Serendipitous Love (Completed)

She raise my rent.

With this sentence I greet my two sisters when they finally met for the crisis meeting I had called . The crisis meeting takes place in my kitchen, where I have provided glasses and a bit of homemade and commercial schnapps. Which of these I'll pour in depends on how deep my mood will sink because of this terrible news.

"I beg your pardon?" Asks Anja, the oldest of the three of us, and takes a seat across from me at the dining table. She has pinned up her blonde hair, and sparkling creoles dangle from her ears.

"I told you that my landlord passed away a few weeks ago," I begin and sigh very deeply and long. For hours I have apparently been doing nothing more than releasing my breaths in this meaningful way. “Well, the building where my café is located was bought by some real estate shark, and since my old contract is about to expire in two months, I received a letter today saying that my rent will be increased by thirty percent. I have no idea how to find this money. "

"Didn't you always say that you got off pretty cheaply so far?" Protests Roni, our third member and the salami between the sandwich made by Anja as the oldest and I as the youngest of the three Leimann sisters.

»Yes, so far the rent has been quite low, so I got on well and was able to make a little profit every month to treat myself to something besides all the expenses. But if it is increased now, then I must quickly think about where to find the extra money. Lately, the number of visitors has also decreased slightly, which is not exactly good for business. Especially not if the rent is also increased. "

It has always been my dream to be self-employed, and three years ago I was finally able to achieve this dream with the help of my family, friends and a loan. After a very difficult start-up period in which absolutely nothing was going to work, Café SchLemma was finally able to establish itself and ran surprisingly well for a while - until the declining number of visitors began to give me a bit of a headache. I'm proud of my little shop and of what my employees and I have achieved so far. But I have no idea what to do next if my new landlord increases the rent so drastically and I can't increase my clientele again.

"You want me out," is my desperate résumé. "It says here in the letter that you will be happy to take over my premises if I do not agree to the conditions."

Anja takes the letter that I was holding in my restless fingers the whole time from my hands and reads it through. "Can you just do it like that?" She finally asks.

"The building is theirs, and my old lease is about to expire ... I'm sure you can do that," I confirm quietly, reaching for the bottle of vodka behind the homemade schnapps. That has to serve first.

“What a bummer!” Scolds Roni, whose full name is Veronika, named after our grandmother. But she finds him terrible and beheads anyone who should call her that. Even now she looks like she would like to commit an ugly murder. "Those lousy pigs."

"You can say that out loud." I nod to her.

"Such a crap! Those lousy pigs! ”She repeats louder and holds out her glass so I can pour some of the vodka. Anja prefers to use the schnapps and grimaces immediately after the next sip.

For the next few minutes we sit in silence, drink the alcohol in small sips and stare gloomily at the table top. The perplexity that hovers in the air next to the smell of the strong alcohol is almost palpable. I wish I could just throw them away with these.

"And if you ask Papa to -"

"Absolutely not!" I interrupt Anja's suggestion before she can finish it. “I'm not going to ask our father for money. That would only confirm his opinion, I would have taken over the café. And besides, I haven't spoken to him for three years, ”I add and empty the rest of my glass in one gulp. The devil's stuff almost burns my throat away.

Since our father left our mother a good three years ago for a younger woman, after my mother had stood by him for almost thirty years, I have completely struck him off my life. I just couldn't and can't forgive him for abandoning his wife after so long. And even less can I forgive him for how much pain and grief he caused her with his volatility. I can no longer count the nights that I and one of my sisters spent with our broken-up mother. There were innumerable, and each worse than the other.

"It was just a suggestion," grumbles Anja. You and our younger brother are the only ones who are still in contact with Klaus Leimann. Most of their loyalty is to our mother, but he's still their father and they love him despite his faults. Of course, I still love him myself, after all, he has accompanied me through life for twenty-three years, even if he was not there most of the time and was not working. Yet my resentment and disappointment are greater than the affection and family ties. The same goes for our mother and Roni, who also hardly speak a word to him and avoid him as much as possible.

"What if you talk to the people at the company that bought the building again?" Anja protests a moment later. "Maybe they'll come a little closer to you?"

"I will," I assure her with a stubborn nod. “I'll fight for my shop, I'll tell you. Nothing and no one will drive me there, even if I have to toil twenty-four hours a day to get the rent. Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil, I'll be fine! "

"We'll find a solution that won't take you beyond your limits." Roni puts one hand on my forearm and holds out her empty glass in the other.

Anja also puts an arm around my shoulders and smiles confidently at me. "You managed to build your café and make it flourish, everything else is a piece of cake!"