Arranged Cohabitation

It all started when my parents kicked me out of the house. I was sitting at my desk working, minding my own business. When suddenly, my mom entered my room and sat down, looking solemn and uncomfortable.

“Celina, you have to go”, she said looking at me sternly over my computer. I frowned, “What do you mean?”, I asked looking up.

“You know what I mean, you’re 27 now and your father and I are worried. You need to go out on your own, you can’t live with your parents forever, reading and writing all day", she said gesturing to the myriad of documents on my desk.

“Mom, It’s my job to summarize academic journals and review novels online, which is why I'm reading and writing all the time, you know that”, I said impatiently. I don’t know what happened that made my parents suddenly want me out of the house but they had been hounding me for a month to find a new place.

I was making decent money so it’s not like I was mooching off of them and I was still saving up and didn't want to waste money on rent. I figured, why move out when I was just fine living with my amazing parents, in their spacious, fully furnished home that I grew up in…

“Sweetie, you know we love you and your brother very much. But our abundant love is what made us push Adrian out of the nest so he could spread his wings and fly. Now, he has an amazing job as an investment banker, he has good friends and a beautiful girlfriend. Don’t you want the same things for yourself? I mean when was the last time you went on a date?”, she asked raising her eyebrows.

I scoffed at her, “I haven’t really had time to think about…”, I trailed off as the realisation hit me. How long had it been?…A year? I gasped …two?! My eyes widened in shock, had it really been two years since I dated?!.

“See? This is what I’m talking about, you’re wasting away in here and you don’t even realise it!”, she exclaimed.

“I mean I guess it’s been a while…but I’m not wasting away, don’t be dramatic”, I said rolling my eyes. “And besides, I don’t need to move out to improve my social life, why are you kicking me out? ”, I asked frowning.

“Well it's like I said, just as our abundant love made us push Adrian out of the nest, we're doing the same for you, pushing you out of the nest so you can spread your wings and fly. Maybe it will help you find something that you actually love doing", she said then slyly peeked at me under her eyelashes.

When my eyebrows rose in question, she sighed, “Your father and I also need some time alone, which is a little difficult when you're always here”. My eyes widened, “oooh”, I said sitting back. So that’s the real reason why I’m being kicked out of my own home?!

“Mom!” I yelled.

“What?!”, she yelled back. “You're not a child anymore Celina and we need our privacy”, she said quickly.

What is she talking about? Having us around never stopped them from being lovey dovey before. Adrian and I are scarred for life because of all the disturbing displays of affection they subjected us to. They were always like those couples who loved each other a little more than they loved their kids.

“Really mom?…”, I asked disbelievingly. Despite the general trauma, seeing their love was comforting and reassuring. They gave us everything we wanted and needed, we may not have been the wealthiest family but we did have a comfortable and happy life.

She shifted forward and took both my hands in hers, “Look, I know you like living with us and we like living with you too. You are our youngest, our sweet baby girl. Us needing privacy is only an added bonus, what we really want is for you to go out there and live your life. Go date, find a passion, travel, it doesn’t matter, just …go…”, she said and I sighed.

I mean I guess I understood where they were coming from, it was the fact that I’d never lived on my own before that scared the hell out of me. “We’ll pay for your first 3 months rent and you can visit us anytime as often as you want... just call first”, she said chuckling when I grimaced.

Then she stood up and came around my desk opening her arms for a hug, I reluctantly stood up and hugged her, she sighed as she patted my back, ignoring my obvious misery.

* * *

Fast forward to a year later, I was living in an upscale university town called Bell Ridge Village, in a small but gorgeous apartment overlooking a bustling neighborhood.

Besides moving to another town, I also used the money that I’d saved up, plus a generous donation from a wealthy benefactor to build a bookstore cafe. My benefactor was Mrs Florence Alderidge, a beautiful and rich 86 year old lady who happened to own the building.

She liked me and the idea for my cafe so much that she rented it to me for next to nothing and even helped me renovate. She would come in, read and drink tea all the time and sometimes, I would join her and we’d have long conversations about men, politics, fashion, her “bratty” kids, her four ex-husbands, you name it.

She was so full of life and funny and when she died, I was devastated. She was my friend and seeing someone I cared about collapse right in front of me, is something I could never forget.

A week after her funeral, Florence’s eldest son Lincoln Alderidge called me and introduced himself, before telling me he was terminating my lease and giving me 30 days to move. It had only been a week, and before she was even cold in the ground, he was already trying to throw me out.

