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Maybe jamming out at the top of my lungs while driving here from the town square hadn’t been the best plan. I was all hopped up on adrenaline, loud music, and accomplishment. But damn it, today I hit the next level of my career. I might not be getting the guy, but I was getting a boatload of success, so I deserved to be excited.
I studied my face and forced a frown, then burst into excited giggles. One last try, I channeled my inner Zen, curling my fingers into that okay sign shape I’d learned in a yoga class I took once. “Ommmmmm,” I hummed, trying for a sense of serenity that showed outwardly.
I checked the mirror. Better. Fingers crossed; I could maintain it.
Grabbing my laptop bag, I headed into the office. It took considerable effort not to skip down the halls past the cubicles where other agents worked. I wondered if we had amission accomplishedbanner somewhere I could hang over my desk. No, that would be tacky.
“Knock, knock.” I poked my head around the door to Jude’s office.
“Hey Cami, come in.” Jude removed his small gold wire-framed reading glasses and blinked a few times to focus on me.
I closed the door. No one else in the office needed to hear me bragging to the boss. The gossip tree would fill everyone in soon enough. I took a big breath and let my words fly.
“I got it! It’s already been sent to the seller’s agent.” I slapped Wilson’s signed offer for Blue Star Ranch down on Jude’s desk with an open palm. And the giddy feeling I’d been trying to tamp down burst out in a full-on whoop of victory, complete with an office-inappropriate fist pump.
“Blue Star?”
I nodded and flopped dramatically into the visitor’s chair in front of his desk.
Jude’s long, low, impressed whistle filled me with a sense of personal accomplishment unlike anything I’d felt maybe ever. Better than winning any pageant. I could have conquered the world at that moment.
“It’s one of the biggest single transactions ever for our office. After what I saw this morning, I didn’t think you had a shot in hell of closing this deal.”
A yucky feeling dulled my wildly escalating triumph. “What did you see this morning?”
I crossed my toes. Please, not the taping. Anything but that.
“The interview on the square. I thought the town might draw and quarter Phillips. And you’d be leading the mob.”
Of course he’d been there. The whole town had been there.
“Ta-da! I’m magic.” I gave Jude a weak smile, not wanting to get into the reasons for the very public meltdown between myself and my client.
“Apparently.” Jude’s lips twisted to one side in a sarcastic smirk.
“The interview got off to a rocky start today. After he signed the contract, it went better.”
Better was a bit of an overstatement.
The reshoot of the interview, with the PA system turned off, consisted of me distractedly reading the questions off the cards when all I wanted to do was check my phone for a reply from the agent representing Blue Star. Wilson robotically answered the questions with boring Kate-approved sentiments while I nodded and hummed in agreement. He’d fake smile, then I’d fake smile. It was awful. Kate summed up the day by saying she’d fix it in editing. And then she threatened us with death if we didn’t get it together for the tour of the Historic Charmer tomorrow.
“I didn’t stick around.” He kindly didn’t add the part about not needing to watch the train go off the rails firsthand to know there had been carnage.
“All is well that ends well. Isn’t that the saying? And this right here is one hell of a happy ending.” I tapped the contract lying on the desk.
He looked unconvinced.
Rocky personal relationships were Jude’s stock in trade. He’d just signed the final papers ending his fourth marriage. Despite Jude’s many vows that four failed marriages were enough, at The Pub, the betting pool figured wife number five would get a ring by Christmas.
“Can I give you some advice—“
“No.” I held up my hand to stop him. I was a new and powerful version of myself. This deal was the turning point. “No more advice. No morelet me help you, little lady. No more overly solicitous,how are you doing, Cami?questions. I’m done with all that. I don’t want everyone in my business, and I sure as hell don’t need it. That right there is validation I’m good. More than good; I’m kicking ass.”
At forty-two, I finally felt like a grownup. Sitting up extra straight, I thrust my shoulders back and jutted out my chin, radiating confidence and success. And as long as I didn’t think about what might have been with Wilson, I could keep on doing it.
“Trust me, I know you are capable. You’ve worked for me since I opened this place. So, let’s not call it advice. It’s more of an observation. I saw you and Phillips going at each other today. It reminded me of how my third wife and I would fight. Want to know how seventy-five percent of those fights ended?”
“With you in divorce court?”
