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I walked over to a fountain that was coming out of the wall. The water was feeding into a small pond in the corner of the room. I walked over the little footbridge and stared down at the tropical fish swimming in the pond. I hadn’t even asked for water features. This was next level.

“Did he put a hole in the floor?!” Scarlett shrieked and ran over.

“I’m sure it’s fixable.” But I had no idea how Mr. Tanner had made this pond. Didn’t it cut into the ceiling of the apartment beneath this? He must have gotten special permission.

“I don’t think that’s fixable. Hopefully Natalivanka’s mom will appreciate a permanent pond.”

“Oh, Mr. Tanner probably checked in with Natalivanka about it.”

Scarlett slowly nodded. “Right. He wouldn’t have just done this. That would be crazy.”

“Right,” I agreed.

“This is going to be the best party ever,” Scarlett said.

“I know.” I hopped off the end of the bridge.

“But it is freezing in here.” She wrapped her hands around her bikini top. If you could even call it that. The bikini strings were made to match her skin tone and the fig leaves were very small. But mine were smaller. There was no way I wasn’t going to have a nip-slip at some point.

“Just wait until people show up,” I said. “It’ll be scorching.” In more ways than one.

Scarlett walked over to one of the trees. “What are these? I thought you wanted apple trees?”

“Huh.” I walked over to one of the many potted trees and looked at the fruit. “Are they berries? Or...cherries maybe?”

Scarlett shrugged. “No idea.”

“Let me text Mr. Tanner to ask.” I shot him a quick text.

My phone buzzed with his response: “Those are coffee plants, of course.”

“Why coffee plants instead of apple trees?”

“Because that’s what the tree of knowledge was. A coffee plant.”

I laughed. “No, it was an apple tree.”

“Absolutely not,” Mr. Tanner wrote back.

“I’m pretty sure. The serpent convinced Eve to eat an apple.”

“Trust me. It wasn’t an apple. It was a coffee berry. But I don’t recommend eating those berries. Very bitter.”

I quickly typed back. “But it’s the tree of knowledge. And this is a coffee plant, not a tree.”

“It looks like a tree though, right?”

I stared at it for a moment. “I guess, yeah.”

“Most people mess this up. Don’t worry, it’s not just you.”

Scarlett laughed as she stared at the incoming texts. She grabbed my phone. “But if most people think it’s an apple, why do you think it’s a coffee berry?”

“The people writing the bible didn’t know where the Garden of Eden was. They just knew it was at the head of four rivers. Yes, one of them was listed as the Euphrates, but they probably just said that because it was one of the biggest rivers around. Two of the other rivers listed clearly point to Ethiopia. Where coffee plants come from. And a caffeine based fruit is unique in its properties. Consuming coffee berries filled with caffeine must have led to a jump in human consciousness, or in other words...the knowledge of good and evil. What other fruits do that? I’ll tell you...none. Other fruits are basic. End of discussion.”

Scarlett and I both laughed.

“Okay then,” I typed out. “Thank you for all this. It’s perfect.”