One recent Saturday afternoon in Chicago I
was lying in bed watching Roman
Holiday for the hundredth time when the
phone rang. "Hey, Lulu! Do you think you
could get on a plane to New York in about an hour?" said Keith of fred flare
fame. "I want to show you this cute, cheap apartment that we saw and chat
about some
things…" I was intrigued so I packed my bag and headed
East.
Earlier that afternoon my best friends had actually assumed my identity
and
already rented the apartment for me. It was located in Williamsburg,
just a block
from
the fred warehouse and had huge potential: tin-covered ceiling, hardwood
floors,
great location. Anne, a Harvard graduate student and dear friend who
happened
to be in town, made the call to secure it. She and Keith had seen it
advertised
on a pizza box in a random window and the plan unfolded from there. I
would move
to NYC, live in this cute apartment, and work at fred flare. All things
that
I’ve always wanted to do.
The key was to get me to New York and make it all sound easy. This is where
the
lies began. The apartment wasn’t really "cheap." Keith had knocked
off a few
hundred dollars to make it sound appealling and get me on that plane.
Anne had
pretended to be me when talking to the landlord and neighbors, yet revealed
personal details from her own life. This became clear when I met the landlord
for
the first time and he was expecting me to be a teacher and able to produce
paycheck stubs to prove it. Luckily I’m fast on my feet. Besides at this
point I’d
quit my job and already rented my apartment in Chicago so I really
had nothing to
lose. "I’m not really a teacher," I said. "I
volunteer at an arts program with fred
flare at several different school districts." More
lies!
He didn’t give me the apartment. He said he would have to sort out
the story and
let me know later in the week. Lying never pays! I walked
around Brooklyn
and
Manhattan that afternoon almost in tears, trying to figure out what my next
step
would be. I decided New York was the place for me and the move would just
have
to happen some other way, easy or not. After all, I already had my suitcase
and
the cutest lamp ever, a housewarming gift from Chris of fred flare.
The next day the landlord called and said he decided it could work. I took
the
apartment and accepted the job at fred flare. And that’s how a girl with
her
suitcase and lamp moves to New York in one week. Oh yeah, she had a little
help from her friends.
