My mother used to let out some apartments. For a while, I would help out collecting rents and so on. One of the apartments was let by a woman and her daughter. The daughter was in her late 30's, the mother about 60, I guess. I will call her Mrs Ronson, she was a sweet little old lady.
I used to visit during the day when the daughter was out at work - I was uncertain exactly what she did, but I think it was just office work. The mother used to make coffee for us and cookies and we would chat. I think she enjoyed the company. We would sit down and chat, and she would ask me how my mother was and how I was doing at college - that kind of stuff.
Anyhow, one day I went around there, and there was coffee and cookies as usual, but she was a bit nervous. It turned out that they had financial difficulties that month and it was going to be hard to pay the rent. She said that they would be able to pay, but they needed a little more time. I couldn't really see any problem and I knew my mother wouldn't really mind, since they usually paid on time and had been there for sometime.
The old lady seemed concerned though. Maybe people her age take those sort of things more seriously. She seemed embarrassed that she couldn't pay on time.
'That's alright,' I said, 'I'm sure Mother will understand. We'll sort something out. Don't worry about it'
'Danny,' she said, 'You make it all right with your mother, and I'll make it all right with you.' She put her hand on my leg. 'Okay?', she said.