Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 04 - Trash Out (30 page)

“I don’t know how I feel about being a kept woman.”  I ordered the wet burrito.

“You bring more than your income to the table
,
”
h
e said seriously.  He took my hand and pulled so I had to lean on the table, well, my breasts hit the table.

“I want you, not you
r
income.  Know that.”

I gazed into his blue eyes. I did know that.

“Now tell me why I did not know my new partner in Prophesy Estates was
your
ex fiancé.”

Once I explained a little, just a little
,
of my past including admitting that I had no clue at all what Mark’s interest was in Cassandra or her winery was
,
I turned the table
s
on him.

“What happened
between you and
Cassandra?” We
ate and
each nursed a second
Laganitas
, it was a good a time as any to ask.

“When O’Reilly rejected her, she had a total break down, of course they were still young
, when we had the energy to make every moment larger than life.  But honestly, there
must have been more than either
Peter or Cassandra
was admitting.  Anyway, Cassandra is one of those sensitive artists types my mother collects
, so
Mom sent me
to help Cassandra.”

“Kind of like sending you off to repair a leaky pipe.”

He grinned at that an
d toasted me with the last of
his
beer.  “That’s not too far from the truth.  Cassandra was like a project. Plus I knew how calloused Peter could be, we
go back
.”

“You were down at Stanford at the time.”

He shrugged.
“Yeah, I drove up
to the City
a couple of weekends, that was all.  She needed an adult to care for her, not a kid like me. She’s not strong like you.”

Strong like me.

I remember arriving at Prue’s house at the end of the afternoon of my own abortive nuptials. I will never forget the color of the light that afternoon. It was liquid gold, one of the reasons our state is called the golden state.  The light flooded Marsh Avenue, the
dark green
leaves shimmered in a light wind.  It was beautiful. It was heartbreaking.

Carrie an
d I
settled in my grandmother’s huge, and more importantly, empty house. My grandfather had just passed away and Prue had put a halt to putting up students and artists and any number of undesirable people (in my mother’s eyes) but fascinating (in my opinion) people.  So the place was a temporary haven.  I didn’t even question how Carrie came to possess a key to the house. I obediently climbed the curved stairs to my room. Carrie stripped me down and rolled me into the old sweats I k
ept
at Grandma’s for emergencies. 

I slept through the night and through the rest of the day.

By the time I woke, Prue was home and
pow
-
wowing
with Carrie.  Their plan was to give me something better to do with my
time.  Something I would be good at and could focus on
t
wenty
-
four
/
seven.

Real estate.

And they were right, god they were right, and it worked.  Work is better than booze for forgetting.  I moved to Sonoma County
, I joined up with Prudential
.
I gathered trophies, kudos and cash
.
 
Another plus was my mother didn’t speak to me for a year. 
This
reprieve
allowed me to concentrate on my entrance exams for my license and for good measure, the broker’
s
exam. I never regretted the professional decision. I was single minded
and
I had no outside life and
so
could cater to the most difficult clients because well, what else did I have to do but take their calls and rush over to handle a running toilet, a funny bump under the carpet, a leaf blower at midnight
?
  Whatever it was, I was there. I was the Diva of Real Estate.  Inez Gomez snatched me up and made me a star of the office. I even temporarily eclipsed Rosemary and Katherine for about fifteen minutes.

And through it all it was Carrie who was the rock
. It was
Carrie who forced me back into polite society.  For years I stood as her date for various charity events on the excuse that I was helping, but really trolling for business.

I will never be able to pay her back.

But then again, she says she’ll never be able to pay me back.  Which is true, considering the trouble I’ve gotten her into.

Mindful of the gift of my career, I waved good
-
by
e
to Ben and focused on my work.

First on my list was
to check
on Scott Lewis who was still
remodeling
his new house on Gold Way. 
He and Sarah
lived in the back of the house as they renovated the front parlor and dining room. Once finished, they
planned to
switch and live in the front of the house while re-modeling the kitchen and downstairs bath.
It was a fairly typical approach
, b
y
the time the house was
remodeled,
the family had slept in every room of their home
.

Renovation can take a very long time in Claim Jump, especially since Ben had
apparently
hired away all the sub
-
contractors who had any sense of time management.  Sarah and Scott would have to wait their turn.

“We’re almost finished with our house
,
” I assured Sarah before I left.

