= CHRIS POV =

"Where did you get that? How dare you go through my personal things!" Sarah snapped, but made no move to grab the letter - it was as if just looking at it burned her.

"I didn't, I swear,” I lied, quickly trying to cover my tracks, “ It fell on the floor as I was getting my jacket. Geez, Sarah, do you really think I would do that?" I interrupted her.

The truth is I would. I would and I had and I always did, but she didn’t need to know that. 

Sarah looked up at me, staring as if she didn't know what to believe, and then her expression eased a little.

 "OMG, I left it right at the door, didn't I? Right on that side table….” She said, relaxing immediately, that innocent trust returning like a gentle rabbit nuzzling at my hand, “I'm so sorry. It was such a shock! I would have put it away properly but it was just shoved at me this afternoon, and when the guests started coming in, I hadn't even had enough time to process it” She said, holding her glass out for more wine. 

I gladly topped up her glass; the drunker she got, the easier it was to fold her up in my arms later.

“Urgh everything is just falling apart these days" Sarah started rambling while taking a good chug of wine before putting her wine glass on a glass table and then fling herself into one of the wicker seats on the balcony.

"Woah, start from the beginning. What happened?" I asked, sitting down across from her in the other seat.

I topped up the wine glass like it was water, shaking the last drop into her cup and returning back into the house to get a new one.

After another three glasses of wine and much coaxing, Sarah explained that the landlord turned up that afternoon, right before the party began, and handed her the eviction notice.

 Sarah had been struggling to get work and missed a month or two of rent. She had just finished serving her last month at her old job, and had hoped that the job interview she went for this morning would tie things over. However, she received a response a few hours ago that she did not get the job.

"So not only am I jobless… as of tomorrow morning, I am homeless. I have no family in this province, and my boyfriend dumped me last week, remember? You were there while I was crying my eyes out?" Sarah said and hiccupped, pouring the last few drops of wine from the second bottle into her glass.

"Well, you could stay at my place. I have an extra room…" I started but was cut off by Sarah's sudden burst of laughter.

"Stay? With you? Dude, did you not hear me? I am broke. Broke, broke," Sarah replied curtly, flipping her honey-brown curls over her shoulder as she knocked back the rest of her wine.

"Umm...I think you should eat something..." I started to say, uneasy at how much wine she had just put away. Normally this would be an ideal situation for me, but this time she seemed different, almost erratic. I wasn’t sure how much cuddling was going to happen tonight if she was scaling the walls.

"Name your terms," Sarah said suddenly, leaning forward, a very serious look on her very drunk face.

"Wh-" I started but was cut off as Sarah suddenly got up and left the room.

After the sound of shuffling papers and an "Aha!" Sarah returned with a pen and several papers that she handed to me.

"I can cook, clean and ummm… perform cunnilingus, or at least attempt to. I just need some time to get my life together, and I’m not gonna take advantage of you by squatting in your place for free. If it's alright with you, you put down what you want, and I'll try my best to provide it," Sarah said, looking very determined as she sat down across from me and hiccupped again.

I looked down at the paper. Did she just say…cunnilingus? Did she even know what that fucking word meant? And if she did…why in the world was she offering it to me? She was straight, right?

 She had somehow gotten what looked like an old copy of a tenancy agreement, scratched out the payment portion of it, and written " THE THREE Cs" in big, bold cursive letters.