Toronto Collection Volume 3 (Toronto Series #10-13)

by Heather Wardell

  I called my bank manager and arranged for a credit card to be sent to Dwayne so he could buy whatever he needed, and when I hung up and he stammeringly promised he would never misuse the card or let me down I said, "I've lived here for ages. I trust you. There's only one condition."

  "I report back regularly?"

  I smiled. "I guess that's the second condition. No, I don't want anyone but you to know I own the place now."

  His forehead creased, then it smoothed out. "Don't feel like being the second maintenance person?"

  I laughed. "You got it."

  We shook hands and he said, "I won't tell a soul."

  And he hadn't, though Violet and her cronies were pushing him awfully hard.

  Feeling bad for him, I raised my voice to be heard over their babble and said, "Did the guy sell the building or something? Maybe the new owner is making repairs."

  Everyone turned to look at me, but I kept my eyes on Dwayne, who immediately said, "I'm not at liberty to say a lot, but yes. New owner."

  "Who?" Gladys said.

  Violet rolled her eyes. "It's obvious." She elbowed me. "My apartment needs a new doorknob. The old one's all scratched up."

  I raised my eyebrows, hoping my innocent look wasn't too overdone. "What are you telling me for?"

  "You're the new owner."

  "I am?" I felt Shane and John, on either side of me, giving me looks of dawning awareness and I kept talking so they wouldn't jump in. "I told you before, I can't spend my money until June."

  "It's a numbered corporation," Dwayne said. "No names attached."

  Violet turned on him. "What's the number?"

  Rose giggled. "You think you'll recognize it?"

  Violet dug in the huge flower-patterned purse she held and drew out a sleek iPhone. "I'll Google it."

  Zack gave a snort that he managed to turn into a cough, and Violet glared at him. "Think an old lady like me can't use a fancy phone? I'll show you. Dwayne, give me the number."

  He read it out slowly as she typed it into the phone, with frequent pauses as she back-spaced errors. Eventually, though, she managed to get the thing searching. I had tried this myself and hadn't been able to find anything but sites promising to give me the contact information for a fee, but I was still tense until she stuffed the phone back into her purse and said, "Silly toy isn't working. But I'm sure it's you, Angela. I always said you'd do the right thing eventually."

  "You said she was too selfish to give a bird a sunflower seed," Gladys said, looking confused.

  Violet's wrinkled cheeks turned dusty rose, but she snapped, "I did not. Now let's go. Bingo's in half an hour."

  They walked off, and I realized Dwayne might well assume I'd told John and Zack and Shane about my purchase. "Well, whoever the owner is," I said quickly, "I'm glad we're getting a new elevator."

  Dwayne gave me a perfectly normal smile. "Me too. And I'll finally get to maintain this place the way I've always wanted to. Looking forward to it."

  "Yes, but will you replace Violet's doorknob?"

  We all laughed and Dwayne said, "That's way down at the bottom of my list, John. But maybe some day."

  We left him and walked up the stairs to my apartment. John and Zack stopped in because Zack wanted to borrow one of my games, and the moment the door closed behind us all Zack said, "It's you, right?"

  I dropped onto the couch, trying to stop panting. "What is?"

  He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You own the building."

  "It's a numbered corporation. You heard Dwayne."

  "Someone has to own a corporation," Zack said, rolling his eyes even further. "And you own this one. Right?"

  I didn't want to tell but I couldn't outright lie to Zack. "Yeah. Guilty as charged."

  John, leaning against the door to get his breath back from the stair climb, stiffened but said nothing as Zack clapped his hands. "That's cool."

  "Is it?" I honestly hadn't been sure how he'd feel. "Why?"

  Shane, who'd sat beside me on the couch, laughed before Zack could answer. "Because now these guys can miss a month or two of rent with no problem."

  John pushed himself away from the door, and I turned on Shane, but Zack beat both of us to the response. "We would never do that, and especially not to Angela. She's our friend."

