She-Bu

I got my phone out of my handbag for the fifth time to check for messages or missed calls. Nothing. I was sick to death of flat hunting. I’d been searching for over a week now and all I’d achieved was a better knowledge of London (from constantly getting lost), a lot of wasted time and encounters with a number of weirdos. Fingers crossed this place in Sheperds Bush would be the one...

However, my situation wasn’t looking too good, the guy I was supposed to meet was nearly an hour late and what I’d seen of the area so far wasn’t great: a guy had pushed me off the bus, there’d been a fight just up the straight and every person who had walked past me looked decidedly dodgy/Australian.

An Indian man came out of the house and approached me with a big smile, holding out his hand: ‘Sarah?’ I nodded and put out my hand ‘Pleased to meet you, I'm Saeed’ he said as he ushered me past past him through the door to the town house. I followed him into the hallway past an old bike, several stacks of magazines and some other general mess. We went up a narrow staircase, the carpet was worn and dirty. Saeed pulled a huge bunch of keys from his pocket and opened a door to a bedroom. My mum had always warned me of men with big bunches of keys...