“Cross her name off,” Ethan said.

“She won’t be listed on any document for this apartment, and she won’t be paying a single dollar toward the rent.”

Brenda held her pen above the paper.

“Without a guarantor on file, the security deposit goes up to eighteen hundred dollars upfront before I can approve the lease.”

Ethan reached into his front jacket pocket, took out a white cashier’s check drawn from his new separate account, and laid it flat on the glass desk between them.

“That covers the eighteen hundred dollars in full.”