My lease was up after three years, and my landlord refused to renew. I was scrambling to find a new place, which is a nightmare in this city. My best friend, Maya, saw the apartment listing online and was furious on my behalf. "This landlord is a total psycho," she grumbled, scrolling through the pictures on her phone. "You offered to pay more, and you've kept the place spotless. Why is he so desperate to rent to someone else?" Impulsively, she stabbed the "call" button on the listing, planning to mess with him a little. But when the call connected, we both froze. The voice that answered was my boyfriend's. 1 Maya had him on speaker. A familiar "Hello?" came through the phone. The voice was quiet, but it hit me like a lightning bolt. It was my boyfriend, Leo. I couldn't believe it. I reached out to stop Maya, but my hand hovered uselessly over the screen. We just stared at each other, stunned. "Hello?" he said again, a little louder this time. Maya recovered first. Clearing her throat, she pinched her nose to disguise her voice. "Hi, are you the landlord for apartment 1204 at The Goldcrest?" "Yes, I am." She shot me a look, then continued, "I saw your listing online, and I—" "Sorry," he cut her off, "the apartment's already taken. Someone put down a deposit." He hung up. Maya shot up from the couch and threw her phone onto the cushions. "Holy crap! The apartment you've been renting for three years... the landlord is Leo?" she exclaimed. "This is like something out of a bad movie!" 2 The shock started to wear off, replaced by a cold, sinking feeling. I opened my utility app and pulled up the account for my apartment. Under "Account Holder," it read: L. Hayes. Next, I called the building management office and asked for the owner's name for my unit, pretending I needed it for a renter's insurance claim. "The owner is Leo Hayes," the woman on the phone confirmed cheerfully. I slumped onto the floor, the strength draining out of me. I leaned against the side of the bed, motionless. When I first signed the lease, the landlord had to reschedule at the last minute. I had a conflict and couldn't make the new time, so Leo offered to go and sign the paperwork for me. I never once saw the owner's information. Later, when I saw the name on the utility bill, I’d even joked with him about how common his name was. Looking back, I felt like the world's biggest idiot. He was collecting rent from me, his girlfriend, for an apartment he owned. He was using me to pay his mortgage, while also crashing at "my" place whenever he wanted. It was a flawless setup, and I had been completely clueless. Maya's words cut right to the bone. "That's some next-level scheming. He's got you paying off his mortgage, and he gets to live there for free. Girl, you're not his girlfriend, you're his sugar mama." 3 My phone buzzed. It was a text from Leo, sent ten minutes ago. [Hey, I'm off work. On my way to pick you up so we can go apartment hunting.] He'd been telling me for weeks that he was about to be sent on a work trip for the better part of a month. He was worried I wouldn't have time to find a place and move before he left. He kept pushing me to find something quickly so he wouldn't have to "worry about me" while he was gone. It wasn't concern. He was just in a hurry to get me out so he could get his next tenant in. A hot wave of anger washed over me. I almost called him right then and there to confront him. But Maya stopped me, a frown on her face. "Doesn't this seem weird to you?" she asked. "You offered to pay more rent, and he still said no. Why do you think that is?" The answer hit me like a punch to the gut. He already had a new tenant lined up. And he was about to break up with me. The rental listing wasn't for just anyone. It was for her. The girl he was cheating on me with. 4 In Leo's car, I took Maya's advice and tried to act normal, like nothing had happened. "You know," I said casually, "I heard the apartment across the hall from me just went up for rent. Maybe I should just take that one. It would save me the trouble of moving everything." I watched his face closely. I didn't miss the flicker of panic in his eyes. "But you've always complained about the noise in that building," he said, trying to sound reasonable. "This is a great chance to find a quieter place." A sarcastic smile touched my lips. "I've lived there for three years. I'm used to the kids upstairs running around. It's like a white noise machine at this point. I'd probably have trouble sleeping without it." He chuckled, but it sounded forced. "What are you, a masochist? Don't get attached to a bad situation. Come on, let's find you a better place. It's so loud, I swear the mom upstairs is always screaming at her kids whenever we're trying to have a moment. It's not exactly a mood-setter." His words were like poison, every syllable a lie. I dug my fingernails into my palms, trying to keep my composure. 5 Leo and I met in college. He pursued me for a year before I finally agreed to go out with him our sophomore year. He was a local; I was from a small town a thousand miles away. I'd always assumed we'd break up after graduation. But then I landed an internship at a top ad agency right here in the city. It was a dream opportunity. I told him the good news, and he was ecstatic. "That's amazing!" he'd said. "You can stay here! We don't have to break up!" He helped me search for an apartment. Since he knew the city, I trusted his judgment. He was the one who sent me the link to the apartment I ended up renting. To be honest, I wasn't thrilled with it when the realtor showed it to us. The walls were paper-thin. You could hear every stomp and crash from the family upstairs. I told Leo I thought we should keep looking, but he was unusually insistent. With all the other places we'd seen, he'd been the picky one, finding fault with the lighting, the amenities, the security. But this place, despite the obvious flaw, he loved. He argued that for the location and the price, it was the best we'd find. "If it weren't for the noise," he'd said, "the rent would be way higher." At the time, it made sense. I was on a tight budget, and it really was a good deal. So, I took it. Looking back, I finally understood why he was so determined for me to live in that specific apartment. 