After a minute, I moved over a little so I could rest my head on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead before scooping me up so I was practically on his lap.
“Good.” His stepping up like this was making me weak with relief and gratitude.
“Libe will have even more people to give her undivided attention, and I’ll get to see Dinorah again. I actually got a little gift for her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him at the mention of a gift, and he held up his hands. “I stayed within your price limit for her gift, too!” I’d put my foot down on gift giving limits because my budget was not huge, and I knew how extra he could get.
“Thank you.”
“It’ll be nice to be together tomorrow. I hope it helps your mom to come and share the day with us.” He pulled me even tighter, brushing kisses on my brow, and all I wanted was to stay right there. I closed my eyes, hoping to rest a few minutes before going over to my mom’s. “Me, too.”
“Feliz Navidad, Camilo!” I was about to take the stairs up to the apartment when I saw Antonio, the super of my mom’s building walking towards me. I liked Antonio; he’d been working here for like fifteen years and was the most helpful guy in the world, especially when it came to my mom. I’d always suspected he had a bit of a crush on her.
“Hey, Antonio. Feliz Navidad,” I said, genuinely happy to see him. He playfully slapped my attempt at a handshake away and gave me a one-armed hug and a pat on the back.
“Are you here to spend Nochebuena with Dinorah?” he asked glancing up the stairs as if he expected to see her there. I nodded and looked up at my mom’s door, which I immediately noticed didn’t have the usual wreath this year.
“Yeah, I am.”
He made a sound of approval and then stepped a little closer to me, his voice barely above a whisper when he spoke.
“Good. Listen, Camilo. I don’t want to worry you or anything, but have you guys figured out what you’re going to do about the rent increase?”
Rent increase?
I shook my head in confusion. “Mama hasn’t said anything about her rent going up.”
Antonio grimaced and muttered a curse. “Your mother is a stubborn woman.” He held up his hands, like he knew he was about to jump deep into chisme territory but was going in anyway. “You know how much I care about Dinorah, and I don’t want her to lose her apartment to this mess.”
Loseher apartment?
I opened my mouth to ask some questions, but before I could say anything, Antonio finished filling me in. “She’s always been a great tenant. If the owners heard I’m even talking about this, I would be in deep shit.”
“Okay now you’re really worrying me,” I said, already feeling the tension settle on my shoulders and neck.
He looked around again and started talking again in a really low voice. “About ten months ago, the owners sent out a letter saying they were going to increase the rent because of some of the ‘capital improvements’ they’d done to the building.” He made air quotes for theimprovementspart. “You know all the stuff they did in the common areas and the new elevator.”
I nodded, still too stunned to talk. My mother had not said a word about any of this.
“The increase wasn’t the same for everyone, but for some people it got up to a few hundred dollars more per month. The tenants were pissed and said they weren’t going to pay it. So the management backed off and said they’d give people a year to get it together and pay it back. The deadline is coming up soon.” His brows dipped then, and I could tell he was worried about my mom. “Make sure Dinorah gets up to date on it.”
“Okay.” That was the only thing I could manage with my thoughts going at a hundred miles per hour.
He lowered his head for this part and his voice was so low I could barely hear him.
“What they want is for people to start leaving those rent stabilized apartments, so they can lease them out for twice as much. You didn’t hear any of this from me, of course.”
It was just like my mother to “forget” to tell me something like this.
“I had no idea any of this was going on. Thanks for telling me, Antonio. I’ll talk to her about it today.”
I was so fucking tired of this gentrification shit. Where were people supposed to go? My mother had been in this apartment for twenty years, and now she was supposed to leave and go where? My head was pounding just thinking of how much back rent she’d let accumulate for an entire year.
“No problem, I know she’s going to be pissed at me.” He gave me a rueful smile. “But this is some bullshit they’re pulling here. Since the old owner died and his kids took over, this place has gone to hell.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, looking disgusted. I didn’t even know what to say. I gave him a last wave as I walked up the stairs to my mom’s place.
I had no clue how much her increase had been, but it was probably adding up fast.
I got to the apartment and opened the door and found my mom sitting in her dark living room smoking a cigarette. I noticed she was still wearing her pajamas. My mom sitting in the dark in her pajamas at two p.m. on Christmas Eve was not good.
