“I wanted to tell you… Well, I’m sure this won’t come as a surprise, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to raise the rent here, Cat.”
I’m quiet for a beat. He likes to say things like this sometimes to get a rise out of me, then he always takes it back. I’m used to his antics by now. “Okay, Mark,” I mutter, turning to pat Stevie.
“I mean it.”
My hand stills and I glance back at him, feeling a pinch of alarm. “What? Seriously?”
He nods.
“But… why now?”
“Come on, you know I’m making next to nothing on the current rate. I should have raised it years ago.”
Shit. Heisserious.
Dread creeps over me. “How much are you going to raise it?”
He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a slip of paper, and slides it face-down across the counter to me. It takes all my strength not to scream at him to stop with the theatrics and just tell me.
I lift the paper and examine the number, my eyes widening with shock. “This is ridiculous.” It’s significantly higher than what I’m paying now. Even without having to deal with my recent debt, it would be a stretch to get there.
“Sorry, but it’s market rate.” He shrugs. “It’s what you should be paying for this place.”
“And if I can’t?”
He hesitates, then looks away. “Well, then… it might be time to move on.”
Oh, no. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. I can’t lose my store. This place is everything to me.
Okay, no. I know this man; I used to be married to him, for Christ’s sake. I’m sure I can talk him around, get him to hold off for a while. I’ll just negotiate with him until we can reach an agreement that works for both of us. I’m sure he can be reasonable.
Well, I’m not sure at all—but I have to try.
“Mark,” I begin, attempting to keep the panic out of my voice, “is there any chance this could wait a couple of months? I just have to—”
“Cat, I’m losing money here.” He stuffs his hands into his pockets, not meeting my gaze. “I’ve been pretty generous, letting you have this place at such a low rate. But you couldn’t have expected it to go on forever.”
I narrow my eyes. “Didsheput you up to this?”
The “she” I’m referring to is Mel—my ex-friend turned Mark’s girlfriend. She knew me when Mark and I were married and she was married; we were neighbors and good friends for years. We both went through a divorce a year apart from each other, and that brought us closer together. For ages we did the whole dating thing side-by-side, sharing the ups and downs, drowning our sorrows in margaritas. We did all kinds of things, like group dates, set-ups, speed-dating—even registering with match-makers for a while. It was a lot more fun doing things like that with a friend going through it, too.
Until, suddenly, it wasn’t. Because she met someone. Not just someone—someoneI could handle. No, it turned out the guy Mel was seeing was none other than my ex-husband—after everything he’d done to me—and she was doing it behind my back. Needless to say, the friendship came to an abrupt end—especially when I found out she’d been lying about a bunch of other stuff, too.
But here’s the kicker: right before I discovered she was sleeping with my ex-husband, she helped me make a business deal with a friend of hers who owned a string of boutiques in the city. We’d arranged for me to create a whole line of dresses and stock them in her friend’s stores, which was a huge step up in my business—and would have given me the opportunity to move away from Mark. So I invested in alotof new fabric—much more than I would ever need for my tiny store—along with a brand new, state-of-the-art sewing machine. Then when I confronted Mel about Mark, she sabotaged the deal. So I was left with too much stock, a sewing machine I didn’t need—and thousands of dollars of debt.
But honestly? I blame myself. I didn’t sign any contracts, or get anything in writing; I simply took Mel and her friend at their word. And that was plain foolish. Because I knew better, really. I knew better than to count on someone else, especially after how spectacularly my marriage failed. You sort of expectmento screw you over, but not your best friend.
Mark sighs. “Mel brought it up, yes.”
Anger simmers in my gut. Of course she did.
“But she’s right, Cat.” His brow furrows. “I’ve been doing you a favor for years now, and it’s time to put my needs first.”
I snort. “Wasn’t that the basis for our whole marriage?”
Shit, this is not going well.
“Don’t be bitter.” Mark gives me a bored look. “It doesn’t suit you.”
