SECOND CHANCE: NOVEMBER 19

The story starts here.

Karin had Mindy’s apartment rented by the end of the day. The ease by which she filled her empty units was a reminder to her that the rental market was at its peak and if ever there was a time to invest in rental property, it was now.

She flew through her to-do list, until she couldn’t wait a minute more and had to leave to meet Troy Bennett at Applebee’s. She gathered her list of questions and locked her office door. She was rushing down the front porch steps to her car when she suddenly looked up and stood face to face with the chest that smelled like Polo and looked like rock.

“Jay?” she breathed heavily into his chest.

“Karin…” he answered laughing at her. He put his arms around her and hugged her. She let him for a moment, but then she wiggled out of his arms.

“I have an appointment,” she said. “I have to go, but why are you here?”

“I finished my business in Chicago, and you said we could go out again the next time I was in town, so I came back.” Jay said.

“Really?” Karin said, surprised. “Well, I, but…” She stopped and looked at the time on her phone. “I have a nine o’clock, I…” She didn’t know what to say.

“It’s okay.” Jay said. “I’ll wait for you. What time will you be back?”

“I’m not sure,” Karin said. “I’ll probably be an hour or two, maybe longer.” She held up the files she had in her hands. “I’ve got a lot of questions for this client. Will you be here all night?”

“Yeah, I have to be back to the office on Monday morning, but I’m all yours until then,” Jay said. “I’ll be out at the farm, why don’t you come out when you’re finished with your appointment.”

Karin smiled. Spending the night out at the farm with Jay was very tempting, but she’d been down that road before.

“Not tonight,” she said. “But, I’ll come out first thing in the morning. I’ll be there in time to watch the sunrise together.”

“I’ll make sure the coffee is on,” Jay said. “Crème Brulee creamer, right?”

“Yeah,” Karin said and then rushed off to meet Troy Bennett.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said when she approached the booth where Troy was sitting.

“I just got here myself,” he said. “I brought those print outs you asked for. And, I called my nephew Kevin to ask him about people moving out over there and he didn’t know. He really didn’t watch the place like he was supposed to, and I was just so involved in making sure that Mom was taking care of…” Troy looked down at his drink on the table.

Karin sat down at the booth opposite of him. “I’m researching nursing homes for my mom right now. It’s hard.”

Troy nodded. “I can’t imagine if I’d have had to pick a place for her to stay.” He said. “She made all the arrangements in advance and even decided when she would go. She had it all paid for in advance, even. We didn’t have to do anything.”

“That’s the opposite of my mom.” Karin said. “She’s never taken care of anything in her life.”

“My mom always took care of everything. We never did anything for her, she always just took care of us. That’s probably why none of us know what to do without her.”

“Your mom will be greatly missed.” Karin said.

“Yeah, she will. But, you didn’t come out to talk about my mom. You said you have some questions.” Karin pulled out the files that she had brought and tried to reconcile the documents that she had with the bank slips that he’d brought and gradually create a ledger for each unit so that she could see which ones had consistently paid the rent and which ones hadn’t.

“Okay, it looks like apartment number three pays about a week late every month.” Karin said. “That is not ideal and it’s really a habit I’d like to try and break. My contracts provide for penalties for late payments, and future tenants will fall under those rules, but right now we need to work with the contract that your mom had with them. The best that I can offer them, and you, is a discount for on-time payment and see if that works. Five to ten percent is a standard discount, but it’s a profit loss for you.”

“Is it necessary?” Troy asked. “I mean they do pay every month, even if it’s late.”

“Well, my experience has been that once you let it slide, people tend to gradually get later and later until a whole month goes by and they haven’t paid. Now, of course, I would step in and begin the eviction process before it got that far, but it’s generally best to get people into a habit of paying on time from the beginning.”

“Alright, do what you think is best.”

“My next concern, and really a much bigger one, is the guy in apartment number ten. It looks like he is about three months behind on his rent. I’ve gone over these printouts a couple of times and I’m not seeing any payments from him for the last three months. Ideally, this just means that he moved out and no one took notice.”

“What do we need to do?” Troy asked.

“Well, I know I’m not taking over until the first of the next month, but there is some paperwork that I can get started on to establish myself as new management and try to implement a few new policies. I would like to do that right away. Also, I really think that someone needs to go over to apartment number ten and see if anyone is living there, since that will determine what course of action we need to take on that unit.”

“Okay,” Troy said. “I already gave you all the keys, so if you don’t mind going over there.”

“I’d be glad to take care of it. I just needed your permission.” Karin said, and then the waitress brought their order. Karin put the files away and set them on the seat beside her. She and Troy chatted as they ate, and the topic returned to their mothers.

“You said your mom made all her arrangements herself?” Karin asked.

“Yeah.”

“She was at Lutheran Life Villages,” Karin said. “Do you know why she chose to go there?”

“My mom chose Lutheran Life Villages, but she never discussed her reasons with any of us.” Troy said.

“Well, I’m sure she had good reasons,” Karin said. “And, that’s recommendation enough for me. Somehow though, knowing your mom, I doubt that it was the least expensive option.”

Troy laughed before answering. “You’re probably right about that. Mom wasn’t frivolous, but she was always willing to pay for nice things when she thought it was worth it.”

“Even if I can’t afford it, I’ll definitely look into it.” Karin said.

“Mom was pretty happy there.” Troy said. After they’d finished their food, Troy paid the bill and then asked if they could do this again sometime.

“I’ve had a really nice time talking with you,” Troy said.

“Yeah, me too.”

“It’s been really hard since my mom passed, and I appreciate having someone who will listen to me going on and on about her.”

“Oh, I really liked your mom and I understand how you miss her so much.” Karin said. “I’ve enjoyed hearing more about her.”

“Do you think we could get together again sometime?”

“Sure,” Karin said. “We can meet any time you like to discuss the properties.”

“I was thinking something more social,” Troy said. “Unless you’re already seeing someone.”

“Like a date?” Karin asked. Her first thought was that Jay was waiting out at his family farm for her, but then she remembered that she and Jay would never have anything more than a fling.

“Only if you want it to be like a date.” He answered. Could there be long-term relationship potential with Troy, she wondered. She didn’t know enough about him to say, but there could be a chance. But, Karin also knew that mixing business with pleasure could be dangerous too, so she took the safe route.

“I’m really flattered,” Karin said. “And if you ever want to get together to talk about your mom or whatever, I’d be glad too. But, I’m not really in a position to start dating anyone right now.”

“Alright,” Troy said. “Well, you can’t blame a guy for asking, right?”

“No,” Karin said and tried to keep her voice as friendly and lighthearted as possible. She didn’t want to damage the relationship that she had with the Bennett family, but with Jay in her life and all the things going on with her business and her mother, she just felt like her personal life was too much of a mess to add another complicated relationship.

The story continues here.