  The passion in his voice made me feel warm and fuzzy, and it seemed to surprise Shane. "Okay, fine, kid, whatever. But even so, you'll get first crack at whatever repairs you need, and if you did happen to be even a little late with rent, you wouldn't have any--"

  "My dad would not do that!"

  Zack's shout silenced Shane, and I took the chance to turn to Zack and say, "I know, buddy. He wouldn't. And neither would you, if you were the one paying the rent."

  "We don't take free rides," Zack said, his eyes angry. "We work for what we get."

  Hearing the words I knew came from John coming from his son's mouth, realizing how Zack had internalized his father's attitude, touched me so much I could hardly speak, and when Zack turned to John and said, "Right, Dad?" John's "Right" sounded as strangled as I felt.

  John cleared his throat and said, "I know you'll be a way better owner, Angela, but I have to admit I'm uncomfortable. I really don't want to take any sort of advantage of you."

  "You won't," I said, wishing Shane wasn't there because I knew John would prefer to have this conversation without him. "I know that. I guess I should have told you I was buying it." I shook my head. "I was kind of hoping nobody would find out."

  "We won't tell anyone else," Zack said. Then he frowned. "So we do pay our rent to you?"

  I shook my head quickly. "You give it to Dwayne, same as always. Nothing changes." Trying to lighten the mood, I added, "Well, the elevator's changing. And I'm getting my place renovated to be better for the trees, and we'll be repaving the parking lot in the summer. But those are good things, right?"

  Zack nodded but his frown deepened. "So if we had trouble finding the rent one month, like last--"

  "Zack, let's go," John said, his face reddening. "We don't need to bug Angela any more."

  "You're not, you never do," I said, hating the knowledge that he had been short on money last month and wishing I could help.

  Shane nudged me. "Are you going to raise rents? Or raise most and lower them for a few special people, maybe?"

  I glared at him, stunned that he would be so insensitive, and John said stiffly, "She can do whatever she wants, but I won't change what I pay."

  Shane shrugged. "Sorry, man, I was just trying to help. Who couldn't use a few extra bucks a month to pay off debts or whatever?"

  John looked at me for a moment, and the hurt and anger in his eyes made me feel sick. Then he pulled open my door and left with Zack.

  As the door clicked shut behind them I said, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

  Shane blinked. "What? What did I do?"

  "You are kidding, right? You as much as called him a mooch."

  "I honestly thought you would lower his rent. Since he's your friend."

  I wasn't sure whether he'd meant to copy what Zack had said, and I didn't want to fight any more, so I said, "Well, I won't because he won't allow it," and tried not to show how much I wished I could help John that way.

  "I guess he would if you did it across the board, but then it wouldn't be such a good investment." He shook his head. "I can't imagine having the money to buy an apartment building. Oh, and have you got any vacant units? I really do hate living where Liz and I did."

  "None," I said, trying to calm myself. "But if one comes up I'll let you know."

  Shane wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Good." He sighed. "I'll be so glad when this divorce crap is over. Then everything will be fine. Finer than fine."

  A sick shiver ran through me even before I remembered how he'd always said those three words before and how much I'd hated them. When we'd discussed getting married but he'd wanted to roam the world instead, he'd said, "We'll be traveling fools, get it out of our sy
stems, and then settle down and we'll be finer than fine." But I hadn't had that in my system. All I'd wanted was to marry him and have kids. And then he'd married Liz instead and hadn't done any of that world-roaming he'd been so intent on. How had he changed so much? Maybe I'd changed--

  "John'll be finer than fine too." He shook his head. "Once he gets a clue."

  I pushed him away, fury snapping through me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "There's a difference between taking advantage of someone and having the brains to make use of the connections you've got. He doesn't seem to know that."

  I took a breath to answer, although I had no idea what to say, but Shane's cell phone interrupted.

  "It's the lawyer," he said, and answered the call. As he listened and made occasional responses I sat thinking about John and hoping against hope that he wasn't upstairs hating himself for everything Shane had said.

