My mom was going over the contract with Sarina in the kitchen, while my dad was hanging out on the couch with me at Sarina's. It was just about to be noon and I could tell my dad was getting hungry. His stomach was talking to whoever was listening.
"Come on, pop. Let's see what I can feed you." I say slapping my thigh and motioning him towards the kitchen.
"I don't want to disturb the ladies." My dad shakes his head at me.
"We can make them something too." I push his shoulder and he gives in, following me into the kitchen.
Opening up the pantry and fridge, I pull out items to make a pasta dish and a salad. My dad works on boiling the water for the pasta and browning the meat, while I cut up the items for a salad.
"Okay.. So how much did you pay for the two floors? I need to see receipts or something showing that you paid that amount." I hear my mom inform Sarina, who quickly goes through her papers in the file and pulls out some more papers.
"One point three million!?" My mom covers her mouth in shock. "That's a lot of money!"
Sarina nods, awkwardly agreeing, "Yes, but you'll see that I only paid him five hundred thousand in monetary funds. The rest of the amount was in the stock I was given by my brother after our parents died. At the time, the price of those stocks would have sold for a little more but I didn't want the opportunity to slip by me and offered them at a discount if he accepted them instead." She pulls out another paper, handing it over. "We came to an agreement that along with the stocks, I would pay the property taxes each year for the building. Which I have all of those amounts and receipts as well." She points out on another paper to my mother.
I set the salad on the table, not getting in their way while I take care of the rest of the stuff for lunch as I catch my dad picking pieces of hamburger out of the pan. I tap his shoulder to get him to stop.
"Dad! Go sit down. Otherwise there won't be any for the sauce!" I chide him and he just groans like he's starving. I reach into the fridge and grab a yogurt out. "That should hold you till it's done."
My mom is on her laptop, looking up some of the laws that have changed and makes a few notes until lunch is ready. We all stop except my mom who's reading up on a few laws concerning more than one owner property laws.
My mom sighs after we finish eating, taking her glasses off to rub her eyes. "Well, Sarina. It looks like he's either going to have to buy you out of your portion of the building, which is what he was trying to do, at the past market prices though, which he could do but you'd be selling yourself short. OR you will have to buy his part of the building out at the market price. Your both joint owners so if you both can't reach an agreement outside of the courts, you'll end up losing the place anyways because the courts will sell it for you." My mom tells her the facts.
"What's the value on two thirds of a building in the Dallas historic district?" Sarina wrings her hands, stress radiating off her as her shoulders sag.
My mom does her thing and writes down some numbers before calculating. "Between six and eight million."
Sarina just burst into tears, my mom rushes to her and wraps her in a hug. "Don't worry sweetheart. You'll get through this. But don't let that bastard sell you your portion less than it's worth. Just don't accept a dime under three million." She consoles Sarina, whispering soothing words as Sarina cries devastated that she'll have to sell her portion of the building and find a new place.
My dad, always awkward with tears, even gets up and places a hand on Sarina's back, "Um... Could you talk to them and try to work something out? They must have other things they could do to righten their finances. If they agreed to this years ago, you must have had a good enough relationship to come to this agreement prior."
Sarina presses back from my mothers embrace and wipes her eyes and starts to hiccup. "I could ask, (hiccup) right? Wouldn't hurt to (hiccup) try at least. They said they need (hiccup) -ed to get rid of assets that were not making (hiccup) them any mon (hiccup) -ey though. But that (hiccup) they were not (hiccup) strapped for cash at the mo (hiccup) ment." She looks embarrassed as my mom goes and grabs her a glass of water to drink, which she hiccups through as she tries to drink.
I go to the table and suggest, "Let's invite them to dinner so we can talk about it with them?"
She nods, "I need to check my stocks I have, (hiccup) maybe... Maybe he'd be willing to take my remaining shares in the company..." She grabs her phone and opens up an app and checks her stocks.
She covers her face, "What I have left to bargain with, is only worth two million." She stifles another hiccup.
"Let's call them and see what happens?" I suggest to her again, placing my hand on her shoulder.
Her gaze drops to the floor as she shakes her head, "I don't know if that is a good idea. You're not going to like having dinner with him."
Confused, I ask her, "Why?"
Sarina looks down at her hands, fidgeting with bracelets, "Because it's John. That's why he wanted to talk and have lunch last week. When I didn't call, he showed up this morning and he suggested getting a coffee down the street."
I know she notices the moment my jaw tightens and my hands clench reflexively, but I merely clear my throat and nod, remembering my parents are here. "You're right. However, I'll deal with it, if it helps you to keep the building."
I reign my annoyance in over the fact that she could have told me this sooner. That John was the one causing her such distress.
However, we can discuss it later, after my parents have left.
My moms eyes are darting back and forth not focusing on anything, and I know she's thinking of a plan.
"If he needs a way to make some money off the place, we need to offer him something else, those stocks alone won't do." She starts and sits back down and looks at her laptop and checks out surrounding businesses with similar sized structures. "Is the building zoned just for commercial use?" She asks Sarina.
"The first three floors are, I believe. The other three are still set up as old apartments." Sarina informs my mother, then inquires, "Why?"
"Give me a few minutes and I'll tell you why." My mom gets to work on the laptop, opening up several sites and writing down new figures on a new paper before she drops the pen.
