Rent Tango: Maureen Novels & Stories

My mom is 71 years old. Thanks to her arthritis acting up, she's in so much pain that she can't descend the stairs at all. She tentatively calls me and asks if she can rent an apartment that comes with an elevator of its own. But my wife, Lucy Glaser, brings out the household ledger and points at the red numbers on the pages. "Last month, you bought yourself a tie, which is 300 dollars beyond our monthly budget. Yet now you're planning on adding another impulsive expense?" Only then do I realize that I don't even have the freedom to buy myself a tie despite earning an annual salary of tens of millions of dollars. My mom is still trying to explain herself in a humble tone over the phone. "Oh, please don't feel troubled about it, Caleb. I was just asking on a whim. I've already grown used to my old home anyway…" After I end the call, I feel rather stuffy in my chest. What's there for me to feel troubled about? After all, I'm a partner of a top-tier law firm who earns tens of millions of dollars every year. The one who keeps standing in my way is Lucy, who's only a mid-level lawyer yet insists on controlling my finances. She also calls herself the best candidate for the household asset allocation.

My boyfriend, Karl Boone, was one of the adopted sons my father took in. Before he left, he vowed solemnly, "If I lose this battle, I'm not worthy of marrying you. And if I win, I'll rent out Disneyland and throw a grand wedding for you." I tore up all the marriage contracts from the local noble heirs and waited for him for two full years. But when he returned, he knelt before my father, with a pregnant woman hiding behind him. "I'll sacrifice everything I gained overseas to marry Karen," he said, shielding the woman. "She's innocent and fragile, having suffered through hardships in the slums. She's not like Tabitha, who has had everything from birth." My father's gaze swept over me, and the entire room fell silent. Everyone knew that when I lost my temper, I could tear down the house and make them pay dearly. But instead, I greeted the woman with a sweet smile. "Hi there." That night, I closed my eyes and picked one of the blind boxes containing names of potential suitors. As luck would have it, I picked Karl's arch-enemy. On our wedding day, Karl barged in wearing a bomb strapped to his body. "Tabitha, if you dare marry him, we'll die together!"

After my older sister Rachelle came home from dialysis, the atmosphere at home was suffocating. She curled up on the couch, thin as a rail. She was nagging me hard and telling me not to tire myself out too much at work. Dad was by the door smoking. To get money to treat Rachelle’s condition, he had sold our old house and land. Dirty and muddied, my fiance, who had always viewed Rachelle as a sister of his own, brought home his week’s salary. They all lamented how unfair life was to already poor and suffering people who had to suffer even more. I looked at myself in the mirror with my bleeding nose and flushed away the report with my acute leukemia diagnosis. During dinner, Dad suddenly said, “Ryleigh, Rachelle needs a kidney. You’re healthy and young. You might be a match.” I looked at Rachelle’s pleading eyes and coldly put my cutlery down. “I won’t do it. I’ll be a cripple with one less kidney. How am I supposed to find someone to marry then?” Dad slapped me hard, even as my fiance called me ungrateful. I slammed the door shut as I left. I looked for the nearest room to the hospital to rent so that I could wait it out until I died. The room I found was only five blocks away from the organ donation center.

On Christmas Eve, my friend, Lenny Gibson, sends me a text message. "I've rented a Maybach for our cat so that we can go back to our hometown for the holidays. It'll be seven thousand dollars per person. The car is fitted with air conditioning and security cameras. Don't you think this is a good deal?" I glance at my bank app, which has just deducted my monthly house mortgage from my account. "Nah. Bebe isn't a spoiled princess. I can't afford to rent such an expensive car." The next day, I receive a selfie of Lenny hugging Bebe while seated in the Maybach. "It's such a shame that you aren't here, Noah. The Maybach's owner is a hot chick, not to mention she's kind-hearted enough to give me a ride home as well!" On the evening of Christmas, I hear sounds of rapid knocking coming from the front door as soon as I enter the house. Lenny's anxious parents can be seen standing on the doorstep. "Is Lenny here with you? He hasn't come home at all! He told us yesterday that he wanted to prepare a birthday gift for you, so he had us give him 20 thousand dollars!" Before I can recover from my shock, the police come knocking on my door as well. It turns out that I'm the last person Lenny has contacted…

"Fangs, Friends, and Fumbling Feelings." 
 "What’s scarier—falling for your best friend or turning into a werewolf?” Dale thought coming out to his parents was the hardest thing he'd ever do. Then, he turned into a werewolf. With his best friend, Kirk—a self-appointed expert in bad advice and a fabulous wardrobe—by his side, Dale must navigate love, fur, and family drama… without biting anyone’s head off. All Dale had wanted was a little night out, but when a mysterious bite left him with strange urges and even stranger body hair, he realized his life just got much hairier. With his best friend Kirk, who’s more than happy to point out every supernatural misstep, Dale is plunged into a werewolf love triangle that pits him against tradition, transformation, and a particularly hunky alpha named Juke. As Dale fumbles through newfound powers (and fur), he has to figure out if love is worth the bite or if he’s doomed to be the next gay virgin martyr of the werewolf world. One thing’s for sure: Dale’s love life is about to get beastly! After a disastrous night out, Dale wakes up to find he’s gone from worrying about his rent to worrying about his claws. Now, with Kirk playing cheerleader and reluctant werewolf coach, Dale must decide between life as a lone wolf or rolling with the pack (and the ridiculously attractive alpha Juke). In this romcom packed with supernatural mishaps and laugh-out-loud twists, Dale learns that sometimes, love bites—and he just might like it.

