Senior Year Box Set

“The really bad news is all the mechanicals are shit. I had a contractor come check everything out. He told me that the plumbing is all lead; it looks like the electrical was replaced in the ’60s and is aluminum; the ductwork is wrapped in asbestos; and some of the paint tested positive for lead. He gave me a number to fix it all, and it will cost you a fortune,” Cindy shared.

She showed me the estimate.

“I’m not sure owning this place is worth it. I wonder if Zander knew about all this when he included this place in the settlement.”

“Do you want me to continue to work on the remodel?” Cindy asked.

“I’m starting to rethink the whole idea of having places all over the world. It sounded cool when I first heard it might be possible to pick them up. My mom says I can rent it as an Airbnb and make money. But I might be better off selling this one and buying an apartment building or two back home.”

“I guess you have to decide if this would make a good vacation place for you and your family,” Cindy offered.

“It has been nice so far. When I was out this afternoon, not a single person recognized me, and I was able to walk the streets without having security follow me around. I also love that it’s right on the water. I’m not ruling it out yet, but let me think about it before you put in too much more effort. How about you go have fun tonight instead?”

“If you decide you want to move forward, I have most everything I need. You’ll have to get a construction crew to fix it first anyway,” Cindy said and then smiled. “Plus, you can always send me here for the summer.”

My uncle had once told me that getting answers sometimes led to the discovery of strange things. At the time, I hadn’t really understood what he meant. I mean, if you have a question, you need to be able to find the answer. I’d asked Cindy to do just that for me. Now that I had the answer, I wished I had some way to forget what she told me, to somehow lose it.

Then again, my grandfather had shared something that fit this situation. Getting lousy news was like shitting yourself. What’s done was done. At this point, I had to decide how I would handle it. Would I clean myself up or sit in my own filth and stew about it? That made me chuckle. I personally liked a third option my grandfather never thought of: dump the whole mess on someone else to clean up. When my mom calmed down some, I would call her since she did real estate for a living. I trusted her to handle something like this.

◊◊◊

After my nap, I started to get ready to go out tonight. My phone rang, and I saw it was my mother.

“The woman who left her contact information assumed we owned the condo. She said Zander Lewis had agreed to sell it to her company before he abruptly backed out. They’ve purchased the other three units in your building and the two houses on either side of you. They plan to build a ten-story building,” Mom explained.

“Why didn’t they get in touch with us sooner?” I asked.

“The paperwork that shows your ownership just got finalized and recorded. It wasn’t available before now, and the records still showed Zander as the owner. Even now, the people wanting to buy the condo had no clue who to contact. That’s because you put the properties into individual trusts.”

“I did?” I asked.

“Well, your dad did, with the help of Ms. Dixon.”

“I hope you didn’t tell the lady I owned it.”

Mom chuckled.

“I probably should have.”

Yeah, I deserved that.

“I’m contemplating selling this unit, anyway. Cindy had a contractor come in to check it out, and he found just about everything needs serious work. So far, I’ve liked it here, but I’m not sure I want to spend the kind of money it would take to make the place safe. So, I would be open to selling it to them. Do you want to negotiate the deal for me?” I asked.

“Normally, you would get the friends and family discount. But after this morning …”

“I’m not sure our company can afford the lease on a new car …” I shot back. “What did you get, anyway?”

“A Genesis G90. I looked at getting another Cadillac, but the G90 is a better fit,” Mom explained.

“I’ve never heard of Genesis.”

“They’re the luxury division of Hyundai.”

“I wasn’t aware they had a luxury division. So, you like it?” I asked.

“Yes. Yes, I love it,” she said and gave me a dramatic sigh. “I guess I can do it for the friends and family rate, just this once.”

“I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

Honestly, I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic.

“Don’t forget that at some point, you have to come home.”

We both laughed. It sounded like I was forgiven for punking her earlier today. I had no doubt she would get even.

◊◊◊

After my call from home, I got ready for the fundraiser. I’d brought my Tommy Hilfiger tuxedo and would go with the traditional black bow tie and my Jimmy Choo black leather dress shoes. For something like this, I figured I should dress conservatively since I wanted to make a good impression for Chubby Feldman. I didn’t want to make him regret trusting me to fill in for him.