“We’ll be fine.” She didn’t even waver when I presented her with the
listing
forms she had to sign.  She dutifully initialed and signed everything. 

“Do you think we’re asking
enough?
  It’s a really nice house.  The bathroom tile was replaced in 1978. It was a good year for tile.”

I just looked at her.

“Okay, I was just asking.”

Carrie called a second later.
“They keep texting me.” 

“
About
what?”

“Pick something!  I thought the shower would make them happy, but no, now
i
t’s a new thing every couple of hours. They are worse than my parents.”

“Really?”  I
walked back down the hill
from Grove Street
to Main
Street
keeping an eye out for Debbie.

“No, not really.
But
,
honestly.
Then
on top of that,
Patrick calls every four hours.
I mean I’m glad he’s calling again, but it’s almost like they are checking to make sure I’m still around. No one has anything constructive to
offer
.”

I nodded. “Maybe they want you safe, or to make sure you’re okay?”

“Why would you say that?”

“I don’t know, it just seems that maybe it’s not that they don’t trust you, it seems more like
,
are you okay?  How about now? How about now?  That kind of
worry
.”

I was hoping
my interpretation
would make her feel better, but I was worried myself. The Furies never married or adopted children or found a life partner or anything that would be considered the norm in our part of the state.  Were they paranoid odd balls
that
would ruin Carrie’s
li
fe?  It was worth considering now before it was too late.

She sighed.  “Maybe they care too much? Is that possible?”

“Look, they are who they are, a little daft maybe, but you’ll be able to deal with them just
like Patrick
helped
you
deal with your paren
ts.  Did you ask Patrick about it?”

“No,” she admitted. “I wanted to deal with his sisters on my own terms.”

“It’s not working
,
” I suggested.

“
And
Patrick’s security people are driving me crazy
.
I
’m totally
smothered and I’m going to scream.”  She did, right in my ear.

“Come up any time
. But I was planning to come down and wait on you hand and foot on this, your last weekend of freedom, since you won’t let me throw a bachelorette party.”

“
I cannot imagine the trouble we’d get into
during
a party of your making.  I’ll come up there, maybe
in Claim Jump
no one will care who I am
or
what I am.”  She drew in a shuddering sigh
as if she had already lived through the experience.  I’m not that bad of an influence, I don’t think
.  

“
Do y
ou need help with your open houses?”

“That is an excellent excuse, so of course.” 
With her help I could keep both houses open this weekend. It would give us both something to do.

Joan called next
. It
was an embarrassment of riches. “Sorry I missed you last week.  Can I make it up to you?”

“I need people for open houses.”

“Perfect, I’ll be there.
How is your friend Carrie doing?”

“She feels overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do with a sterling silver samovar.”

“No one ever does.”

I know a girl is suppose
d
to lose weight before the big day, but Carrie
wasn’t working with much of a margin to begin with.
I hoped the camera really does add ten pounds; she could use it.

“I’m fine,
” she preemptively dismissed any sympa
thetic
remarks
.  She wore her favorite faded jeans that hung on low on her narrow
hips,
she was bra-less under a Day of Caring 2005 tee shirt.

“You dressed just for me.” 

She slid off her shoes.  “You may have noticed that I’ve spent the last six months over dressed.  This is part of my break.  We aren’t seeing anyone are we?”

“Did you bring something
to wear
for the open house?”

“Of course.” 
A motorcycle revved past
, why were those things so damn

loud
?  Maybe I could run for
C
ity
C
ouncil and work to ban all motorcycles from the downtown area. I’m sure no one would notice it was essentially self-serving.

“S
how me
what you’ve
done to the place.” 
Carrie
marched
past me into the center of the house
; she was so light her
bare
feet barely made a sound on the hardwood.

“It must be nice.”  Carrie paused under the purple and red Murano glass chandelier,
the only
decoration
I saved
from the original Lucky Masters collection. “To start fresh with your husband.”

“I suppose
it
was an unconscious agreement that we have our own place
: not
his, not mine.”

“All the magazines
recommend a fresh
start
i
n your own place.
”

She followed me to the kitchen and great room.  “
We
will live
on the compound. Patrick has his own small
house
,
it’s about five bedrooms.
The
F
uries live together
in the converted barn,
and his parents live in the main
house which
is about
19
,000 feet or so
,
bit larger than
Emily’s
,
”
s
he added
.  “I’ve gotten lost in it twice.”