“Well, as Theo says, it’s character-building for me.”
I smile, amused by that. “You didn’t have a strong character before?”
“You’ll probably find this hard to believe, Dr. Charlotte, but until now, life has come pretty easy for me. Not that I don’t work hard, but up until now, I very rarely heard no.”
I laugh. “Dr. Oliver, I can see that about you. But at least it hasn’t all gone to your head. A little character-building doesn’t hurt.”
He smiles, but there is something sad about it. It makes me wonder even more about what happened in Los Angeles now causing him such difficulty.
The elevator dings and the doors open at my floor. “Have a nice evening, Oliver.”
“You too, Charlotte.”
Back in my condo, I have just enough time to fix something to eat before the real estate agent arrives. I have a quick sandwich, putting my plate in the dishwasher and wiping down the counter so it’ll be nice when she comes.
At the knock on the door, I open it to find a tall, elegant woman in her late-forties with bottle-blonde short hair, wearing a black skirt suit with sharp lines that give her an aggressive appearance that I suspect serves her well in the tough real estate industry of New York.
I show her around the condo and give her information about when I bought it and how much I paid. After the tour, we stand looking out the window over the river.
My first mistake on this place was letting Stephen talk me into this more expensive unit with the nicer view when I could have had one with a river view and possibly could have afforded to keep it after he left.
“The good news is that I’m certain I could sell this place quickly,” she says.
That is good news. What could be bad?
“The bad news is I can’t get you the price you paid. In fact, I’m not even sure we can get what you owe on it. The market just isn’t where it was. It’s a great time for buyers but not so much for sellers.”
The whole point is to get out from under my mortgage payment. If I can’t pay off the mortgage with the sale, I’d still have to make a mortgage payment, plus rent at another place.
“If you call me in December, though, things might change. Our inventory usually goes down slightly because many people don’t want to sell during the holidays. Less inventory, more demand.”
“Do people buy condos during the holidays?” I ask.
“Oh, sure.”
I wonder if I could make it another six weeks? Maybe, if I tap into my savings. I don’t want to do that. Even if I did, I don’t have so much that I’d be able to keep this place much longer.
“Well, I guess I’ll call you again in December then,” I say, feeling deflated. I feel like Oliver looked in the elevator earlier.
She hands me her card. “This is a great location, so I know I’ll be able to sell this place for you pretty quickly.”
I walk her to the door and show her out, thanking her for her time. Then I go back to my desk, check my bank account and all my bills and records again. But every time I run the calculations, the numbers appear the same. I can’t afford this place on my own.
That leaves me with only one solution. I grab my purse and walk out of my condo. At the elevator, I press the up button for the penthouse floor. As it turns out, in real life, some doctors will do crazy things for financial security, including pretend to be engaged.