The Flatshare

Leon is at work, where he works nights as a nurse in a hospice facility. His phone rings, but he doesn’t answer it because he is working with Dr. Patel and Holly, a young girl with leukemia. They joke about whether the call is from his girlfriend, and he ignores them. He does have a girlfriend, Kay, but he hasn’t told her about his plan to rent out his flat when he’s not using it, as he’s sure she won’t like the idea. 

That night, Leon also tends to Mr. Prior, a World War II veteran who loves to knit. Mr. Prior tells Leon about the love affair he had with another man while at war, a handsome young man named Johnny White. Leon thinks Mr. Prior seems to be in less pain when he knits and talks about good memories. Mr. Prior has given him many scarves that he’s made since he entered hospice. 

After work, Leon listens to the voicemail from the call he received earlier. A woman named Tiffy has inquired about subletting his flat. In the message, she is bubbly, friendly, and a little chaotic; she is also talking to her coworkers in the background. Leon thinks she sounds annoying, but since he won’t really have to see her, it won’t matter. He texts her to say that she can come see the flat that Saturday. He knows that Kay won’t like that she is a woman, but this is the easiest way he could think of to earn extra money, which he needs to pay someone named Sal.

After texting with Leon, Tiffy immediately finds him on the internet. She doesn’t think he looks like her type and thinks that is good because if Justin finds out where and with whom she is living, then he won’t be jealous. 

A coworker, Rachel, invites her out for drinks the next night, and she agrees even though she had promised herself to not spend any extra money that week. When Tiffy and Rachel go out the next evening, Rachel plays wingwoman. After a couple hours, Tiffy is drunk but not really interested in the men she’s met. 

She is surprised when Gerty and Mo show up at the bar because they don’t usually hang out with Rachel and Tiffy’s other work friends. She starts to suspect something is up when they all take her to a table and have her sit down. It turns out that Rachel, Gerty, and Mo arranged for this outing to help lift her spirits before telling her some devastating news: Justin is engaged.

Leon finally tells Kay that he is renting his flat to a woman while he is at work, and she is upset. She thinks he is afraid to commit to their relationship and is mad that he’d let a woman he doesn’t know sleep in his bed, but she seems no closer to being ready to take their relationship to a more serious level. 

Leon goes to work and plays checkers with Holly, who can’t sleep. She is observant and insightful for a young girl and tells him that he’s a bit too naive and nice and that people probably take advantage of him. He is taken aback by her bluntness. 

When he gets home, Leon’s brother, Richie, calls. He sounds sad and asks Leon to tell him a story. Leon tells him about Holly and that she’ll probably be a professional coder someday. Richie tells him that “it’s hell in here” (21), and Leon tells him that he’s figured out a way to earn more money to pay Sal, which reassures Richie. 

On Saturday morning, Leon is supposed to meet Tiffy to show her the flat, but he is stuck at work; everyone has asked him to help them. He calls Kay and asks if she will show Tiffy the apartment. Kay agrees and suggests that all communication with Tiffy go through her. Leon is grateful for her help and that she seems to have gotten over her anger about the arrangement.

Tiffy has been upset since she heard about Justin’s engagement, and it takes her a while to get ready the morning she is supposed to see Leon’s flat. Rachel helps her get ready, handing her sunglasses when Tiffy starts to cry and ruins her makeup. Tiffy arrives at Leon’s flat and is happy about the convenient location. She is greeted by a woman and realizes she must be Leon’s girlfriend. The girlfriend examines her closely, and Tiffy thinks she is sizing her up to see if she is attractive enough to be jealous of. Kay’s tone turns friendlier when she has determined that she is not a threat. 

Tiffy likes the look of the apartment and agrees to the terms of her having the flat from six in the evening until eight in the morning. It is unlikely that she will cross paths with Leon. To Tiffy, Kay seems satisfied with her level of unattractiveness, so she tells Tiffy that she will let Leon know that she is moving in.

Leon is on his way to Kay’s place when she calls and tells him that Tiffy is a perfect flatmate. She says that she will be tidy and can move in right away; when Leon asks her for more information, Kay says that she is quirky and “larger than life” (28), which Leon believes is code for “overweight.” Leon is exhausted and struggles to stay awake on the bus. He hopes he can get some sleep as soon as he gets to Kay’s house. 

When he wakes up, Kay makes him breakfast, and they agree that on weekends, Leon will stay with Kay because Tiffy will have his flat. Kay is happy that they have planned to spend weekends together. 

Later, Leon is up at two o’clock in the morning. Richie has been in prison for three months now, and Leon is thinking about his situation. He doesn’t think Richie’s lawyer, Sal, is doing everything he can to clear Richie’s name and get him out, but he doesn’t know what to do. Leon is the main person who deals with Sal because his mother will just yell at him, which might lead Sal to become upset and stop trying to help Richie at all. 

Leon tries to distract himself by Googling “Johnny White.” He wants to see if he can find the Johnny White that Mr. Prior had fallen in love with more than 60 years prior. His search reveals that 78 men named Johnny White died in World War II, but it’s not clear how many are still alive. 

