The Stranger Take 2 (Shorter Version)

On the other side of the door was a 5'9 wolf woman with C-cup breasts, stone gray base fur with leopard spots and tiger stripes, a set of three earrings in her left ear, a simple white shirt and blue jeans, and the most beautiful hazel eyes I've ever seen. "Hey, you must be Kate. Name's Zoe. I'm going to be your new housemate at the request of your doctor and your boss. I'll be here to help around the house and relieve stress," she introduced, giant green army duffle bag over her right shoulder while she extended her left hand in a more formal greeting.

"Hey, I guess. I wasn't made aware of your arrival, I'm afraid," I replied honestly.

"Actually, you were. You just haven't checked your snail mail or email," she replied.

I glanced behind me at the pile of letters on the coffee table. "Come on in," I allowed as I went to the stack. Sure enough buried in the stack about 4 down was a letter from my boss and below it was a letter from my doctor. I read the doctor's note first and it simply suggested that I get a housemate to help out with stress and around the house. The letter from my boss formerly announced that her close friend Zoe had been looking for a place and after talking it over with my doctor, my boss sent Zoe to my place.

And a quick check of me email revealed several from my doctor and boss that cumulatively said pretty much the same. Although I would have liked to interview a housemate first, I will say having someone help out with the chores already lifted a huge amount of stress. I had two weeks of paid medical leave and spending most of it cleaning wasn't my idea of stress relief.

"So you're a friend of my boss?" I asked.

"Yeah. Sylvia and I go way back. So, I would ask where's my room, but I think you and I need to do some serious cleaning first. Maybe with a pizza break in the middle. And at the end," Zoe suggested.

"That sounds like a wonderful plan," I agreed.

Zoe and I spent the rest of that day and the following one simply cleaning and getting to know each other. I discovered that Zoe was an on-call handyman. She knew a lot about the workings of homes and pretty much ran her own business. Even as we cleaned, she was pointing out stuff around that two bedroom house that needed fixed and, after everything was cleaned, she went to work fixing stuff around the house like the low-pressure in the bathroom sink and the hallway light that flickered like a spooky truck-stop light on some deserted highway.