Page 95 of Craving Their Omega

“Increasing rent isn’t unheard of,” Tristan says. “But it’s usually over the course of years. And you’re supposed to get prior notice before it happens.”

“I… definitely didn’t get notice. Not in enough time for me to do anything about it,” I tell him. “The landlord would come in and tell me he was raising the rent for the next month, and I’d have to scramble to figure something out.”

“How much was rent when you started out?” Dominic wants to know.

“Twenty-eight hundred a month. I remember thinking that was a pretty good deal because a lot of other places were going for over three thousand.”

“And by the time you had to close?”

I sigh. “Over five thousand. I just couldn’t keep up.”

“That’s… even if you were open for years, the rent almost doubling is insane, shortcake,” Xavier says. “That’s robbery.”

“Yeah, that’s an absurd increase. Especially considering that part of town isn’t new or being improved. The property value did not go up that much over that amount of time.”

“What do you mean?” I ask with a frown.

“It means that what your landlord did isn’t okay,” Tristan says.

I look down at the bowl of cookie base I’m working with and smile, touched. They’re being so protective of me now, and I like that. I like that it feels like they’re on my side when it comes to stuff like this.

But even still, it’s too late to do anything about it. I think about all the things the three of them had to overcome to get their businesses off the ground and keep them going, and I know I just wasn’t cut out to handle the hardship that came my way.

“It is what it is,” I tell them. “I couldn’t pay the rent, and my business failed because of it.”

Dominic looks like he wants to argue, but Xavier gets up and comes over to the kitchen island. “Can I help with anything?” he asks.

“Sure,” I say, brightening with a smile. “You can press this cookie dough into this pan. This will be the base of the lemon bars.”

“Make sure you tell him that it goes in the pan and not in his mouth,” Dom says dryly.

Xavier makes a face a him, and then follows my example, pressing cookie dough into the pan with the bottom of a measuring cup.

Once it goes into the oven, he pulls me into his arms and presses a kiss to my cheek. “You’re so good at this,” he says. “It already smells so good in here.”

“You’re just smelling me,” I reply, giggling when he nuzzles my neck with his nose.

“Same difference.”

I laugh again, my mood lifting after the depressing turn the conversation took before.

Chapter 32

Penelope

The next day we all head back to the office, and it feels good to get up and get dressed to leave the house after the nearly a week of being basically bedridden.

I’m in a good mood when Jonas brings the car up the driveway, and I wave to him excitedly when he hops out of the car to open the doors for us.

He smiles at me, inclining his head. “Ms. Penelope. It’s good to see you.”

“You too!” I gush. “How have you been?”

“Nothing exciting to report. I missed seeing you this past week. I hope everything’s okay.”

We all get into the car, and I buckle myself in before leaning forward to continue the conversation.

“I wasn’t sick or anything,” I tell him. “It was just… that time, you know?”

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