MidReal Story
Love's Resilience: A Tale of Comfort and Strength
Scenario: I want my boyfriend to comfort me.
Create my version of this story
Emily Carter
girlfriend in need of comfort, in a relationship with James, slender with long brown hair, anxious yet caring.
Sarah Jennings
Emily's best friend and confidante, friends with Emily since childhood, short and lively with curly red hair, outspoken and protective.
James Miller
supportive boyfriend, in a relationship with Emily, tall with gentle eyes and a comforting smile, patient and understanding.
I’d had a rough day at work, and I was feeling anxious.
I’d been waiting for the phone to ring all afternoon, and when it finally did, I was so relieved that I answered it without checking the caller ID.
“Hello?”
I said, my voice a little too loud.
“Emily, is that you?”
a woman’s voice asked.
It took me a moment to place her, but then I remembered.
It was the letting agent who was handling my application for the apartment I wanted to rent.
“Yes,” I said, trying to calm down.
“I’m sorry; I thought you were someone else.”
“I’m just calling to let you know that we’ve had a lot of interest in the property,” she said.
“And unfortunately, we’ve decided to go with another applicant.”
My heart sank as she spoke.
I’d been so sure that I would get the apartment that I’d already started planning how I would decorate it in my head.
I’d been feeling so tired and low all day, and the news that I wasn’t going to get the apartment I’d set my heart on was almost more than I could handle.
I’d had a horrible day at work, and I hadn’t slept properly the night before.
I’d been waiting for the letting agent to call me all day, and when she finally did, I’d been so desperate to hear from her that I’d answered the phone without even checking who was calling me first.
And now, this woman was telling me that another applicant had been chosen.
I’d lost it, then.
I’d tried to keep it together, but my voice had broken and I’d started to cry.
I was worried now that I hadn’t sounded very professional on the phone, but I didn’t care.
I just wanted this woman to go away and leave me alone.
“Is there anything else you need from me?”
I asked, trying to sound calm.
“No,” she said, in a cold tone of voice.
“There isn’t anything else.”
And then she hung up, leaving me feeling utterly defeated and lost.
I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and took a deep breath, trying to pull myself together.
I knew I should have taken the rest of the day off work when I got home from the office, but I hadn’t wanted to let down my colleagues.
They were already under a lot of pressure as it was, and I didn’t want to add to their stress by taking time off work on top of everything else.
But now I wished I’d stayed at home and curled up in bed instead.
It was only the thought of James that was keeping me going at this point.
He’d promised to come round after he finished work and tonight, and the idea of seeing him again was all I could think about.
I loved him so much, and we’d been talking about moving in together for a while now, so I knew that he would be disappointed too by the news that our application had been turned down.
I looked at the clock on my desk.
It was only 4pm, but it felt like hours since the letting agent had called me to tell me the bad news.
I didn’t know what to do with myself now.
My mind was racing with thoughts of what might have been if only the woman on the phone had said yes instead of no.
I’d been so excited about the idea of moving in with James and starting a new chapter in our lives together.
This apartment was supposed to be the start of that new beginning we’d been dreaming of for so long.
If we couldn’t even get past the first hurdle of finding a place to live, then what hope did we have of building a future together?
“Is everything all right?”
asked Sarah, who sat at the desk opposite mine.
She was one of my best friends in the office, and she’d been giving me concerned looks all day.
“I just got some bad news,” I told her.
“My letting agent called me to tell me that someone else has already got the apartment I wanted.”
“That’s terrible,” she said.
“I thought you were going to get it for sure.”
“I don’t know what happened,” I said.
“She called me out of the blue to say that our application had been rejected.And she sounded really cold when she told me; like she didn’t want me to ask any questions or anything.”
“That’s so mean,” Sarah said.
“Why would she say no without giving you a reason?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“It’s not fair, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” Sarah said.
She leaned over the desk and gave me a hug.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t know what there is to talk about,” I said.
“I just feel like everything is falling apart around me.”
