At least he wasn’t beating around the bush.
“You said that. I’m not certain I believe it.”
“We’ve been working on this project for over a year. Finally took ownership months ago from the landlords and they were all supposed to communicate the change before their departure. We also followed up with notices since. But all of this started before my dad saw you.”
I’d spent at least twenty-four hours hoping I could trust them, hoping they were who they seemed to be. Hoping, most of all, it could work out if I went to work for them. But hope was a fickle thing. The flame could be extinguished as easily as it was lit. And still, I was tempted to believe him.
He stood in front of me, earnest expression, face blank of anything to indicate he was lying. He gave no indication he wasn’t being honest, but I was still pissed.
Maybe embarrassed at my outburst and unprofessionalism I showed earlier.
“I never received anything.”
“I can’t help you with that. I don’t know how or why that happened, but” —he held out the envelope— “inside here are all the housing options still available along with maps of where they’re located so you can find a place convenient for you and your school. This is what you should have received six months ago. Because this is temporary until the construction is complete and all current residents will be welcome to move back if they choose, we ensure all the rent is either equal to what all the tenants are paying or less. Some of these apartments come furnished. Anything usable and left inside the buildings before they come down will be donated to shelters.”
Six months ago. I’d only lived here five. Why would they rent an apartment they knew was being demolished?
Stupid question. Money.
The knowledge was a brick to my chest.
“I’ve only lived here five,” I all but whispered. Shame burned on my cheeks.
It was looking like this all had been a miscommunication and I’d royally, foolishly, and completely overreacted.
Screw him for being such a damn do-gooder. Just once, I wanted to truly hate him. Find his fault and pluck it out with tweezers, but every time I assumed the worst in either of the Valentines they came back making me the fool.
I was getting really tired of playing the fool. But did that mean he’d lied? Or I had truly overacted to epic proportions. What was wrong with me that when someone tried to do something nice, I was instantly suspicious.
Probably a question better suited for Nancy, but I wasn’t entirely naïve. Take my abusive father, my drug and alcohol-addicted brother, my absent alcoholic mother, and a prison sentence… I could have been the poster child for a magazine titled Girls With Issues.
But hadn’t I just spoken to Ellen about trying? A day at a time. A minute at a time.
I reached out and took the envelope from his hand.
“If what you’re saying is true, then I apologize for the way I behaved earlier.”
He chuckled; the sound so surprising. He could have wiped his hands of the crazy girl who kept freaking out on him.
Instead, he further eased my embarrassment.
“Pretty sure had it been me, it would have been worse. In full disclosure, we own most of the buildings where we’re setting up the current residents who live in these old homes being torn down. The ones in this envelope are the only ones left with vacancies, so it’s not the selection you would have originally had, but they’re all decent places.”
Decent, in Hudson terms, compared to my current living conditions, was probably akin to a five-star resort.
“What’s going to be built here and what’s coming down?”
His eyes lit, beautiful warm as the summer sun. “Your building and the four others on this street. Two behind you. We’re putting in new housing. Apartments above a couple of small shops, a local, or I’m hoping, an ethnic market, and one restaurant and coffee shop. The whole complex will be built with sustainable or recycled materials as much as possible and rents will be comparable to now.”
“Why?” It was nearly impossible not to become curious while watching Hudson’s passion. He truly loved his job and that was inspiring.
“Because this neighborhood and nearby areas are collapsing. The city is too important to me to watch it fall apart. I want to make it affordable for everyone without sacrificing quality of life. No one should be forced to live in a home like this, Lilly. Especially those who are trying to provide for their families.”
A stinging sensation hit my eyes and I squeezed them shut. He sounded so damn serious when he made statements like that, as if it was his life’s mission. We’d both been born into such privilege. It was difficult to imagine how he completely understood how people like me now lived. I wouldn’t have until I was forced to live it, as kind as I’d always tried to be.
I allowed his answer and his passion and his drive to wrap around me like a warm blanket and thought of something else. “Do you know where others are moving?”
“I can look into it, but if they didn’t decide to move into one of the pre-selected buildings, it wouldn’t be ethical. Why?”
Without thinking, I touched my cheek and flinched. A heavy pulse of anger came from Hudson as his gaze focused on my bruise. “You tell me who did that to you, and I’ll make sure he’s nowhere near you ever again.”
I dropped my hand and opened the envelope he’d set on my counter.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re stubborn as hell?” Amusement washed away his anger.
I pulled out the papers, head down. “Has anyone said the same thing about you?”
“Every day of my life.”
I cracked a smile and glanced up. My first smile that didn’t feel totally broken. “I’m shocked.”
He moved to the small window near my bed while I flipped through the papers.
Yesterday, job offers.
Today, new homes.
Would there ever be a limit to how much the Valentines were willing to help me? Did I want there to be? I might not have fully trusted them or their motives, but yesterday I decided to take them like gifts, use them to my own advantage.
Anything would be better than staying in this hellhole, two doors down from Manny or in a building where he resided. And I still hadn’t called Ellen, but when she found me this place it took three weeks. I didn’t have that time right now.
One building grabbed my attention. Furnished with furniture that didn’t look like something for temporary housing. Thick comfortable couches. A building with a shining, primary-colored playground in the rear, fenced in for safety with newly spread mulch. The building itself boasted of a fitness center and a fourth-floor seating deck for residents to grill and congregate. They were styled as lofts. Brick walls, exposed beams and ductwork on the ceilings. Some of them had sliding, barn styled doors.
In short, they were incredible.
It made me imagine the life I could have had… should have had… as a graduate of Purdue, potentially law school from somewhere even more distinguished, moving into an apartment similar to this, making friends and having barbecues on Thursdays and happy hour meet-ups after work in the sun at the community grill area.
A drop of water hit the paper, smearing the colorful image of the playground, and I blinked.
“You okay?”
Hudson’s voice shocked me more than my tears.