Hannah Ryan looked up from the note, still trying to take in her new surroundings and couldn’t help but seriously question her life choices. Here she was, mid-thirties and having to start her life over in another city, and a girl a decade her junior outright owned a newly refurbished Classic Six, one of two penthouse floor apartments in a landmark building on NYC’s Upper East Side.

She knew that ‘classic’ referred to the pre-war era when apartments of this ilk were built, and ‘six’ to the total number of rooms; a living room, formal dining room, separate kitchen, two full bedrooms and what would have once been servants’ quarters located near the kitchen and with its own bathroom facilities.

These homes were also famed for the architectural touches popular during the same period: hardwood floors, spacious rooms, high ceilings, eye-catching mouldings, grand entrance galleries and hallways to separate the spaces.

In short, Hannah was standing in a piece of New York history.

And while she might be leaving her LA life behind to start over on the East Coast, thanks to her client’s magnanimous offer at least she wasn’t homeless.

New York-based social media superstar Courtney Wilde was a priority client of Hannah’s employer Lotus PR, and whom she herself handled as West Coast liaison. The influencer had recently departed for a three-month-long tour promoting her latest book, Empower.

A few weeks ago, not long after Hannah’s world had been upended, prompting her transfer to the company’s New York office, she was meeting with Courtney at the Beverly Hills Hotel when she received an urgent call from her realtor informing her that the Brooklyn shoebox she’d initially set her sights on had fallen through.

‘And there’s nothing else?’ Hannah cried, crestfallen. Couldn’t anything go right for her these days? ‘No, no Manhattan is way out of my budget.’

Courtney had obviously been eavesdropping and when Hannah hung up, she said, ‘I’m gonna be nosy, OK?’

‘Sure.’

‘You need somewhere to stay in NYC?’

‘You might say that,’ Hannah admitted, biting her lip, unwilling to get into the specifics of her personal life. ‘It’s a little awkward because my ex … well, let’s just say I needed to get out of Dodge, so I asked for a transfer. And a change is as good as a holiday, yes?’ she finished brightly, hoping Courtney wouldn’t push for specifics. ‘But I’m not having much luck with finding somewhere.’

Thanks to her recent out-of-the-blue relationship implosion, Hannah had jumped at the chance of a fresh start at the company’s New York arm. But not so much at the prospect of wading into the city’s real estate market.