The Landlord's Lesson
"Teaching assistant Maryam can barely afford her flat's rising rent. When her handsome landlord Hamza learns why, he offers an arrangement neither expected to enjoy so much."
The Landlord's Lesson
"The rent increase will push me out."
Maryam hadn't meant to say it, but facing her landlord with eviction papers, the truth spilled out.
Hamza paused. "Push you out how?"
"I'm a teaching assistant. We're not exactly rolling in cash." She laughed bitterly. "I'll find somewhere else."
"Or..." He hesitated. "I could use help. Administrative work. You could reduce the rent that way."
"Like a job?"
"Like mutual benefit."
The arrangement started professionally.
Maryam helped with his property management paperwork evenings and weekends. In exchange, her rent dropped to manageable.
Except she started noticing him. His focus. His kindness to tenants. The way he worked twice as hard as any landlord she'd known.
"You're not what I expected," she admitted.
"What did you expect?"
"Someone crueler. You actually care."
"About my properties? Yes. About you?" He paused. "More than I should."
It happened late one night—paperwork scattered, exhaustion lowered defenses.
"This changes things," Maryam whispered as he kissed her.
"It clarifies things." He pulled her onto the desk. "I've wanted this for weeks."
He made love to her surrounded by lease agreements—ironic, she thought distantly.
"Meri jaan," Hamza breathed, moving inside her. "Say this isn't just the arrangement."
"It was never just the arrangement."
"Good." He thrust deeper. "Because I'm falling for you. Properly. Permanently."
"People will say I'm sleeping with my landlord for cheap rent," Maryam said afterward.
"People can say whatever they want." He held her close. "I know the truth."
"Which is?"
"That I'm desperately in love with a woman who sees me as more than my properties." He kissed her forehead. "Stay, Maryam. Not as a tenant."
"As what?"
"As mine."
The wedding was small—just teachers and tenants.
She kept working with children. He kept providing housing.
Best lease they ever signed was the marriage certificate.