“Of course there is,” Sarah said.
“It’s just one of those days when everything goes wrong at once.”
“You’re right,” I said.
“I’m sure … Wait.”
The fact that Sarah had said ‘one of those days’ made me think that she might be feeling the same way as me.
I picked up the phone again and dialed her number, even though it was after office hours by then.
But she answered straight away, and I told her what had happened.
“I can’t believe it,” she said.
“I thought you were going to get that apartment.”
“Me too,” I said.
“But they’ve already given it to someone else.”
“That’s not fair,” she said.
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“I’ve already got most of my stuff packed up in anticipation of the move, but now …”
I trailed off, not sure how to finish the sentence.
“I know what you mean,” Sarah said.
“But you’re going to have to go back to your parents’ house instead.”
“It’s not that bad there, is it?”
I laughed at that.
My parents were nice enough people, but they were very strict with me because they were worried about my health.
I’d been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was just a baby, and my parents had been overprotective of me ever since.
They’d always made sure I had everything I needed to manage my condition properly, but they’d also made me feel like I was different from other people my age, and I wasn’t allowed to do a lot of things that other girls took for granted.
That was why I was so relieved to be moving out of home at last.
This apartment was going to be my first proper home of my own, and I’d been looking forward to being able to live independently of my parents for a change.
But now that opportunity had gone, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get another chance to move out again.
“You’ll only be there for a little while,” Sarah said.
“Hopefully you’ll find another place soon.”
“Do you think so?”
“Of course I do,” Sarah said.
“It might take some time to find another place as nice as this one, but you’ll definitely find one eventually.” She paused.
After all, she was not afraid to speak her mind, especially when she thought someone was treating me unfairly.
“Now let’s go back to what you were saying about the letting agent.”
I told her that the agent had called me after office hours and told me that someone else had already taken the apartment I wanted to rent.
I had asked her why they’d chosen someone else instead of me, and she had said that it was because the other applicant had offered more money for it than I had.
I had responded by asking if I had also made any mistakes in my application form or whether there was any other reason why I hadn’t been accepted, but she had said that everything else on my form was fine and that I had been an excellent candidate for the apartment in every respect.
I had then asked her why they hadn’t chosen me instead of the other applicant if everything on my form was fine and if I was such an excellent candidate for it, but she had just said that they’d received two applications for the apartment and that the other one had come in first.
The other applicant had also offered more money for it than I had, so they’d decided to give it to her instead of me.
I told all this to Sarah, and she was silent for a moment before she spoke again.
“On paper, you were perfect for it,” she said.
“But maybe they wanted someone who earns more money than you do.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“But I thought that was illegal.” I paused.
“She did say that she thought my application was excellent in every respect and that I would make an excellent tenant.Surely if there was something wrong with my application form or if there was something wrong with me as a person, she would’ve mentioned it by now.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Sarah said.
“But what did she say when you asked her why they hadn’t chosen you?”
“She said that they’d received two applications for it and that the other one had come in first.”
“Well, what could you do?”
“I’ve already told you that there are plenty of other apartments out there, and you’ll definitely find another one eventually.”
“I hope so,” I said.
“I’ll have to go back home to live with my parents otherwise, and God knows what they’re going to say when they find out about this.”
“Why don’t you tell them exactly what happened?”
“I will tell them what happened when I call them tomorrow,” I said.
“But you know how they are.”
“Of course I do,” Sarah said.
“But you are an adult now, and you get to make your own decisions about where you want to live and what you want to do with your life.”
“Tell them that you’re going to stay with them until you find another place, but it’s only temporary and you’re definitely going to move out again soon.”
I laughed at that and wiped my eyes again.
My parents would probably be horrified at the idea of me moving back home again after all these years, but it was only temporary until I found another place …
“Not if they have anything to say about it,” Sarah went on.
“They’ll probably come up with some kind of plan of their own so they can find you an apartment for you instead.”
I laughed even harder at that and wiped my eyes again before I spoke.