With a bag of vegetables gifted by the previous tenant in hand, I was on my way to collect rent from the third household when I unexpectedly ran into someone at the entrance of the community. The man frowned, his eyes fixed on the vegetables I carried, as though he couldn't fathom how I had ended up like this after leaving him. Following his gaze, I instinctively shifted the vegetables behind my back. My eyes dropped to the muddy water on the pavement, and I never would have imagined bumping into my ex-boyfriend—the one who had grown up with a silver spoon—in this aging neighborhood. He noticed my movement, and for a moment, something flickered in his expression: a mix of pity and recognition. "Since you've already learned your lesson," he said, "come back with me." At his words, I instinctively stepped back half a pace. "Who said I'm going back with you?" My rejection seemed to sting, darkening his face. "I know you're still blaming me for giving Rachel a child," he muttered, "but it's been three years. Isn't it time to stop? As long as you come back, we can be the same as before." Three years, huh? How quickly time had passed. Thinking of my little girl at home, still babbling her first words, I couldn't help but smile and shake my head. "Let's leave it at that. Go home and live your life with Rachel. My daughter's waiting for me to go back and make her food."

On the first day of work, my boss, Wayne Richmond, gives everyone a nice bonus to start the year. Some receive 100 dollars, while others receive 200 dollars. When it's my turn, all I get is a piece of A4 paper. The rent, the management fee, and the utility bills, all from last year, are printed on the paper. At the end, I see Wayne's bank account number listed there. Wayne just looks at me haughtily as he says, "Meredith, you took the liberty to take on overtime shifts that last for more than a thousand hours last year. But despite the long hours, you didn't really bring much profit to the table. "That's why you should be the one paying for the property fees and the utility bills, seeing as you've wasted so much resources. This shouldn't be an outrageous request, right?" When I try to argue with Wayne, he just waves a hand at me impatiently. "I'm already charging you the lowest rate. Hurry up and pay the bills. Don't delay the work hours for everyone." As I stare at the piece of paper, I just smile instead of lashing out at Wayne. Everyone in the company doesn't know that I'm actually the owner of the building this company is based in. That means Wayne is giving me, the owner, the bill that he's supposed to be paying. In that case, I shall be retrieving every single cent that I've spent on this company. I won't be playing nice anymore.

She sold her soul for survival. Now she’s trapped in his inferno. I was supposed to serve drinks at an exclusive masquerade. I never planned to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. But the man who bought me? He wasn’t wearing a mask. He was the mask. Lucian Devlin isn’t just any man. He’s dangerous, powerful, and terrifyingly beautiful. A billionaire with a taste for control and a past cloaked in darkness, Lucian didn’t want a woman, he wanted a possession. What Serena didn’t know was that the contract she signed bound her to him for thirty days. Thirty nights of submission, of twisted games and sinful pleasures. Thirty days of burning where escape is impossible and maybe, deep down, unwanted. Serena needs the money. Her family is drowning, the rent is due, bills are piling, her mother dying, her siblings thrown out of school and barely surviving. But staying means risking everything: her body, her sanity, and her heart. Lucian swore he'd never love again. That what he touches, he destroys. But the more he breaks her rules, the more she shatters his. And when obsession turns to something far more dangerous, walking away won’t be an option for either of them. He warned her: she’d beg before this was over. I swore I’d never be owned again. But there’s something about being his plaything that feels a lot like power. A dangerous love story where surrender feels like sin... and salvation. Rated 18+ | Explicit. Addictive. Emotionally brutal.

Matt & Nicole have been married for 7 years, but during that time they have not had a child. It's not without reason that it all happened. They both knew that Nicole was infertile and the doctor had sentenced her to not being able to get pregnant. They love each other, of course, but love alone will never be enough, as an Alpha, pride comes first. Even though he never said it, deep down in Matt's heart he really wanted a child, who could later become his successor. But everything changed when Kate came into their lives, Kate worked as a maid in the big mansion. Not only Kate but there are two other maids working there, Mona and Raya. They are all Omegas, but the condition for being able to work there is that they do not work to serve the Alpha, but to accompany and fulfill the needs of Luna, Nicole. As time went on, Kate and Nicole became the closest, they spent more time together and made their two friends Mona and Raya a little jealous of that closeness. Until one day, Nicole deliberately brought Matt and Kate together somewhere. To both of them' surprise, Matt had seen Kate before but for Kate this was her first time seeing the Alpha. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss something very important, about children. Nicole wanted to rent Kate's womb so they could have children, the selfish attitude shown by Nicole was of course opposed by the Alpha, Matt. But Nicole was willing to pay, and give anything to Kate in exchange, Kate, who was silent at that time, finally agreed. She wanted to be pregnant with their child on one condition, they had to pay for her mother's cancer treatment and it was an easy request for Nicole.

During the Labor Day team retreat, I had booked out the entire top floor of the Grand Summit Hotel. Yet, when my fiancee, Serena Wagner, found out, she was enraged. "Matthew Grant, are you out of your mind? Spending over 800,000 dollars to rent a place for one day? Since you're so rich and have nowhere else to splurge, just let me help you spend it!" Then, she called over our intern, Dylan Foster. She pointed at him and started yelling at me. "He only makes 6000 a month as an intern. Why don't you give him this money instead?" I looked at my colleagues standing nearby, their faces clearly uncomfortable. I replied calmly, "His salary isn't low compared to industry standards. Besides, the team-building budget belongs to everyone. Why should I give it all to him?" However, the moment those words left my mouth, Serena exploded. "I'm your finance director and your future wife! Of course, I get to control where your money goes. If you don't agree, then let's call off the engagement!" With that, she stormed off with Dylan. I silently picked up a bottle from the floor and poured myself three glasses. The first glass was for her, for being with me through the first half of my life. The second glass was for me, for having a clear conscience in this relationship. The third glass was for both of us. I wished us well as we parted ways and moved on with our separate lives.