Kay calls out from the bedroom that Leon’s pager is going off. He rushes to call the hospice and learns that Holly has an infection and is not doing well. She’s been asking for Leon, so he grabs his things and quickly rushes out of Kay’s apartment.

Tiffy is moving her things into Leon’s flat, which now includes her colorful clothes, beanbag chair, and knick-knacks like candle holders, a lava lamp, and a tie-dyed blanket. Gerty and Mo think she is cluttering up the flat too much, and Tiffy feels emotional about trying to cram her things into a place that’s already in use. 

Katherin calls Tiffy to tell her that the cruise event has been rescheduled for a weekday, so Tiffy agrees to help Katherin model her crocheted clothing. Then, she gets a text from Kay that says Leon wants her to sleep on the left side of the bed. Tiffy starts crying because the situation is so strange and she’s not sure what she’s gotten herself into. While she is setting up her things in the bedroom, she finds a bag full of handmade scarves under the bed. She wonders what Leon is doing with so many scarves, and her thoughts spiral into wondering if he is a serial killer. She calls Rachel, who points out that Leon probably wouldn’t have a girlfriend like Kay if he was a serial killer and that it wouldn’t be realistic for Tiffy to figure that out in one night while Kay is unaware after years together. This logic comforts Tiffy.

As Leon cares for Holly, she grills him about his personal life. She likes to tease him about having a girlfriend and her being his favorite patient. He lets her because it is a sign that she is feeling well. One of the doctors calls him away to talk about her progress. She says that Holly’s white blood cell count is falling and the antibiotics are working. Leon is relieved and overjoyed. 

When he goes home, he is hit with Tiffy’s presence: The flat smells like her, and there are strange and colorful objects everywhere. He goes into the bedroom and sees that she ran out of space in the closet and started hanging her clothes on the door and any other place she could find. Leon is annoyed and doesn’t think he likes his new tenant very much, but he doesn’t want to cause awkwardness by texting her to get rid of her junk.

He notices his bag of scarves from Mr. Prior peeking out from under the bed and thinks Tiffy might think it’s strange that he has so many, so he sticks a note to the bag saying that it’s destined to be donated to charity. He eats his dinner on Tiffy’s beanbag chair, which he finds comfortable.

Tiffy meets Katherin at the dock where her cruise ship demonstration is going to take place. Katherin tells Tiffy that she is her favorite model, and Tiffy thinks about how most people, especially men, don’t know how to handle how tall she is and how she doesn’t conform to most people’s expectations of how a woman should look. 

Tiffy remembers the last time she was on a cruise ship: It was on a vacation in Greece, a far cry from the dull, cold, windy dock she is shivering on now, surrounded by Katherin’s yarn and crochet hooks. 

Katherin begins the demonstration, and Tiffy does whatever Katherin asks of her: lift her arms, take off her sweater, let her measure her waist. She looks out into the crowd and sees Justin staring straight at her. She feels exposed and vulnerable under his intense gaze.

Leon talks to Mr. Prior about Johnny White, his lover from his World War II days. Leon encourages Mr. Prior to find him, saying that it is not too late for true love. He shows him the list of Johnny Whites he found several days ago and asks him to give him more information about his regiment. 

On the bus ride home, Leon calls his mom, whom he calls “Mam.” She asks if he has news, presumably about Richie’s case, but Leon does not. She asks if she should call Sal, Richie’s lawyer, but Leon tells her that he will take care of it. 

When he gets home, he is pleasantly surprised to find oat bars that Tiffy has baked. She left a note to say that he could help himself, and his spirits are lifted a little by the gesture and delicious treat. Her note sparks a conversation, and they pass a few more notes between each other about other things: He tells her that she can have the leftover mushroom stroganoff that he made, and she asks him to put the toilet seat down after using it. Leon is surprised at how funny Tiffy is.

At work, Tiffy tells Rachel about her encounter with Justin on the cruise. Rachel is disappointed that the story doesn’t end with Tiffy sleeping with Justin, but rather with Katherin bossing her around and stabbing her with a crochet hook. 

Later that day, Tiffy receives a message from Justin saying that he had been on the cruise for work and saw Katherin’s name on the program and thought Tiffy might be there, too. Tiffy shows the message to Rachel, who encourages her to text him back and try to get back together with him.

Gerty and Mo, on the other hand, do not want Tiffy to answer Justin’s message or return to him. They know him better than Rachel. They tell Tiffy that he is just reaching out to keep her in his grip. Tiffy, though, only remembers the good times with him and feels lucky to have been with him in the first place. Gerty tells her that she and Mo won’t let her go back to him; they are looking out for her.

This chapter consists of Post-it notes that Leon and Tiffy send back and forth. She tells him that she “panic-bakes” and that since she’s recovering from a bad breakup and unexpectedly saw her ex over the weekend, she has been baking every night. Leon doesn’t know the extent of the trauma Tiffy’s experienced, so he jokes that he is “team ex” if it means he gets to eat cake. Other notes discuss which day “bin day” is.