"Miss Langley! You have a meeting at 4pm with Mr Alderidge". My 22 year old employee’s loud voice interrupted my thoughts as he peeked into my office.

"Didn't we discuss knocking Nick…and calling me ‘miss Langley? it makes me feel like I'm a hundred", I said glaring at him.

He blinked at me, "But, I did knock…and I’m trying to be more proper since I’m graduating soon", he said, I blinked at him and he blinked back.

After a 3 second pause I gave up and sighed, “I'll be right out", I said.

He smiled widely, “Okay!” and left. I was meeting with Lincoln for the second time now, the first time was brief, he formally introduced himself and told me that he had plans for the cafe which is why I had to move and that we should meet again to discuss details and I had been tense ever since.

Celina’s cafe was just an abandoned building with good bones and Florence wanted to start a passion project there to keep herself busy but didn’t know what to do, which is when I came in to ask about the space, and that’s how we met.

It was a beautiful building to begin with and we didn't need to spend too much on renovations, it was just the right kind of business in a socially vibrant and quintessential university town like Bell Ridge Village and most importantly, it was where I met Miss Florence, so I couldn’t give it up that easily.

* * *

We were meeting at the Alderidge Manor, which was Mr and Mrs Alderidge’s home since they’d gotten married 47 years ago. When Nick and I arrived, Lincoln was standing by the large windows of the study looking outside at the wide, well-manicured lawn and garden while speaking on the phone.

He turned around once when Nick and I came in and had been on the phone for the past 5 minutes. Lincoln Alderidge was a tall man in his late forties to early fifties, with short salt and pepper hair and glasses connected by a thin leather strap around his neck and was wearing a modest but perfectly tailored dark gray suit. Two more minutes passed by before he hung up the phone and got straight to the point, without so much as an apology.

"Miss Langley, my mother’s attorney James Hudson is going to call you soon, apparently my mother put you in her will", he said apathetically. Before I could react to that, he sat down, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his straight nose and started looking through the neatly stacked pile of papers on his desk.

"The lease on the café will be over in a month, but I suggest you start packing and find another place now, to avoid further inconvenience of course”, he continued. He placed a bunch of papers in front of me, looked through his papers again, gave me more papers, then he picked up a pen and started writing on his notebook.

Nick grabbed the papers and started reading through them silently. After writing for a few seconds he sighed, "I will give you at least 2 months to move...I wouldn't want to leave you out on the streets, my dear mother would not have liked that", he said as he finished writing. At that point, Nick and I were staring at him incredulously, "I’m sure that will be more than enough time to find another place?" he asked, his hands intertwined on the desk.

Nick and I looked at each other and then back at him. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and cleared my throat, “Mr Alderidge, I’m sure that you have all the rights to the property, but is there anyway I could convince you to reconsider?”, I asked politely.

“I have already made my decision miss Langley”, he said unwavering.

“Yes I understand that but the café is in such a good location and it’s doing really well, I have been paying my rent on time every month --”…

“Miss Langley, the rent that you were paying is nowhere near what that place is actually worth”, he interrupted. I quickly decided to ignore the annoyance that was flaring up inside me at being so rudely interrupted.

“Mr Alderidge, as you may have noticed, your mother and I had a unique arrangement because of her love for the café. But if that's what you’re concerned about, then I don't mind paying the full rent, just please let me keep the café”, I said as I joined my hands together and pleaded with him as a last resort to appeal to whatever remnants of sympathy he had left. He continued to look at me indifferently, so I tried my luck one more time.

“Surely you don’t want to just get rid of something your mother loved so much…do you?”, I asked, hating that I was using Florence to guilt trip her son.

He sighed and took off his glasses, crossed his arms and settled back into his chair. “Miss Langley, I understand that you had a special relationship with my mother, but I am her son and as you said, I have every right to take back what belonged to my mother. If we indulged everyone by succumbing on small matters like this, we would probably be bankrupt by now. I know that this is a difficult time for you but it can’t be more difficult than mine and our family. I just want things to move along smoothly so we can all move on. There are plenty of other buildings to rent out in this neighborhood, so please Miss Langley, there’s no need to be selfish and make this situation all about you, by dragging it out farther than it needs to be”, he said looking at me like he was finished now.

