Page 23 of Lease to Love

“Consequences.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Severe consequences,” he added. “Very severe consequences.”

“She’s a tenant. The nature of the relationship is transactional.”

“Transactional…”

I could practically see the expression on his face.

“Your toxic ass probably likes making her mad.”

"I don't particularly like anything about the situation," I said. "Proctor is a professional inconvenience."

“She’s also apparently the most beloved person in a neighborhood you desperately need to not hate you.” A beat. “Professionally speaking.”

“Thank you for the observation.”

“Any time.”

He took another bite of my cheese.

“She really is a sweet girl. When she smiled at me, her nose did that thing where it kind of—”

“I’m not interested in a physical description of my tenant, Erik.”

The silence that followed told me he’d gotten exactly the reaction he wanted.

I could practically feel him smirking through the phone from six blocks away. “Uh-huh.”

Smug little shit.

I heard him take a sip of something from my refrigerator. Probably juice, straight from the bottle.

“All I’m saying is it takes skill to make somebody like that be mean.”

“You know what else takes skill? Managing properties. Go manage some shit."

"I'm managing your wine and cheese situation."

"I want my damn key back."

"Love you too."

He hung up.

I stood on the corner of Langston and Seventh and looked up at nothing in particular.

The Summer Proctor situation was not a thing.

She was a problem with too many variables.

She was behind on rent, which made her a financial problem.

She was loud and proud in her loathing of me, which made her a community relations problem.

And she had influence in a neighborhood I desperately needed to win over, which made her a strategic problem.