Page 15 of All Wrong
She stepped back and opened the door. “Mr. Katarsky, please come in.”
The older man smiled, but looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight from side to side as he peered around from just inside the door.
“Smells wonderful in here,” he said, wiping perspiration from his mostly bald head with a handkerchief.
“Thanks. I do most of my cooking on the weekends, so I have less to do during the week. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Iced tea? Water?”
“Iced tea would be wonderful, thank you. It’s getting hotter out there by the minute.”
Corinne retrieved two glasses from the cupboard, filled them with freshly made tea from her pitcher, and waved him toward the half-wall island that separated her kitchen area from the living area.
“Please, have a seat,” she said, indicating the high-backed stools she had there. He accepted the glass gratefully and drank half of it in one go. Corinne waited patiently for him to get to the reasonfor his visit. Despite his friendly smile, her gut told her it wasn’t good news.
“So,” he said finally, “I’m reaching out to all the tenants. I figured this was the kind of news best delivered in person.”
Corinne prepped herself for a rent hike. One was certainly overdue. She’d been paying the same monthly amount for close to five years, and that was unheard of. She nodded encouragingly.
“Margo and I bought a place in Florida. Our old bones can’t take another winter like last year’s.”
Corinne understood. The previous winter had been brutal, and a lot of older people were tired of dealing with the cold and snow. Even her parents, who had been born and raised in the Northeast, had purchased a place down South.
“So, you’re becoming snowbirds, huh?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Not quite. It’s going to be more of a permanent thing. There’s this retirement village, like its own little town. Restaurants, shops, golf course, you name it.”
“Sounds lovely,” she said.
“It is,” he agreed. “Expensive though. The down payment took a huge chunk out of our savings. Selling our house wasn’t going to cut it, so we decided to sell the apartment building too.”
“Oh …” she said, drawing out the word. She’d miss the Katarskys. They were good people. “So, we’ll have a new landlord?”
Mr. Katarsky licked his lips. “We had to act quickly, you understand. The village is exclusive, and if we didn’t snap up the house, someone else would have, and Margo really had her heart set on this one. Once we put the building on the market, we had to accept the first reasonable offer or risk losing our spot.”
He paused, and she waited for the bomb to drop. She didn’t have to wait long.
“The new owner isn’t interested in keeping the place as is. He’s talking about converting it to luxury condos,” he said, the words now coming out in a rush. “Margo and I tried to talk to him, but he’s not interested. Current tenants will be receiving eviction notices come the first of the month.”
Corinne blinked. “The first of the month? That doesn’t give us much time, does it?”
Mr. Katarsky shook his head. “No. I’m sorry, Corinne. I know this is unexpected.”
He looked so genuinely upset that she summoned a smile.
“Who is the new owner, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Russell Henderson.”
Corinne was familiar with the name, because Henderson had done something similar the year prior. Relatively new to the area, the developer was already amassing a reputation for being ruthless. His company bought older properties, revamped them, and then charged a premium. He cared nothing for the people or businesses displaced.
“Thanks for the heads-up.”
He nodded his head and rose. “We really are sorry. Margo wants to have a going-away get-together so we can say good-bye to everyone. You’ll come, won’t you?”
“I’ll do my best.”
He handed her a small envelope. “All the information is in there.”
“Thanks, Mr. Katarsky.”