I shot up to my feet and slammed my hands on the desk, glaring at him before I could stop myself and it caught them both off guard as they jumped. Mr Alderidge first stared at me wide eyed like he was waiting for me to do something, like hit him. But when it was clear that I wasn’t going to do anything, he fixed himself and cleared his throat. Nick on the other hand stared at me wide eyed before picking up the papers that flew out of his hands when he jumped.

When I snapped out of it and realised what just happened, I laughed nervously and sat back down. I pulled myself together and cleared my throat. “Mr Alderidge if I may ask…you are in politics and this is a random building in a university town, what are you going to do with it?”, I asked curiously and he looked at me warily before straightening his posture and clearing his throat again.

“I will be putting it on sale, it is prime real estate afterall and since my mother is no longer with us and the fact that we are all constantly travelling due to our various personal and work-related affairs, there is no need to stay connected to this town anymore. I will be selling the house, the café as well as other assets that she didn’t leave to my siblings”, he said and I looked scornfully into his dead gray eyes. Then silently turned my head around raising my eyebrows questioningly at Nick.

He shrugged, “If Mrs Alderidge left the cafe in his name, he can do whatever he wants with it”.

* * *

“Maybe she didn’t leave the café to him, maybe she left it to one of her other children, maybe someone more personable that we can convince?”, I said, on our drive back to the café.

“But that means you will either have to contact all of them before they read the will, and they probably don’t know who she left it to yet or you could try contacting her lawyers but that will be a waste of time because they will definitely not tell you anything. But if what Lincoln said is true and they are as busy as he says, they will probably want to sell the café and move on too”, he said before taking a huge bite off his sub-sandwich. I sighed shaking my head but before I could reply, my car rang.

“Hello?”, I answered.

“Hello, am I speaking to Miss Celina Langley?”, a male voice asked.

“Yes”, I said looking at Nick questioningly and he shrugged.

“Great, My name is James Hudson from Hudson Attorneys. The late Mrs Alderidge had requested that you be present at the reading of her last will and testament. The meeting will be at the Alderidge Manor tomorrow at 9 am sharp, will you be able to attend miss Langley?", he asked and I paused surprised. When I turned to Nick, he was wide eyed and nodding frantically with his cheeks puffed out full of food.

“Uh yes, I will make myself available Mr Hudson”, I said uncertainly.

“If it’s too short notice we can reschedule. Mrs Alderidge said that it was absolutely imperative that you attend”, he said and I raised my eyebrows. Why would she want me to attend so badly?

“No, that’s okay Mr Hudson, I can make it tomorrow”, I said politely.

“Great, do we need to send a car for you?”, he asked and I shook my head before I realised he couldn’t see me.

“No thank you, I will drive”, I said laughing awkwardly.

“Alright we’ll see you there and remember, 9am sharp!”, he said before hanging up.

We stayed silent for the remainder of the trip back, but when we arrived, Nick finally broke down. “What do you think she left you?”, he asked when we got out of the car. “Maybe she left you the café”, he said trying to catch up to me as I speed walked into the café, ignoring him.

“Miss Langley?! miss Langley!”, he yelled running after me.

I threw my bag on my office sofa and spun around abruptly, and he almost fell back trying to avoid bumping into me, “Oh my god Nick! stop calling me that!”, I snapped throwing my hands up in the air and myself into my comfortable chair.

He completely ignored my outburst…“she definitely left you the café, I mean what else could it be?”, he said tapping his finger on his chin in the universal “thinking” expression. I sighed and shook my head as I turned on my computer, thinking of a better time when he was new and scared of me.

“Go. Home”, I said through gritted teeth and he stepped back a little, but acted like he didn’t. “Come on Miss Celina, it has to be the café, if I knew Mrs Alderidge was this generous I would’ve asked her for more than just food and candy…”, he said trailing off.

I sighed, “Of course it’s possible that it’s the café, but I don’t want to get my hopes up. Giving someone a whole building is a big deal and besides, Mrs Alderidge and I had a lot in common, she could have left me a number of other things. And honestly, I’m still mourning her death to have the energy to deal with this whole family drama. Now go home!”, I shoo'd him away and he looked down sadly before reluctantly nodding and going away.

As I finished up some of the work I was doing earlier, I couldn’t help but mull over this crazy situation over and over again. What was I going to do if she really did leave the café to Lincoln? I swiveled my chair around to look outside at the beautiful garden.

