Present Day:

On a cold but clear late February morning, Justin and Charlotte shared a late breakfast. She was wearing old sweatpants and an equally worn 437th Airlift Wing sweatshirt and he was dressed for work. As they finished eating, Justin topped off his traveler with hot coffee and kissed his fiancée lightly on the lips. "Thanks for the nice wake up and breakfast was good too. I'm off to the salt mines."

Charlotte sipped her coffee and agreed with his earlier comment. "You too, I'm really starting to like having a warm roomie or is it hot boyfriend?"

"Right, me too. Anyway, I'll pick up the Certificate to Occupy at City Hall and then we're scheduled to meet our new tenant at 1 PM. After that I'll take you to the airport."

Charlotte nodded and stood up. "Right, check-in is at four so we should have plenty of time and that also gives me a few hours to take care of a few things around here and pack for the week."

"Okay, see you then."

Later that day, Charlotte heard Justin's truck rumble up and park behind the house in his spot in front of the carriage house. She left the back door wearing her airline uniform and matching pilot's leather jacket. "Afternoon J. Everything go okay with the city?"

He smiled in the affirmative at his friend, lover and now business partner and held out an officious looking form. "Sure did Char, long time coming but those fools at the historic commission finally signed off but then the minions of bureaucracy used the holiday as an excuse to slow leak the CTO, finally we are good to go, and just in time. Our new tenant should be here in a few minutes."

Charlotte gave Justin a gentle kiss. "Great J. How about you give me one more walk-through? I haven't been up there since your crew set up the furniture."

As they were walking up the steps to the newly remodeled above garage apartment , Charlotte reminisced. "You do remember that I lived up here most of my last year at Boise State after Gram got sick again?"

Justin nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I do. I was living in an old house in Garden City, but still came by all the time to see mom and dad and of course Lena and the girls. I remember asking them why on earth Charlotte is running in combat boots every morning."

Charlotte laughed at the memory.

Justin then asked. "So you remember when you went off to join the Air Force right after graduation?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "How could I forget? June, July and August in Texas getting yelled at for three months and all of that."

Justin laughed. "I do remember wondering why you were working out in the heat of the day and running up and down the streets on the North End for months before that."

Charlotte smiled again. "Had to be able to run three miles in boots in thirty minutes by the end of OTS. I wanted to make sure I could do it on day one and I did!"

"There was never any doubt but then there was that haircut, not exactly sexy, but I sure thought you looked hot."

"You did?"

"Oh yeah..."

Charlotte smiled. "I had heard all of the stories from Gramps so I cut my hair as short as they would allow and showed up that way. It wasn't quite G.I. Jane short, but you get the idea."

At the top of the stairs of the small landing, Justin pointed to the new digital door lock. "This is what everybody does now. You give the tenant their own code and then when they leave, you delete it. Way better than re-keying locks or worrying about tenants copying keys."

Charlotte nodded in agreement. "Smart. It looks like it has a physical key too."

He nodded. "Right, you and the property manager who is on call 24/7 have one just in case."

He opened the door and gestured for Charlotte to go in. She looked around for a few moments. "Wow J, this is awesome. Better than I could've imagined. Those two dormers really make it feel so much bigger."

"Thanks, they really do. Unfortunately, that's what took so long to get final approval from the city. Anyway..." Justin gestured to his left and then to his right. "...the apartment is set up for two students or a couple. There is a full-size bed in each dormer and a good size desk on each wall by the back window."

He then turned in the other direction. "The kitchen is small but very efficient. It has apartment-sized appliances so there is a two burner stove, oven, microwave, fridge and even a small dishwasher."

Charlotte smiled and sat down at the custom-made banquette. "Wow, and built-in seating for four. Awesome job again J."

Turning in the other direction Justin continued with the mini tour. "Right, the bathroom is small but it has a tub shower with fiberglass surround and a heavy-duty vinyl floor. It's real easy to clean especially if your tenants turn out to be less than fastidious."

Charlotte nodded. "Yes I remember what some of my college friend's apartments were like! And, this one has a tankless water heater of course."

He grinned at his lover and her newfound fondness for long showers together. "Of course!"

About that time, Justin's phone buzzed. "Looks like our new tenant is on the way. How about you let me give her a walk-through, sign the paperwork and I'll holler when we are done so you can say hi."

Charlotte gave him a gentle kiss. "Sounds good J."

A few minutes later an older but well-maintained Subaru Outback arrived and parked next to Justin's truck in the designated tenant parking spot. A moment later the driver exited and put on a long coat over her maroon medical scrubs. She was tall and thin with long jet-black hair tied in a neat ponytail. Justin got out of his truck and held out his hand. "Nice to see you again Ms. Asoka, everything is ready for you to move in today."

