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I am a 25-year-old female who is living the PGP life. I currently live in a five-bedroom house with four Craigslist guys, and have been since January since my degree obviously hasn’t gotten me the high-paying gig I expected. I recently started looking for a nicer place with less roommates so that I didn’t feel like I was still living in a college house, so back to Craigslist I went. I found a great place, great price, cool female roommate and the landlord had his own separate basement apartment in the house. The guy is probably in his 60s, has children and grandchildren and seemed like a totally normal guy when I met him. The other girl has been living there for months with no issues. So the last thing before signing a lease was for our dogs to all meet to make sure they got along. I was supposed to do this yesterday but bailed to go play golf and drink with friends instead. So, we rescheduled for the next week. Today, I received this email from the landlord:

Erica,

I respect you honoring the 30-day notice, but I thought you expected that your landlord might let you out sooner. I like you, like your dog, and would probably enjoy having you living here, but I should be honest about one big concern, and that is that it might be very difficult for me to be around a beautiful young woman like you, especially with you having a boyfriend here overnight. I don’t have a girlfriend, and am not otherwise getting any, but ache for it. It may surprise or disgust you that a man my age still feels that way, but most men never lose the desire. So I fear that having you around would be rather like constantly being shown a delicious meal but knowing that I can’t have any, and never will have anything that delicious. I hope this doesn’t disgust you. If it does, then we should probably forget about you living here. It is obviously my problem, it might not be as difficult as I fear, and I might get over it quickly.

I welcome any response you have, but if you don’t respond by tomorrow evening, I’ll assume that we should call it off and I will rent to someone else. I really am sorry to do put you in this position; it obviously isn’t your fault. I’m just trying to be realistic about how I might feel being around you.

Yours,

John