There were various gorgeous flowers surrounding the building, so my customers would enjoy looking at the flowers and plants while they read their books and drank their beverages. The garden was an idea Mrs Alderidge came up with while we were doing the renovations and I wasn’t very keen on it because I thought it was basic.

* * *

We were standing in front of the fortified glass wall on the second floor, watching the moving guys move all the furniture inside, the lawn was green and neat and we were standing there, trying to figure out what was missing.

“Maybe we should add some tables, chairs and umbrellas on the lawn so people can read there?”, I suggested.

“If you put people out there, the grass will go brown and thin over time”, Mrs Alderidge answered, hmm good point, I thought.

“Ooh I know, a Koi pond!”, I said snapping my fingers excitedly. She looked at me like I was a dense child, “no, Koi ponds are a huge waste of money, they require way too much space which you do not have, expensive maintenance work--”, stopping as the guy in charge of the movers walked in.

“Here’s your delivery Mrs Alderidge, I already signed for it as you requested”, he said.

In his hands was a gorgeous bouquet of pink peonies. She took the flowers with a smile, “thank you Patrick”, she said and he nodded and went out. Then she continued, “-- not to mention, they’re incredibly boring, it’s just fish swimming in a pond, a fountain or a water fall is a much better option… or”, she paused while looking at her bouquet. “A good ole fashion flower garden”, she said smiling at me sweetly over her bouquet.

“But... isn’t that boring too”, I glowered.

“Not if you add a water feature. At least flowers are beautiful and don’t cost a fortune to feed and take care of over time. You can also have a fountain or a cascading waterfall, which are great additions to a garden, plus they’re very calming and relaxing”, she said. I thought about it for a bit and then sighed resignedly. Instead of admitting that she may be right, I changed the subject.

“I see you’re working on husband number 5”, I said wryly.

And she laughed and laughed, “Absolutely not, I’m just entertaining myself with this one. So is that a yes on the garden?”, at first I glowered and looked away from her, then gave a barely noticeable nod.

“Great! I know a guy!”, she said smiling brightly as she hurried on out with her bouquet.

* * *

I don’t know what I was thinking back then cause now the garden was my favourite feature of the cafe, it just created such a calming vibe. We also did a cascading waterfall, which the customers loved.

After a few minutes I told my myself to calm down. There was no way all of her kids were as bad as Lincoln, I mean Mrs Alderidge raised them. But if they really were, I wouldn't waste my time fighting them, I would simply back off, pack up and find myself another place.

The next day I made sure to dress well and elegantly, in a long sleeved, midi length, green chiffon dress, that perfectly complimented my caramel skin with white heels. Then I tied my long black curly hair in a simple updo leaving some wisps out to frame my face.

I got there very early and ended up sitting alone in the big, elaborate study where the meeting was supposed to be. I figured being ridiculously early was better than being a little late and the staff offered me tea and cookies and told me to make myself at home.

That wasn't my first time at the Manor, I'd been there multiple times before with Mrs Alderidge, but I hadn't seen the study properly except for the time she gave me a home tour. I didn’t really see it again except in passing, mainly because I wasn’t really interested in it, but also because Mrs Alderidge told me that she used it after her husband's death and now and again her kids used it when they came over. I didn’t want to disturb anything important.

Now, I had a chance to really take a good look and as far as studies go, it was gorgeous and cozy. Rich wood everywhere, vintage accent walls, beautiful old paintings, large book shelves that took up two adjacent walls with a ladder attached to them, and a wood burning fire place. There were four quilted leather sofas facing each other with a big rectangular coffee table in the middle. There was also a long leather couch by the large windows beside the bookshelves and last but not least, the large wooden desk with an antique desk lamp by the other large window, everything looked so antique and luxurious.

When I was done touring the study, I decided to randomly pick a book from the bookshelf and read it while I waited just to calm down my nerves. However, 10 minutes into the book and it wasn't working, I was still nervous and I wasn't even sure what this book was about, maybe aeroplanes or Jets? After 5 more minutes, I realized that maybe the reason I wasn’t able to concentrate was because that book was incredibly boring.

When I returned it to the bookshelf, it was 8:05 and my pot of tea was long gone. I was so bored that I went to the windows behind the desk to look outside. It was so quiet that I could hear the water from the sprinklers, the snipping from the gardeners trimming the hedges and birds chirping.

