Page 125 of Slumming It
At the moment, we had only four – meaning four people, not four rooms, unless I counted the rooms rented by Reese who wasn't staying here at all. "They'll be taken care of just fine."
"By who?"
"The Sentry Brothers."
"Personally?"
Now she was just being ridiculous. Reese and his partners weren't even brothers, and none of them had the last name of Sentry even if that was their company name. "Of course not," I said. "They're sending a managerandan assistant. It's part of a new training program."
"Atrainingprogram? But you just said they were experienced."
"Well, yeah…the manager is experienced. But the assistant will be here to help out as needed – you know, while learning the ropes. Trust me, it's a total win-win."
But from the look on Vivian's face, it was a lose-lose with no upside whatsoever. "But how are we supposed to pay these people? We can barely pay ourselves."
I summoned up another smile. "We won'thaveto. That's the best part. It'll be covered by the training program."
She gave me a look. "I thought the Sentry Tower was the best part."
Normally, Vivian was super-encouraging, and I was finding it hard to reconcile the sister I knew and loved with the wet blanket I was dealing with now. Desperately, I tried again. "Aren't you listening? There are all kinds of best parts."
When she still didn't jump for joy, I gave her a pleading look. "Come on, Viv. You've always wanted to stay there – at the Sentry Tower, I mean. And now you'll get to stay there for free."
"Free." Her mouth tightened. "I heard you the first time."
Again?I wanted to yell in frustration. "Youdorealize you've been saying that a lot lately."
She looked annoyed by the observation. "Four times is not a lot."
So she was counting, too?This only proved my point. "Foryou, it is."
"Yeah, well maybe I'm just a little tired of people repeating themselves."
None of this was going how I'd hoped. Already, I'd told her the best parts, but I'd been saving the worst part for the end, hoping that in all of the excitement, she would magically forget that she wanted to murder the guy who would soon be her new mentor and boss.
Unfortunately, her excitement-meter was still stuck on zero, and I was running out of fuel. "I don't get it," I said. "I thought you'd be happy."
Her eyes were brimming with unshed tears. "Iwouldbe, except that I know thatyou'rethe one paying the price."
"Whatprice?"
"Oh, come on," she said. "You've heard the saying, there's no such thing as a free lunch."
"Yeah, so?"
"So doesn't it seem strange to you that a random billionaire is offering both of us all kinds of perks?"
"He's notsorandom," I said. "He spent some time here as a kid. He told me so himself."
"And you believed him?"
"Sure, why would he lie?"
"I dunno…" she said. "To gain your trust?"
"What's with you today?" I asked. "You're not usually this cynical."
"Andyou'renot usually this naïve."