  *****

  The next day, I glanced out through the glass window of my banker's office and held up one finger to John. He nodded once then looked away, his neck turning red. I'd thought he was looking at me to see whether my meeting was nearly done but his embarrassment made me wonder.

  I also wondered why he'd been so insistent on coming with me. He'd texted me as I was about to leave for the meeting, asking if he could talk to me, and when I'd told him I had to go he'd asked if he could wait for me in the bank's lobby and then talk to me afterward. It definitely didn't feel like he wanted just a casual chat.

  I couldn't focus on him, though, because Ted had stopped typing and was speaking to me. "So everything looks good here. Any questions for me?"

  "The credit card for my superintendent went out all right?"

  He typed some more. "Looks like it. He should have it tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest."

  "Perfect. Thanks."

  Ted shook his head and got to his feet. "Thank you for coming in. I always like to go through all the financials for such a big purchase in person, and I appreciate your giving me the time to do so."

  I smiled. "I'm just glad it all worked out. Is it always that smooth?"

  He laughed and opened his office door for me. "I only wish. No, but with your landlord's willingness to sell and your ability to handle everything without the need for a mortgage, it's been one of the easiest transactions I've ever had."

  "Let's hope whatever I do next is as easy."

  "Indeed." He held out his hand to me and we shook. "Enjoy the rest of your afternoon, Angela, and thanks again for your time."

  "You're welcome, Ted." I turned to go then a thought struck me. "One more thing?"

  "Of course."

  "A friend of mine is hoping to have a baby soon and I was wanting to set up an educational fund for her child once it arrives. Is there anything complicated I'd need to do for that since it's not my child?"

  "Just let me know the value of the fund and the legal name of the child and the mother, and I'll do the rest."

  I smiled at him. "I appreciate that. It won't be right away but with any luck it will happen this year." Claudia had taken a bit of time to recuperate emotionally and physically from her failed fertilization but would be doing her next treatment in a few weeks.

  "Whenever you're ready, give me a call."

  I nodded, and he smiled and returned to his office.

  I turned to John. "Ready to go?"

  He gave me the same curt nod he'd given before and got to his feet. As he did, I noticed that his winter boots were badly scuffed and one was torn open at the toe.

  We left the bank, and he promptly stepped with that foot into a thick mound of soggy half-melted snow. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath, shaking his foot in a vain attempt to get the slush out of the boot.

  "John, please let me get you new boots. I hate that you're walking around like that when I could fix it for you so easily."

  He turned on me. "I wasn't sure when I was going to do this, but now is a good a time as any, I guess. I'm moving out. And no, you can't buy me boots."

  I stood in my expensive warm boots staring at him. It was April Fool's Day, but I could tell by the fire in his eyes that this was no joke. "You're moving? Why?"

  He shook his head slowly, and his shoulders slumped. "Come on. Isn't it obvious?"

  "No. Not to me."

  "Well, it is to me. I have to take care of myself and Zack."

  I looked down at his poor feet in the snow. "Can we go inside somewhere and talk about this?" I glanced around frantically. "Maybe over there at Tim's?"

  He looked like he wanted to refuse but said, "Okay."

  Relieved, although horrified at the way the conversation was going, I walked in silence beside him until we reached the coffee shop. He held the door open for me with one hand and fished around in his pocket with the other, then pulled out a two-dollar coin and held it out to me. His face set, he said, "Could you buy me a small coffee? I need to use the washroom."

  I had never wanted to take someone's money less, but I knew I had to so I plucked the coin from his hand. He looked away. "I'll be right back."

  By the time he returned, I'd bought us each a small coffee and was sitting at a table nervously toying with a napkin.

  He scooped up his change, which I'd left beside his cup, and dropped it into his pocket, then leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I didn't want to say it like that. But maybe that was better. I had to tell you somehow."