So sweet and peaceful that I leaned on the frame, closed my eyes and breathe deeply, just enjoying all the different sounds. I stayed there for a little while enjoying the morning breeze, then out of nowhere I shuddered, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden that I opened my eyes and looked around for a few seconds, inside and outside.

When I didn’t see anyone, I shrugged and pushed the feeling away, it was probably just the cold breeze anyway. So reluctantly I decided to step away from the window before I ended up catching a cold.

A soft knock came through just after I'd closed the windows and the door opened before I could say anything. A man that looked to be in his forties came in wearing a navy blue suit, with brown slicked back hair. We looked at each other awkwardly for a second, before I gave him a small smile as he fully entered the study.

“Miss Langley, the staff told me that you’d arrived already, I’m James Hudson we spoke on the phone”, he said and extended his hand for a hand shake. “You can call me Celina, and it’s a pleasure to meet you sir”, I replied politely and shook his hand.

He laughed, “Its a pleasure to finally meet you too Celina, I’ve heard so much about you, and please James is fine”, he said as he placed his briefcase on the coffee table and took out some documents.

“You have?”, I asked disbelieving. Then I caught a glimpse of the time on my watch and it almost knocked me over. 9:05?! How? Where did the time go? it was 8:05 2 minutes ago!

“Oh yes, good things of course”, he said smiling while he sat down on one of the sodas and organised his documents.

“Everyone is coming in from different places, so there may be a slight delay, please take a seat”, he said interrupting my thoughts and I nodded and sat down on the sofa in front of him.

Sitting in this study, I couldn’t help but think about Mrs Alderidge, how we would sit in the patio, drinking and chatting and how she doted on her collection of custom made tea sets. I only knew Mrs Alderidge for about 2 years but we got along like we’d known each other for decades, and being here in her home without her, felt a bit uncomfortable. When he finished organising his papers, we started hearing cars outside and multiple doors opening and closing, did they all arrive at the same time? I wondered.

“The family has arrived”, he announced as he stood up and went to the window. I decided to move to the long leather couch by the window, just to give them some space, while also trying to get a better handle on my nerves. I had never met Mrs Alderidge’s children before her funeral, I only knew about them through the stories she told me and because I doubted that she’d told them about me, I gave them their privacy and didn't engage with them at all that day. I had no idea how they were going to react to having a stranger in their mother’s house, nevermind attending the reading of her will.

I stood up when they came in one by one and it was like that famous moment in a movie when the lead character shows up and they look amazing and cool and they enter the room in slow motion. That’s how it was to me, they were all so tall and good-looking and did I mention tall? Mrs Alderidge was average height and only an inch or two taller in her prime, it must have been from their dads.

They all came in greeting James familiarly and were surprised when they discovered the other person in the room. They greeted me politely from afar and then very conspicuously whispered to James. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but judging from the casual glances being thrown my way, it was obvious that they were asking him about me.

Mrs Alderidge had 5 children, Lincoln was the oldest, then Lucas, Rosalind, Logan and the youngest Reese. Logan and Reese’s father was Mr Alderidge and the other three had different fathers, however, Mrs Alderidge raised them all together. Lincoln came into study last, even though he’d been staying at the Manor since the funeral.

He came in and searched around and when he found me, he frowned and I reflexively frowned back, which made him scoff and sit down, looking away. You would've sworn I was after his entire family fortune. These were Mrs Alderidge's personal things, which was even less than pocket change to them when you considered their general networth, why was he being such a jerk about this?

I shook my head at him before my eyes suddenly got averted and were instantly captured by a pair of silver eyes. Those were not dead though, they were brilliant an bright. Logan, Mrs Alderidge’s youngest son was standing by the door with his arms crossed, looking at me like he was confused about something.

I couldn’t help but look at him right back, not because I wanted to but because he caught me off guard, I wasn’t expecting anyone to be looking at me. We stayed like that for several seconds, before we were interrupted by James clearing his throat. I looked around and realized that while I was having my little passive-aggressive moment with Lincoln, then the weird moment with Logan, everyone was now seated (except for James and Logan), and done exchanging greetings and pleasantries.

“Thank you all for being here, I know that Mrs Alderidge made sure that attendance was mandatory, but she did that because she wanted you all in the same room as a dying wish, since she could rarely see all of you together when she was alive”, he said. But before anyone could respond he continued, ”anyway here it goes", he said holding a document in his hand. "I, Florence Agnes Alderidge, declare this document to be my Last Will and Testament"…

* * *