Page 10 of Nerdplay
“Maybe there’ll be a rabies outbreak. The camp is forced to shut down. Our client picks up the land even cheaper.”
“Promising, right,” I say, noncommittal. I don’t see how a rabies outbreak is a win for anybody, but I don’t argue.
“We might be able to exploit that. I’ve got a meeting out of the office, but we should talk later. Explore the options.”
“I’ll be here.”
Joel aims his famous finger gun at me and makes a clicking sound as he swaps places with me in the elevator. “And that’s why we love you, Charlie boy.”
Love isn’t the word I’d use.
Jeannie is at my desk, holding a stack of files. “Hey, you’re back. David asked me to leave these for you.” She sets them on the corner of my desk. “How was your meeting?” Her gaze immediately snags on my jacket. “What happened to your suit?”
“I got shit on.” I remove the jacket and attempt to hang it on the hook on the back of the door, but Jeannie swipes it from me.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll drop it at the cleaners after work.”
“Not with your hours, you won’t. No dry cleaner is open twenty-four hours, Charlie.” She levels me with a flat, unimpressed stare. While Joel and the other partners laud me for my commitment to the firm, Jeannie thinks I’m wasting my prime on a partner that can’t love me back, or something along those lines.
“Thanks. Tell them not to touch it. It’s from a sugar glider. I have no idea if those things carry any diseases.”
She scrunches her nose as she examines the stain. “I’ll be sure to mention it. Can I get you anything to eat?”
“No, thanks. I’ll eat after the meeting.”
“Door open or closed?”
“Closed, please.”
She smiles. “Meeting starts in three minutes.”
“I know.”
She closes the door, taking the besmirched jacket with her. My phone lights up with a call from LandStar. Shit.
I inhale sharply and pick up the phone. “Hello, Mr. Riggieri.”
“Charles. I hope you have good news for me.”
“She hasn’t agreed to the sale yet, sir, but she will.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because this deal is my assignment, and I haven’t once failed to get the job done.”
There’s a pause and then, “That’s what Joel said, which is why I expected better news.”
I want to remind him that I’m a lawyer, not a magician, but I know the joke won’t go over well. Instead I say, “Remind me, Mr. Riggieri. How many times have you made an offer on the property so far?”
His harrumph could give Scrooge a run for his coveted money. “How should I know? Every time I think about what a gold mine that moron is sitting on, it sticks in my craw.”
The blatant disrespect aside, Courtney Abernathy seemed like the opposite of a moron. “Well, the property has been in her family for generations. It holds sentimental value.”
“Like I said—the girl’s an idiot, which she’s proven about five times over by now.”
Five times sounds like harassment to me, but I bite my tongue. I’m already on thin ice with this client and the firm has made it very clear how important LandStar’s business is to them. Riggieri has threatened to walk if we can’t land this deal for him. We lose LandStar and I lose the partnership.
