Senior Year Box Set

“They offered you two condos on the eighth floor. I tried to get you the penthouse, but they have already presold those two units to a Saudi oil tycoon. Their offer is for one that faces the sea and another next door but with only a side view of the water. Both are three-bedroom two-bath units, and they said they’re willing to combine them and do any floor plan you wanted.”

“Do we have to decide now?” I asked.

“On the layout, no. On taking the deal, yes.”

“What if I decided I don’t want to hang onto the condo here? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just sell the place and get a hotel when I came to visit?” I asked.

“To maximize this deal, I would take the condos. You can always sell them. They’ll be worth more once they’re completed. Pre-construction prices are usually at a discount because the developer needs the funds to do the project,” Mom explained.

“You’re advising I do the deal?” I asked to make sure.

“Yes. Do the deal.”

“Okay. I assume Dad can sign for the trust?” I asked.

“Of course. I’ll have him do all the paperwork to get it under contract and for the closing.”

Suddenly, I realized something: I needed to get this place cleaned out. The equipment Fritz had installed wasn’t cheap, and there was all the furniture to deal with. Cindy said the basement was packed full of stuff. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my vacation handling that. I shared my concerns with Mom.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll talk to Fritz about the security stuff and have Scarlet contact an estate sale company. They’ll come through and figure out what has value, what should go in the trash, and what should be donated,” Mom suggested.

“Can we get all that done in a week?” I asked.

“Probably not.”

“But you said they were tearing the place down in a week.”

“They needed all the condos under contract so they can get started, but I can slow down the closing to accommodate getting all the stuff out. They can start demolition on the other two properties.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said.

◊◊◊

After my call, I came out of my room and found the condo empty. I sent a text to Ashley to see where they were, and she sent me one back that said they were going to a party boat. It was something one of the tour companies did where they would take you out on the water and cruise around while you drank and danced. She said she would send me pictures.

Wow. Just wow.

I’d planned this trip as a reward for Cindy since I couldn’t pay her for her work as an intern without paying everyone at Ohio State. I also wanted to spend time with Ashley and Scarlet in a setting where we weren’t focused on the kids or work. Paul was supposed to be my security. For Megan, this was a thank you both for doing a good job and for telling me about Brandon.

Of the four groups, I could understand Megan doing her own thing.

My first thought was I no longer wanted Scarlet to be my PA. I wondered if Lexi would work for me from LA. It wasn’t like I needed someone with me to sign contracts, now that I’d passed my eighteenth birthday. If I asked her, I bet Lexi would organize the estate-sale people. If she needed to fly out, I would do that, too.

Paul would be easy to deal with. All I needed to do was tell Fritz he hadn’t even checked with me before deciding to go party tonight. Fritz originally wanted to send both Paul and Manaia so I would have full coverage, security-wise. Paul had convinced Fritz that he could handle it. Obviously, he couldn’t.

If prior to this trip, I’d known about tonight’s plan to go on a party boat and that I wasn’t going to be told about it … Well, if I was honest with myself right now, let’s just say I wouldn’t have invited any of them to join me on my little tour. There’s no reason I couldn’t do this on my own. Better yet, I would have asked Tim, Wolf, and Cassidy. They, at least, would want to hang out with me.

Heck, I had more fun with my parents along when Brook and I vacationed in the Caribbean last spring break.

I took a deep breath. My uncle said a lot of irritating stuff that made too much sense. One of them was that I could choose whether or not to be mad about this. Oh, I was angry, but what he’d meant was it was up to me whether I would let my feelings affect my actions. It was empowering to not let my current emotions rule how I handled this.

Uncle John had also taught me that only I could make myself happy. If I looked to others to supply me with what I needed for that, I would always be disappointed. He’d taught me that little gem when I was still blaming everyone else for my downward spiral right before I entered high school. It was all part of the ‘if it is to be, it is up to me’ lessons.

If they wanted to do their own thing this vacation, so be it. I would stop worrying about including them in what I did. I would also live without security. The rest of the world seemed to get by; I would as well. That didn’t mean I didn’t still want it for my family because I needed the peace of mind it brought to know they were safe. I could handle myself, though.