6 The real estate agent showing us apartments today was the same woman from three years ago, a friendly, middle-aged local who owned her own small agency. After three hours of looking, I hadn't liked a single place. No matter how much Leo tried to sell me on them, I found something wrong with each one. He was starting to get frustrated. "What exactly are you looking for?" he asked, his patience wearing thin. "Your lease is up in a week." "If I can't find anything, I'll just crash with Maya for a while," I said calmly. "I'm not in a rush. I want to find a place I actually like." He frowned. "But we've seen all the suitable listings this agency has." "Then we'll find another agency," I said with a shrug. Leo's jaw tightened. "The agent has spent all afternoon with us. You can't just ghost her now. That's not right." The agent quickly jumped in. "It's no problem at all! We have plenty of other options. We'll take our time. The right place will come along." I looked at her then, really looked at her, and then back at Leo. A strange thought popped into my head. They looked alike. They had the same eyes. 7 The next day, I was sitting in a coffee shop waiting for Maya when I noticed a striking, long-haired girl at the table next to me. She was on the phone with a real estate agent, scheduling a time to sign a lease. After she hung up, she stood to leave and collided with Maya, who was rushing in with a coffee in each hand. The girl's white dress was now covered in latte. Maya's phone clattered to the floor, the screen shattering. I rushed over to help Maya apologize. The girl was surprisingly gracious and didn't make a fuss. I insisted on getting her Venmo to pay for the dry cleaning. Back at our table, while I was sending the money, I casually said to Maya, "Why were you in such a hurry? You wrecked your phone." As I opened the Venmo app, a little red dot appeared on my Instagram icon. A new story. I tapped on it instinctively. It was the girl from the coffee shop. [Found my new place! Ready for some sweet cohabitation adventures ~] The location tag was unmistakable: The Goldcrest. My building. Just then, Maya's voice, loud and sharp, broke through my daze. "Oh my god! You are not going to believe what I found out!" she exclaimed. "That real estate agent? She's Leo's mom!" "This whole family is running a goddamn romance scam on you!" 8 After our apartment hunting trip, that crazy thought about the agent wouldn't leave me alone. To check it out, I'd asked Maya's mom to pay a visit to the real estate agency. Maya's family was also local, and her mom could talk the ear off a statue. She could get a stranger's life story in five minutes flat. Maya chugged a glass of iced tea, not even pausing for breath. "So, my mom went in pretending to be a buyer," she reported. "She and the agent hit it off, started calling each other 'sis.' The agent even pulled out her phone and showed my mom pictures of her son. I showed my mom a picture of you and Leo, and she said, yup, that's him. The agent's son is Leo." I'd been with Leo for five years, and I'd never met his parents. He told me they were business owners who lived out of state, in Arizona. He said they rarely came back, and he always flew out there for the holidays. And he did disappear for a few days every Christmas, always returning with some turquoise jewelry or a bag of local coffee for me. I never had a reason to doubt him. How many of his stories were lies? On a sweltering summer day, a chill ran down my spine. 9 "So then," Maya continued, "my mom starts gushing about what a catch her son is and asks if he has a girlfriend, saying she has a niece who would be perfect for him. My mom is a master bullshitter. She invented a whole fake niece on the spot, from a super-rich family, and you could see the agent's eyes light up." Maya rolled her eyes. "And guess what she said? She said her son has a great job, owns his own place, drives a nice car, makes six figures, and has a great personality. The only thing missing is a girlfriend." I laughed, a bitter sound. "Owns a place and a car, sure. Six figures is a stretch." "Totally! Six figures my ass. He wishes." He'd bought a used BMW his second year of work. The apartment was a small one-bedroom in a mid-rise building. He was a software developer at a mid-sized tech company. His salary was nowhere near "six figures." His mom was really puffing him up to land a rich girl. 10 "So basically," Maya said, her voice full of indignation, "you've been with him for five years, and his mom doesn't even think you're good enough for him. No wonder you've never met her." My parents owned a small dermatology clinic in my hometown. It was a comfortable life, but nothing fancy. Leo must have told his mom about my family, and she'd written me off as not good enough. Leo was never serious about me. He was just keeping me around until something better came along. And instead of just breaking up with me, he and his mother were using me to pay his mortgage. And now, they were about to do the same thing to the next girl. 11 My phone vibrated, pulling me out of my thoughts. It was the girl from the coffee shop, accepting my Venmo payment. A second later, another message came through. [Hey, I saw your Instagram story. Small world! I'm the next tenant for your apartment!] I was stunned. I typed back quickly. [That's crazy! When did you see the place?] [Last Sunday. The agent let me in. She said you were at work.] My lease wasn't up for another week. He hadn't even bothered to tell me he was showing the apartment. He just waited for me to be gone. He really couldn't wait to get me out. She asked me a few questions about the apartment. [Can I ask you something privately? I loved the place, but is the noise from upstairs really bad?] I told her the truth about the thin walls. [Yeah, that's what I was worried about,] she replied. [But my boyfriend really loves the location. It's super close to his work. So I decided to take it.] I asked the million-dollar question. [Does your boyfriend work at the tech company nearby?] She confirmed it. I then asked her, trying to sound casual, if the agent who showed her the apartment was Leo's mom. The answer she sent back was exactly what I expected. I didn't need to ask anything else. I knew. Leo was her boyfriend. He and his mom were running the same scam all over again. 12 "Hello? Earth to Jane?" Maya said, waving a hand in front of my face. "What are you staring at? Did you hear a word I said?" I held up my phone and let her read the messages. Her eyes grew wider with every line. "No way! That girl from the coffee shop is Leo's side piece?" she gasped. "And his mom showed her the apartment while you were at work!" I thought about it. "I don't think she knows about me," I said. "She seemed totally normal when she saw me. Leo probably told her he was single." A thought occurred to me, and I quickly typed another message. [Have you signed the lease yet?] [Not yet, I'm signing it tomorrow.] [Don't sign it!] I typed, my fingers flying. [Why not?] I sent her a picture of me and Leo, smiling together on vacation. Then, I typed out the truth, one word at a time. [Because he's a liar.]
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