Broken Hearts On Boulevard Unirii novel Chapter 33

"I will look for somebody else to oversee the renovations."

"You must do whatever you think is right. In any case, I apologize to you. Even if you find somebody else, I don't want to sever my relationship with you. I can assure you that this will not happen again. No matter what, I will never again lie to you," she said.

"How is the purchase of the new apartment on Strada Mihai Voda proceeding?" I asked.

"All the documents are ready. All I need is your signature so that I can file it with the Land Registry office. I obtained an extension of payment for the balance until the end of October. If you sign and pay today, you will get the keys immediately," she said.

"You already received one thousand dollars, so I must still give you another nine thousand dollars. Correct? "

"Not quite. You have to give me another nine thousand seven hundred dollars," she said.

"Is that your brokerage fee?" I asked.

"My brokerage fee is five hundred dollars and the additional two hundred dollars is for the notary fee," she replied.

"Since when do I pay the notary fee?"

"The notary fee is four hundred dollars, half owned by you and half by the seller," she explained.

"To whom do I pay the nine thousand dollars?"

"To me," she answered.

I was a bit surprised and said, "Can I not pay the money directly into the seller's account?"

"You give the money to me and I will give it to the seller. Of course I will give you a receipt for payment, albeit not an official one. That will be on a separate signed sheet of paper," she explained.

I signed the documents, although I didn't understand what I was signing. I requested a copy of everything that I signed and we took a taxi to the bank. On the way, I asked the taxi driver to take us instead to my lawyer, Giorgina.

I explained the details of the deal to Giorgina and showed her the paperwork. She studied the documents and said that everything looked fine, except that the deal was not official and it was better to pay the cash directly to the seller.

"It's dough. I don't eat bread or any baked goods, as I suffer from celiac disease," she answered me.

Actually, I felt sorry for her. She maybe a liar by habit, but she is not a big cheater. I thought perhaps I was punishing her too harshly for what she had done. The punishment didn't fit the crime. After all, it was not that she had requested money for work that she had not done, and besides, it didn't cause me any financial loss. She had simply lied and told me that the workers were working when they were not. Perhaps she wanted to buy some more time. I would probably never know her true motives.

We walked from the bank to the old center of Bucharest; it took us approximately twenty minutes. Dorina seemed nervous and walked with me in complete silence.

I tried to calm her down and said to her, "I will give you another chance, but I want you to prove yourself. It is very important to me that the work is done properly, professionally and on time. The entire apartment must be rebuilt. How far are they with the work?"

"The apartment is now a skeleton. All the flooring has been removed as well as the plaster from the walls. All the door frames, doors, windows and bathroom fixtures have been ripped out. And the old water pipes and electrical wiring have been ripped out. They also tore down the separating wall as you requested," Dorina said.

"At the moment you have to find a plumber, electrician and carpenter and coordinate their work," I said.

Looking directly into her face, I said, "Let me go over our agreement once again. You will be ordering the building materials from the supplier where I opened an account."

"That is what we agreed. However this time I would like you to extend the deadline for another month and a half, since the workers are unreliable and aren't keeping up with my pace," she requested.