Lynwood into a nicer area. Not that Lynwood didn’t have its charms, but it was old and inland there weren’t as many interesting shops around unless we drove further out…”

“Why didn’t you move out?” I was curious.

“Nat’s parents bought the apartment for her when she decided to move here. We both came from Bendigo, and we had always planned to move in together when we came over to Perth.”

“Why’d they buy in Lynwood?”

Ellie gave me a wry look. “Because it was cheap at the time. And reasonably safe.”

“You could have moved out anytime,” I pointed out.

Ellie shook her head. “I promised Nat I’d stay with her. We didn’t know anyone in Perth when we moved here. And she didn’t want to leave the apartment when it was all paid for.”

“Well, look on the bright side. You’re here now.”

“Yeah, I know. I just wish it didn’t have to happen this way.”

~

W e did end up going to the organic grocers after that, but it didn’t have enough range for Ellie to do a full shop, so I walked her back home so she could grab her car and head out to the supermarket. On our walk back, Ellie’s eyes keep roaming to all our neighbours’ front yards, and we ended up stopping every time we passed a well-kept garden.

Something was going on in Ellie’s mind, and when we finally reached home, she turned to me and asked, “Do you think our landlord would be okay if I do up the garden? Both the front and the back?”

Fireworks and party poppers went off in my head. I had been procrastinating on the garden for ages, and now Ellie wanted to work on it. Of course I would be.

“Of course the landlord would be,” I told her. “No reason why he wouldn’t. And you’d be improving the place. Go right ahead.”

Ellie still looked hesitant. “I’ll check with the property manager anyway.”

Privately, I made a note to tell my property manager to approve the request, and to tell Ellie to claim all her costs from the landlord through him. Even though Ellie would never know I was her landlord, I wasn’t going to take advantage of her.