  "I don't want you to move. And I really don't understand why now. I'm going to make sure the building actually gets the repairs it needs, and--"

  "That's exactly why. Because you are going to do those things. I don't care how you dress it up, I'll be renting from you and I hate that. It'll be the same as having you give me stuff or buy me boots."

  The sarcasm in his voice was hard to take, and my temper flared. "I'm so sorry I wanted to help you have dry feet. I won't make that mistake again."

  "No, you won't, because I won't be there."

  "John, this is insane. Zack loves the building. He's got friends there! And I'm there in case he needs anything when you're away. I know you're still going to pay your rent every month, and I had no intention of giving you the place for free because I know you wouldn't take it."

  He slapped his hand on the table. "But if you thought I'd take it you'd do it, right?"

  "Of course!"

  The fight seemed to go out of him in an instant. "Because I can't take care of myself and Zack on my own."

  I stared at him. "What? No. Because I can afford it and it would make things easier for you. That's all."

  He stared down at the table. "That's a lot," he said, so softly I barely heard him. "Too much."

  While I tried to figure out what to say to convince him to stay, he said, "Tiff told you why we split up, didn't she."

  His voice dropped at the end, with both certainty and dejection, and it hurt to hear. I took a deep breath and said, "She did, briefly."

  He didn't look up. "How briefly?"

  I rubbed my hand over my mouth, not wanting to tell him. "She said you had a gambling problem," I made myself say, "and that you went too far and owe money."

  He took a breath and I said, "Fifty thousand, she said."

  He let out his breath in a sigh. "Yup. It's a little less than that now, but not much."

  "Aren't you paying it back every month?" I said before I could stop myself.

  His head snapped up. "I am. I try to pay the original minimum even though the current one is lower now, and when I can't I do the best I can. But... well, the interest is killing me, let's say. It's compounding, of course, and..."

  He didn't finish, but he didn't have to. The compounding that was making my money worth more every day was making his loan higher every day. He'd pay thousands in interest, thousands he didn't need to pay. "How much is it now?"

  "Never mind," he said. "It doesn't matter."

  "It does to me. John, come on, let me--"

  "No way." His hand on the table closed into a fis
t. "I won't. I can't. I owe that money and I am going to pay it back. Every last cent."

  A muscle beside his eye began jumping, and I realized once again how exhausted he looked. "But you're killing yourself to do it."

  "Whatever," he muttered.

  Rage flooded me. "No, not 'whatever'. You have Zack to think about."

  "He is what I'm thinking about," he snapped back. "He needs to learn how to fix his mistakes."

  "Shouldn't he also learn how to take advantage of opportunities? How to accept help? Not to be a stubborn jackass?"

  "I'm not stubborn!"

  "What the hell do you call it, then? I could easily wipe out that debt for you, but instead you're working nights and leaving your kid on his own. What is that if not stubborn? Oh, wait, you're right. It's not stubborn." I glared at him. "It's stubborn and stupid."

  Fire blazed in his eyes, and I had an unexpected and completely inappropriate flash of "he looks sexy when he's mad" before he said, his voice quiet but fiercely intense, "I ended up in debt because I was stupid. I know you could just write a check and it wouldn't matter to you. But it matters to me. It's not stupid to get myself out of it on my own. No matter what your precious Shane says."

  Startled, I said, "Shane? What about him?"

  "I can't believe you told him about my debt. Tiff shouldn't have told you but she's your advisor so she was trying to make sure you--"

  "I didn't tell Shane," I said, cutting him off because I couldn't stand the idea of him thinking I'd do something so cruel.

  "Then how does he know?"

  "I don't know! He doesn't. Why do you think he does?"

  "His little comment yesterday about not paying my rent so I could pay off my debt?"

  "But most people have debts. That's all he was--"

  John gave a sharp awful laugh. "Yeah. Most people do. But not you. Not ever again. We're just too different now, Angela. I can't cope with your money and you can't understand my problems. I'm moving out and that's final."