My mom chuckles, "What if you offered to remodel those apartments, out of your pocket, and then sell them as high end condominiums or apartments? Those are going anywhere from three hundred thousand to six hundred thousand, for a one bedroom, then for a half of a floor you could charge three to four million, depending on the remodel. If he's able to wait a little while for the remodel and for them to be sold, you could agree to give him the profits. Because even if you sold them at two million and you only made two per story that's still six million that he would be getting to buy out his portion of the property."
Sarina chews on her bottom lip, "I could try. I need numbers though, the costs of remodeling, the expected sale points and some kind of timeline, plus a contract written up with terms and expectations.... I'll need to be prepared for this... but he might agree to it."
My mother starts pulling up sites and asking Sarina for the square footage of the building, if she could remember how many apartments are in the building and they have us start finding prices on contractors and materials, interior designers, etc. We spent the rest of the afternoon helping get those numbers while my mother made a presentation to show to John, while my father wrote up a contract with the information on my laptop.
We just finished printing out everything when Sarina's phone starts going off.
"Hello?" Sarina answers and immediately smiles widely. "You're back! I've missed you! It felt a lot longer than two weeks, so much has happened." She mouth's to me that it's Lirael and motions she's going to be just a minute.
She walks off to talk to Lirael, while I thank my mom and dad for all their help. Sarina comes out a minute later and wraps my mom up in a big hug.
"Thank you so much! Even if it doesn't work to keep the building, at least you made sure that I won't get screwed over." She pulls back from my mother, "It means a lot to me that you did this."
My mother pats her arm, "No worries dear, it's what moms do."
I can see how those words affect Sarina, but she's quick to cover it up with a soft smile, "Yes, it's what great moms do."
My dad, not wanting to be left out adds, "And great dads! I helped too you know." He chuckles as Sarina gives him a hug too.
"Thank you. Both of you." Sarina's eyes redden as she's overcome with emotions.
"Don't fret, dear. We owed you this much for helping us out with that punk from the HOA. We would have helped you out regardless, but still." My dad says nonchalantly as my mother gathers her purse and they head for the door.
"We'll see you both soon, call me dear if you need me. I have plenty of friends who still practice and will show up with you, if you need them to."
They wave as they leave and Sarina turns to me and blinks out a few tears, "Thank you, Brian. You've got some amazing parents."
"Not a problem, babe." I tell her as I pull her into my arms for a hug, letting her calm for a few minutes before bringing up John.
"Now that my parents are gone though, I have a question for you. Why didn't you tell me sooner that it was John who was doing this?" I ask her, seriously. I wanted to hear a good reason that she felt she needed to keep that information from me, or until she knew she had to come clean.
Sarina's lips tremble before they set in to a soft pout. "I don't know... I just wasn't ready to tell you that yet I guess? I never thought he would do this considering how much him and my brother have been through with my families business. When I purchased the place, he told me that I'd never have to worry about it again, as long as I paid the property tax on it. That those two floors were mine. I didn't think that he would take them away from me."
She groans, "Plus you were acting off, almost all week last week. Yeah the sex was.... wow... but you seemed very distant. I don't want you becoming distant again, I didn't like it." She looks down at the ground, "I'm sorry, it's no excuse. I just really didn't want to feel like you were drifting away from me again."
I nod, thinking about how I acted last week. I knew I had been distant, but that's why I tried showing her that I cared for her, but she thought it was just sex.. So apparently, even though it was great, we were not on the same page. I didn't communicate the right way with her. That causes a discomfort in my chest, that I can not process at the moment. I sigh and decide to take a minute to think and straighten out my thoughts and feelings.
"Sarina, I need a minute to straighten my thoughts out and my emotions. I'll be in the office room, okay." I walk towards the office room, and Sarina just stands there as I walk in and shut the door.
Our emotional maturity are at different stages. still mixing up the meanings behind our actions and I can figure that it's from the emotional trauma she's been through. She's not used to a decent man and has some issues that she's just never been able to move on from. She's never dated a man that she didn't have to worry about him getting angry, verbally or physically abusive, cheating or lying to her. It takes time to readjust the brain from a conditioned habit and learn a better one. I understand her hesitancy to tell me because of the emotional distance that I kept us at last week.
I really thought she could tell though. It was more than just sex for me. I love her, and making love to her doesn't always have to be slow, it can be just as rough and passionate as the way our emotions like to roll over us.
Like, when it hits me like a ton of bricks, how amazing her eyes light up when she sees me after a long day a work. The way she grabs my hand when we're sleeping and doesn't let go. Or how I feel so damn lucky she shares herself with me. How I wish I could punch some of the guys that leer at her lustfully when we're running around town. How I want to put a giant sign up that says she's taken and all mine. Her interest in my own life and feelings, but also her respect when it's obvious something is bothering me, letting me be the one to open up when I'm ready.
We still need to work on communication, myself included. If I had just told her instead of brooding all last week, we might not even be in this moment and more focused on working as a team to figure out how to keep her shop.
I need to tell her that she shouldn't keep things from me. I may get disappointed, I may be distant, but we can't keep things from each other just to avoid uncomfortable conversations, otherwise we're just asking for trouble.