Katherine Martinelli

Imagine this: You’re splitting an apartment with your ex, and she shoots you a text in the middle of the night asking if she can bring some friends home for “an ecstasy party.” Unbelievable, right? That’s exactly what happened to Victoria Davis, now 33, a communications consultant and cohost of the podcast Livin’ and Lovin’ in NYC, who was sharing her Brooklyn, pad—and, yes, even her bed—with her ex, whom she had recently broken up with. “I was like, ‘No, that sounds horrible,’” recalls Davis, standing her ground that she didn’t, in fact, want strangers coming over to indulge in a drug that has a reputation for making sex awesome. Her girlfriend-turned-roomie respected these wishes and returned home solo at 5am. “She was a complete wreck,” says Davis. “I had to take care of her for, like, 12 hours. There was still responsibility to be tender to her, but it was also very much like, Ugh, you’re fucking lucky I’m doing this.” We feel Davis’s pain. While it’s not something we often discuss, dwelling with an ex is running rampant in New York. Perhaps David Sedaris explains the problem best in Me Talk Pretty One Day: “In other parts of the country, people tried to stay together for the sake of the children. In New York, they tried to work things out for the sake of the apartment.”But when that doesn’t work out—in the case of Davis and many, many others—there’s that uncomfortable-as-hell stint where you have to cohabit. Which makes sense. When you break up, there’s the lease to worr