AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyes widened. What? She was surprised he had relatives? Or maybe she was surprised he watched his nephews for a couple of weeks while his brother and sister-in-law took a vacation.
“I really should use the gym,” he admitted. “So I guess I’d rather have one. At least then I can pretend I’m going to start working out every day. But a lobby coffee shop and rooftop bar are both musts.”
The rooftop bar was one of the best things about living at Lyric Tower. On Fridays, they had a happy hour up there, and Jesse looked forward to it all week. He stopped working and journeyed upstairs to hang out with some of his neighbors and enjoy the outdoor air. As for the coffee shop, well, it was pretty obvious why that was a priority.
“You definitely know what you want,” she said.
Funny. He thought he knew what he wanted, but for some reason, he was feeling less sure of that than ever. Just two days ago, he would have said that he knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted to build his business. It was what he’d spent the last seven years of his life doing.
“I thought I had what I wanted,” he said. “But then you came along.”
He hadn’t meant that the way it came out. Her mouth fell open as she stared at him, and he wondered if he’d gone too far. Or maybe not. If he left the statement as it stood, she’d think he was flirting with her.
He rushed to clarify. “You know, trying to talk me into moving and all.”
With that, her expression relaxed. She nodded. But her mind seemed to be working overtime, and he couldn’t blame her. He was still reeling from the words that had come out of his mouth, too.
He’d known her less than twenty-four hours. In that time, his brain had somehow gotten all scrambled until he wasn’t sure if he wanted to live downtown and go to the gym or move to a house with a yard where he could have a dog.
Was this a way early midlife crisis?
“My job is in jeopardy,” she said so suddenly, he wasn’t sure he heard correctly at first. She wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, she was staring out the window at the dark, empty sidewalk outside. He waited for her to say more, and when she didn’t, he spoke.
“But you sold the condo I bought.”
He was no expert, but he was pretty sure real estate agents earned a small percentage of each sale. Even a small percent of a million-dollar sale had to be a lot.
“That was my boss’s transaction,” she said. “She sent me in to wrap things up, but her best friend owned the condo you bought. She split the commission with me, but she took most of it. That’s what’s been paying my bills.”
It wasn’t about the money. He got that in the context of what she was saying. It was about making the sale.
“How long has it been since you’ve made a sale?” he dared to ask.
She looked hesitant to say. But finally, she spoke. “I had a small sale back in March.”
March. That was six months ago. He’d moved into his place in June. He wondered if her boss had thrown her a bone because it had been three months since her last sale at that point.
“Everyone has a dry spell.” He shrugged. “The condo market has to be picking up.”
“They’re pricey. I have a lot of showings that go nowhere. Young couples or singles who plan to be roommates show up, take a look, then buy way outside of town, where they can get a place for a couple hundred thousand dollars or whatever.”
It seemed like not that long ago when Jesse thought the half-million-dollar condos downtown would never be attainable. But his first senior center quickly became profitable, and he invested the money into his next center and kept going until soon, he was planning four locations at once.
He took so much for granted. What if he’d failed at his first development? What if he’d chosen the wrong location or the real estate market had crashed at any point early on? It could crash now, although he’d diversified his investments enough to protect himself against that.
“So what happens if you can’t find a place for me?” Jesse asked. “Can’t you sell him on a different condo?”
She shook her head. “He’s just as stubborn as you, or so it seems.”
His eyebrows rose. It was at that very minute that the server arrived with their meals. The server stopped to interact with them, and by the time he was gone, it took Jesse a moment to recall what they’d been discussing.
Oh. Right.
“You think I’m stubborn, huh?” He gave her a teasing smile as he grabbed his steak knife and fork and prepared to dig in. “I’d say I’m decisive.”
“That’s true. Maybe particular is a better word?”
He shrugged. “I work from home. That makes my home my office, too. Having all the amenities nearby means I can work longer hours rather than tooling all over town.”