The younger woman gave him a big smile. "Awesome, I got an hour off for work right now but I'm definitely ready to move in tonight."

"Okay then, let's do a quick walk-through, sign the paperwork and then I'll introduce you to the property owner."

The brown-skinned woman shivered a bit from a gust of cold north wind. "Please lead the way."

On their way up the stairs, Justin looked at his paperwork and asked sheepishly. "Sorry Ms. Asoka, but how do you pronounce your first name?"

From behind him, he heard a delightful laugh. "It's ah-dee-tee."

"Okay, Aditi. Did I get that right?"

"Perfect, and thanks for caring."

Justin they keyed the lock and explained how it worked and then showed his new tenant the apartment while explaining some of the details. "Okay, Ms. Asoka, like we talked about before, high-speed Wi-Fi is included but there is no cable TV or landline phone. No one seems to want that stuff anymore. The gas, water and electric are obviously all on, but please transfer the accounts into your name by the close of business tomorrow."

She nodded as Justin continued. "Last thing. Your lease allows two people to live here, but if you want to share with a roomie, boyfriend, girlfriend or whatever that is up to you. We don't collect third-party rent."

Aditi gave him a wry smile and shook her head. "No dude, it's just me for now. Boyfriend turned out to be a real sleaze."

"Right, sorry to hear that. Okay then, let's go down and meet the property owner, I'm sure that you'll like her."

Justin sent a quick text to Charlotte and led Aditi down the stairs and across the parking area to the back door of the main house. Charlotte greeted them with a big smile. "Welcome, come on in and get out of the cold."

Justin smiled and did the introductions. "Ms. Aditi Asoka, this is Ms. Charlotte Janssen who is the owner of the property."

Charlotte then led the way into the kitchen and gestured to the two stools at the island. "Please, Ms. Asoka have a seat. Can I get you anything, coffee, water or something?"

The younger woman smiled. "Um yes, a glass of water would be awesome, thanks."

Charlotte looked over at Justin. "How about you J?"

"A Coke would be great Char."

As Charlotte was getting their drinks, Aditi took a long look around the gourmet kitchen and open concept living and dining room. "Ms. Jannsen, the apartment is the best I've seen in town, I love it, but this place is awesome. From the outside it looks like a perfectly kept 1920's bungalow, but from in here, I mean wow! It's like something out of a magazine."

Charlotte smiled broadly as she poured a glass of water from the filter tap at the sink and handed it to the younger woman. "Thanks, I grew up in this house and last year, Justin did a complete remodel from the sticks up."

She then handed Justin a can of Coke and asked. "So Ms. Asoka, Justin tells me that you are an M.A. at Primary Health and also a BSU student."

Aditi sipped her drink. "Yes ma'am, I have one year left and hope to go to medical school after that."

Charlotte smiled broadly. "Med school, that's awesome."

"Thanks, I was just going to get my R.N., but with encouragement from my grandmother and good advice from my advisor, I decided to just go for it."

"That's great, and good luck. I don't know if Mr. Crawford told you, but I went to BSU and lived..." Charlotte pointed out the back window. "...in that apartment my senior year."

Aditi nodded and then looked at Charlotte's uniform. "By the looks of that uniform, you're a First Officer. I didn't know BSU had an aviation degree program?"

Charlotte laughed. "Nope, I got my undergrad in physics and then was in the Air Force for almost 10 years."

Charlotte then pointed at her epaulets. "Most people don't know the difference, I've even been mistaken for a flight attendant. I usually have a little fun with that!"

Aditi smiled. "My dad is a pilot for Delta, so yeah, I know the diff."

Charlotte smiled again. "Delta, good company. I applied there too, but they wanted me to live in Atlanta and I needed to be closer to home, so I'm with Alaska and domiciled out of Portland."

Charlotte then put her arm around Justin, looked into his eyes and said softly. "Best decision I ever made."

Justin also put his arm around Charlotte and commented. "Aditi is from L.A. Her family still lives there."

"Yeah, I thought that I could hear a bit of a SoCal accent."

The younger woman laughed and sighed. "Have I said dude or gnarly too many times?"

Charlotte chuckled. "No, but one of my co-pilots in the Air Force claimed to be a real Cali surfer chick, so anyway, you sound a bit like her."

Aditi laughed. "My very formal grandmother has been trying to make me speak the Queen's proper English for like forever. She came over from India in 1949 and is very old-fashioned."

Aditi then looked at the two who are obviously a couple and then down at Charlotte's ring. "If you don't mind me asking, are you two together?"

Charlotte nodded. "Mr. Crawford didn't tell you that in addition to doing the full renovation of the house and carriage house, he was shacked up with the property owner? Yes, we're engaged and are getting married in April."

The younger woman smiled. "That's awesome, congrats."