Page 63 of Winter Solstice
“Eddie,” Allegra says. “Mrs. Christy is on the phone for you. Line two.”
“Mrs.Christy?” Eddie says. “OrMr.Christy?” Is it too much to hope that Raja has had an immediate change of heart?
“Missus,” Allegra says.
Missus,Eddie thinks. Probably, Raja couldn’t keep the secret for more than two minutes and he told Masha what he’d done, and now Masha is calling Eddie to make sure Eddie wrangles the inn away from the other buyers.
“Hold that thought, Glenn,” Eddie says. “I need to sort out this mess. Why didn’t I go into marriage counseling like Dr. Phil?”
“I ask myself that every day,” Glenn says.
Eddie goes back to his desk and picks up line two. “Good morning, Masha,” he says. “How are you?”
“Are you ready for me to make your day?” Masha asks.
Eddie closes his eyes. The only thing Masha is going to make is trouble. He can feel it. “Sure,” he says.
“I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I’ve decided that I want to surprise Raja for Christmas and put an offer on that Whatever Creek Road house.”
Eddie’s eyes fly open and he lurches forward in his seat. “Wait a minute. What?”
“The one out in Wauwinet. The house with the pool and the home theater. I want to buy it for Raja. Full-price offer, unless you think we can get it for less.”
“I think youcanget it for less,” Eddie says. Masha can probably offer twelve-five and close at twelve-eight or -nine. “Let me look at the numbers and I’ll call you back in a little while, okay?”
“Okay,” Masha says. “But don’t tell Raja. I want him to be surprised.”
“You have my word,” Eddie says.
He hangs up and goes back over to Glenn’s desk. “You’re not going to believe this.”
“Try me,” Glenn says.
Barbie stands up from her desk and joins them. “I’m bored. Tell me, too.”
Barbie is “bored,” and yet Eddie knows that she put afive-million-dollar lot in Shimmo under agreement thismorning. That’s his sister for you.
“So, since the first week of November, my Powerball couple, the Christys, have been in a deadlock about what to buy. Mr. Christy wanted the house on Medouie Creek Road, and Mrs. Christy wanted the Winter Street Inn. But then, just ten minutes ago, Mr. Christy calls saying he wants to put in an offer on the Winter Street Inn to surprise his wife for Christmas.”
“Aw!” Barbie says.
“But I have a buyer… ,” Glenn says.
Eddie holds up a finger. “Then, just now, I get a call from Mrs. Christy. She wants to put an offer on the Medouie Creek Road house as a Christmas surprise for her husband.” Eddie grins. “You know what this is, right?”
“A relief,” Glenn says. “Because I have a buyer for the Winter Street Inn.”
“It’s… it’s…” Allegra has clearly been eavesdropping, and now she’s snapping her fingers, looking at her father, trying to pull something out of the pocket of her brain where her schooling resides. “It’s that story, that Christmas story about the couple that have no money. She cuts her hair to make money to buy him a watch chain, and he sells his watch to buy her combs.”
“Exactly,” Eddie says. Maybe a year at UMass Dartmouth wasn’t such a waste after all. “‘The Gift of the Magi,’ by O. Henry.”
“It’s not really like that story at all,” Barbie says.
“It is a little bit,” Eddie says. “Because my story, the Christys’ story, isironic.And, like the characters in the O. Henry story, the Christys were motivated by their love for each other and their desire to put the other person’s happiness first.”
“Sell the Christys the Wauwinet house,” Glenn says. “I’m putting the inn under agreement with my guy.” Glenn leans back in his chair. “This may not be as good a story as Eddie’s, it may not be O. Henry, but it’s still a story.”
“We’re all ears,” Eddie says.
