Page 83 of The Fifth Avenue Apartment

The next morning, Friday, they all headed into the office together, arriving a little before nine. Sophie settled in at her desk, opened her email and went to make herself a fluffy coffee. She had a lot of emails to go through and a few calls to make to confirm showings for that day and an open house for Sunday. She also had a call from a potential new buyer that had come in after-hours the night before, and that was the first call she made. The voice message sounded like it was from an older woman. Her name was Charlotte Houston and before she placed the call, Sophie looked her up in the computer as it sounded familiar.

Sure enough Charlotte was one of the people that Sophie had emailed to introduce herself. She lived further down on Fifth Avenue. Sophie smiled as she dialed the number.

After two rings, Charlotte answered the phone and Sophie introduced herself.

“I sent a mailing out recently and had a voice message from you over the weekend. How can I help?”

“Sophie. Yes, I got your mailing and the one from your partner, Tessa. I called you first, but it went to your voice message.” She must have called the main number. “Your partner Tessa’s postcard said the two of you work together, so I gave her a call too, and she answered! I think she is coming to see me today at eleven. I’m looking forward to working with you both.”

“Wonderful, I’ll connect with Tessa. Quick question, are you looking to buy or to sell?”

“Just to sell. I’m going to be moving in with my sister in Florida.”

“Perfect. Thanks so much, Charlotte.”

“You’re very welcome, dear. Will I see you at eleven, too?”

Sophie thought for a moment. “Yes, hopefully you will.”

She ended the call and sat there fuming for a few minutes, unsure of the best way to handle a very awkward and annoying situation. Finally, she tapped Caroline on the shoulder.

Caroline spun around. “What’s up?”

“Can we go talk privately for a minute?” Sophie spoke softly so that no one, especially Tessa, would overhear.

“Sure. Let’s go in the front meeting room.” They had several small meeting rooms near the front reception desk where they would meet with clients when they came into the office.

Sophie shut the door behind them and told Caroline about the call.

“She told the client that the two of you work together? That’s so odd. Why would she do that?” Caroline asked.

Sophie had been wondering the same thing. “Maybe to cover herself in case someone said they had a mailing from both of us? That way she could still try and take the listing.”

Caroline frowned. “That is so shady. She’s never done anything like that before, as far as I know. I think she’s feeling really desperate right now. I’m not defending the behavior at all. It’s totally wrong.”

“Right. So, what do I do? Do I just let it go?” Sophie felt sick to her stomach and stressed out about it.

“No. You can’t let it go. That’s a listing. Potentially thousands of dollars in your pocket and it came about because of your efforts putting the list together. She also called you first. You have to talk to Rick. If you just talk to Tessa, she’s not going to hand that listing over.”

“No, I don’t imagine she will,” Sophie agreed. She was not looking forward to the conversation with either Rick or Tessa. Things were already tense with Tessa, and this was only going to make it worse. Yet, it was also all Tessa’s doing.

“Okay, I’ll go talk to him now.”

Sophie went back to her desk and looked in the computer again. They had a database where everything was documented. So, there was a time stamp when a contact was entered, and then any further activity was also date and time stamped. Charlotte was entered into the system by Sophie. And was then sent a mailing on the same day by Sophie and a few hours later, by Tessa. It seemed cut and dry to Sophie.

She took a deep breath and walked by Tessa’s desk on the way to Rick’s office. Tessa was typing an email and didn’t even look up when Sophie walked by. Rick got off a call just as Sophie reached his door and he waved her in.

“What’s going on Sophie, more good news to report?”

“Well, sort of but not exactly.”

Rick leaned forward and put his elbows on his desk. “Have a seat and talk to me.”

Sophie did as instructed and told him about Charlotte and the fact that both she and Tessa had mailed to her.

“Tessa reached her first and set up an appointment?” Rick asked.

Sophie nodded. “Yes, she did. But she had left a message for me, too.”

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