The next four weeks were difficult. Christine seethed with anger and sulked. It had been a living hell for Vivian. The shock of seeing their mother after twenty-two years and the forced eviction from the house had been too much to bear.
“Guess what?” Vivian said one day. “You won’t believe this, but I found a small not-too-shabby two-bedroom rental where we could stay for the duration. I was going through some ads in the classifieds that I found online the other day. It’s old, not too expensive, and it’ll do for now.”
“So, where is it?” Christine asked.
“Not too far from here. It’s just down the hill, also right here in the Studio City area. It’s near these quaint little shops, a cozy coffee house, and the CBS Studio Center is a hop, skip, and a jump from there.”
“Geez, why not find something high up in the hills of Bel Aire or Beverly Hills, if you can afford it? I hear about Mulholland Drive, Sunset Boulevard, and Pacific Coast Highway all the time. Why not find something classy along those world-famous streets? After all, you’ve said you weren’t hurting and that you didn’t have to worry about anything.”
“Well, I like the area and it was something I found at the spur of the moment, something affordable for now. I didn’t have a lot of time to go looking for something nicer and more expensive. We have up to thirty days to get out of here. I’m not the kind of person who shells out a million bucks the first chance I see something. I’m not a big spender. Never was, never will be. I just want to be careful. We need some sense of financial security.”
“But why in such close proximity to this house? I thought you wanted to get as far away from her as possible. Why not get some two-bit, slip-shod shack in the middle of shanty-town?”
“So, sue me,” Vivian said. “Like I said, it was something I found at the spur of the moment. Look, this place has what we need. It’s got two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms. The others I looked at weren’t as appealing.
“Anyhow, keep in mind it’s just for now,” Vivian said. “Who knows? You might like it enough to stay a while. Eventually, I’ll see if I can get a bigger and better place for us. In the meantime, I’m putting most of my stuff in storage. The rest of Rose’s crap can stay here. Just take what you need and we’ll be out of here soon enough.”