chapter 3

Ashleigh was stuffed. She had eaten herself into a food coma. Her belly was full but her brain was fried. She was so out of it that she barely noticed the envelop someone had slipped under her apartment door. She might have missed it entirely but for the fact that she went to put her walking shoes away in the hall closet. As it turns out, the envelop contained a notice from the apartment's management company.

It seems the owner had sold the apartment to the management company and the company decided that it was going to convert the apartments in the building to condos. Because Ashleigh had been a good tenant and always paid her rent on time, the company was going to let her have first chance at buying the condo. In fact, they were so impressed with Ashleigh's money management that they were going to let her have the condo for the paltry sum of $275,000. Of course, in order for her to lock in this wonderful opportunity, she was going to have to put down 20% of the purchase price.

Sure, Ashleigh was a great money manager. But she had some hefty student loans to pay off and she had just bought a new Subaru Forester, which didn't come cheap either. Yes, she had the severance pay coming to her, so it was possible for her to scrape up the whole $55,000 down payment. But then she'd be broke. Jobless and broke. Suddenly the ever optimistic Ashleigh didn't see things as rosy as she had before.

Fortunately, she was so stuffed and so thoroughly out of it that she just trudged off to bed. The whole apartment/condo thing would still be staring her in the face in the morning. And so it was.

She woke up that morning vaguely aware that there was SOMETHING she had to handle. That's when she saw the notice about the condo thing. Now the good news was that she didn't have to make up her mind about purchasing until her lease was up. The bad news was that her lease was up in two weeks. Suddenly it dawned on Ashleigh that she was going to have to move. I mean, after all, who would give her a $220,000 mortgage with no job and no income coming in?

She sat down to her usual bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and contemplated her options. After a good deal of thoughtful consideration, Ashleigh realized she really had only one viable option. She was going to have to move back home with her parents. She knew they'd LOVE to have her, but the thought of giving up her independent lifestyle did not sit well with Ashleigh. But then beggars can't be choosers.

Little did Ashleigh know that this was going to prove to be one of the BIGGEST decisions she was ever going to make. Little did she know just how BIG!!