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“You’re definitely your father’s daughter. It’s nice to meet you. You have a great family. I love your family.”
“You don’t know them.”
“I disagree.”
Then he reached over for a glass jar on his desk, full of long pieces of licorice, and held the jar out to me.
“Are you serious?” I said.
“Why wouldn’t I be serious? Licorice is the best candy there is, and, as an added bonus, it has been used since ancient times for a variety of medicinal purposes. Including the relieving of stress.”
“Still going to pass,” I said.
He took a piece out of the jar, then took a huge bite. “Your choice,” he said. “Though not the right one.”
“I’m not interested in this,” I said. “Whatever you’re trying to do here.”
He smiled. “And what am I trying to do here?”
“I don’t know. Charm me.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because you know this contract is rife with error and it’s not too late for me to nullify it.”
“You sound like a lawyer.”
“I am. And I negotiate sales much larger than this on a daily basis.”
“Well, you probably have one up on me, then . . .”
He pointed to his degrees on the wall, mounted in fancy frames. Proof that he was a jerk, those degrees in such fancy frames. Cornell University College of Agriculture, Cornell Law School.
“I went to law school, but I never practiced,” he said.
“How about viticulture? Did you practice that?”
He smiled. “I can assure you, your father is getting a great deal.”
“That’s beside the point.”
“What is the point?”
I was honest, as hard as it was to say it out loud to a stranger. “My father’s going to regret it.”
He looked at me. “You think so?” he said.
And, suddenly, it looked like he cared. His eyes went soft, and the smirk disappeared.
I nodded, meeting his eyes and trying to impart my true feelings about how much my father was going to regret this. “I do.”
He nodded, like he’d heard that.
“Hmm. I don’t,” he said.
Then he started rummaging through papers on his desk, my hope of him being a reasonable and kind person deflating.
I pointed at him. “Escrow hasn’t closed yet. You don’t take possession until after the new year.”
