“As you can see, the view is lovely. Though you can’t see the ocean from here, it is a spectacular sight when you wake up in the morning to see the swaying palm trees and a wide expanse of blue sky.”

Veronica, the manager of the apartment complex where Rome lived, was a woman in her mid-forties who spoke like someone who’d been showing real estate properties for at least a few decades.

“It’s a lovely space,” Ella agreed, checking out the size of the master bedroom again. It came furnished, and the bed in the room was king sized--plenty of room for her, and maybe one more…. “And you...