Yasmin Sullivan - Return to Love

The door chime sounded as a couple came in. Amelie winked over at Regina; it was Regina’s turn to see to the customers. She pushed her mosaic onto the table, grabbed a wet rag to get the mastic off her hands and got up to approach the couple.

“Good afternoon. Can I help you find anything today?”

Regina showed them her various mosaic pieces and then the beadwork. They stopped for a long time in front of one of her favorite mosaics, a large piece of a woman in a sarong looking over a patio at the ocean and horizon. They seemed interested in it and took one of her business cards from the counter. They even looked over her portfolio of in-home installations, but Regina couldn’t tell if they would come back.

By the time she was done, Amelie had already begun wrapping up her project and getting ready to leave for the afternoon, as usual.

Mr. Lundstrum came in just before she left.

“Regina has our rent check ready for you, Mr. Lundstrum.”

“I do. It’s under the register,” Regina said.

Their landlord was an old man and walked with a cane. It was clear that he hadn’t had the ability to look after this place for a long time. But he was pleased with the upgrades they’d made and liked having them as tenants.

“Come, my dears. I have a bit of hard news.”

“What is it?” Regina asked, worried that something had happened to his wife, who was also getting on in years and was not as agile as her husband.

“Well, this won’t be easy for you to hear.”

He settled down in one of the chairs at Regina’s worktable and sighed heavily.

“You know I’ve been waiting for you to come up with the down payment on this place. You had first refusal.”

“Oh, no.” Regina could tell what he was getting ready to say, and her heart sank.

“What? What is it?” Amelie hadn’t caught the clue.

“You’ve taken another offer on the house, haven’t you?”

“I’m sorry, dear. I just had to.”

Amelie turned to Regina. “What are we going to do?”

“Mr. Lundstrum, can’t you give us more time? I have an installation in a couple of weeks. That’s a couple of thousand dollars. We can give you that. It’s not the down payment, but...”

Regina didn’t know what else to say. Thankfully, Amelie stepped in.

“We have a good portion of it saved up, and we’re looking for a small-business loan now. Just a little more time is all we need.”

“I’m so sorry. My granddaughter starts her junior year at American University in a couple of months, and we’re strapped. Retirement and the rent on this place haven’t been enough, with school bills and all. We needed somebody who could pay now.”

The old man took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. His sight was going, as well.

“Gentleman in a fine suit came in willing to pay more than we’re asking—pay it now, one time. Wife and I couldn’t say no. Was like looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

“Oh, no,” said Amelie. “What do we do now?”

“Isn’t there anything we can do, Mr. Lundstrum? Anything?” Regina asked.

“I’m so sorry, girls. We just had to take it. Wife wouldn’t want me to tell y’all, but the savings is almost gone—with the economy and all. This way we can pay tuition and put some in the bank to replace what’s gone.”

Regina sighed heavily. “I understand.”

“We wanted it to go to you, help y’all out. But weren’t no way we could wait. Look, I know it’s hard. You just forget about the rent this month and the month after that.”

“We can’t do that,” Regina said firmly. “Can we contact him, Mr. Lundstrum—the gentleman who’s buying the place? I know it’s a long shot, but maybe if he hears us out, if he knows how much we’ve put into this place already, maybe he’ll let us have it after all.”

The old man patted his pockets. “I know I’ve seen his card. Had one of those little cases you hold business cards in. I think I gave it to the real-estate agent we got to handle the sale for us. I’ll get it for you, but dear—” he looked at Regina “—don’t hold out hope for that. He’ll want more than you were going to pay.”

“I know you’re right,” Regina said, “but we have to try.”

“I’ll bring you the information tomorrow.”

“When do we have to be out?” Amelie asked.

“Six weeks from the first of next month. I wanted to give you some time to find someplace new to sell your things.”

“Six weeks for upstairs, as well?” Regina asked.

“Yes, ma’am, the whole building’s gone. He worked for some kind of investment firm. He’ll probably turn it into another restaurant or something. Said he had someone come check it out just a couple of weeks ago.”

Regina went to the cash register and returned with the rent check.

“Here is this month’s rent. We wouldn’t think of not paying it.”

Amelie gave her a wry look but went along.

Mr. Lundstrum crumpled the check in his hand and left it on the table.

“No, dear, no. You’ll need that to find another place to live in, another shop. I know I’m going back on my word to you. I told you I would wait and sell this place to you, didn’t I? Give you time to fix it up a bit and get her going. Didn’t I?”

Tears filled Regina’s eyes and spilled down her face. Her dream for the shop was being ripped away. “Yes.”

Amelie’s arms went around her shoulders and the two women hugged one another.

“Don’t cry,” Amelie said. “You never cry. Now you’ll start me crying.”

But Amelie was already crying, as well.

“I gave my word,” said Mr. Lundstrum. “And here I am going back on it. It’s the last thing I wanted to do. And you’ve got only two months to figure things out and move. I’m so sorry, girls. We just had to take it. Else I don’t know what we’d do for tuition next fall. But that means the least I can do is cut you some slack on the last two months of rent. I won’t take it, no matter what you do.”

“We appreciate it. We really do,” Amelie said.

Regina pulled herself together and let out a deep sigh.

“Thank you, Mr. Lundstrum. Thank you. We understand that you would have waited for us if you could have. And we appreciate you giving us a break on the rent to help us move.”

“Y’all start looking for a place right away. Won’t be easy to find one in this neighborhood.”

“It’ll be impossible to find one here,” Amelie said, but Regina gave her a look that stopped her from going on.

“We’ll start looking,” Regina said. “I’ll let you know what we find.”

After walking Mr. Lundstrum to the door, Amelie flipped the store sign to Closed and locked the door and leaned against it.

“What are we going to do?”

Regina heard the devastation in Amelie’s voice.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. This changes our whole business plan—everything. We’ll need to find a new space—”

“And it sure won’t be in the art district,” Amelie said. “There isn’t a vacancy anywhere around here, and if there is, we can’t afford it.”

“We can check, but I know you’re right. That’s how we ended up here.”

Regina was on the verge of tears again. She looked around the shop, at all they had done already, all the money they’d invested in fixing things up. But she didn’t want to give in to those tears. It wasn’t hopeless; it was just overwhelming.

“We can’t figure it all out right now,” she said. “Let’s finish the day as usual and then start to create some kind of plan tonight—when to go looking for other places, how to move things, where things can go in the meantime.”

“You’re right. I have to get these pieces to the consignment store and then get to my sister’s shower with a present. It’s too early to panic,” Amelie said, but Regina could read the disappointment in her voice. “Let’s talk tonight.”