“Not really,” Adam said. “This is Kate Parker, my real estate agent. She’ll be running the show.” He hated it when men dismissed women, seemingly just because they were women.
“Hey, how you doin’?” he said to Kate. Adam watched her tense and then blow it off.
“Great. Since we’re a little late getting started, should we just get to it?” She motioned for him to take a seat.
Not five minutes in, he used the word literally, or rather, misused it, and then kept misusing it over and over again. Each time, Adam noticed Kate’s eye twitch and her grip on the pencil she was holding get tighter and tighter.
She was pushing through the packet, hitting each property briefly and pointing out the major selling points of each home.
“This one looks especially cool.” He pronounced especially with an x, and the pencil Kate was holding snapped in two.
“Excuse me a moment, will you, gentlemen?” She left the room, and Adam had to hide a smile.
After she was gone, the egomaniac sprinted from bad to worse.
“So, you and your agent? You, like, together or anything?”
Adam’s jaw tightened. “No.”
“Cool. You mind if I take a shot? She’s got a great set of stems.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Adam clenched a fist and willed himself not to punch this chauvinistic pig in the face. Maybe he ought to let him make a move and watch Kate hand him his balls on a platter. While he was mulling that over, she returned and sat again.
“How about we talk more over dinner?” Zach said to Kate. It was one of the first times he’d made eye contact with her since he’d arrived. Under the table, Kate grabbed Adam’s knee and squeezed hard. He fought back a smile.
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Kate said. “We’ve gone over everything. You’re welcome to take the presentation with you and if you have any questions, feel free to call.” She stood, indicating she was done. Adam followed her lead and also stood.
“You sure? It doesn’t have to be about business,” he mock-whispered to her near the door. “I’m so hungry after all that running, I could literally eat a horse.”
“I doubt that,” she said blandly.
He put the final nail in the coffin when he handed her his business card. “I’ve attached our initial offer based on the preview synopsis. Obviously, open for negotiations now that we’ve seen the details,” he said. He’d attached his card to the offer with a small paper clip. Kate closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
“All right,” Adam said, thinking Kate’s patience had been exhausted. “Well, great to meet with you, Mr. Greene. We’ll be in touch.”
Adam stuck out a hand, and while Zach was shaking it, he used his other hand to give him a push out the door. As Zach turned to go, he muttered something about it being Kate’s loss, and Adam couldn’t resist getting in the last word.
“Dude, FYI, there is literally no x in especially.”
Kate covered her mouth to stifle the laugh. Zach shot them a dirty look before heading out the door.
“That…didn’t go so well,” Adam said. “Not because of anything we did. He was an asshole.”
“And he calls this an ‘offer’?” She handed Adam the piece of paper attached to his card. “Even as a preliminary one, what a joke.”
“Wow. That guy pushed all your buttons, huh?”
“If I were an elevator, he’d have stopped at every floor,” she said, and he chuckled.
“I could see the steam building in your head. First, he’s late. Then, he’s an illiterate a-hole.Then, he tries to hit on you after ignoring you most of the meeting. And he tops it all off with a small paper clip. You did a great job keeping your cool. I don’t think I could have.”
“Let’s just hope the next meeting goes better.”
The next day, they did the same thing with another representative from a different trust.
Bill Hathaway was older and much more professional than the idiot the day before. After arriving on time, he listened respectfully to Kate’s spiel, carefully looked over all the data, and asked pertinent questions as they went through the material. He took notes on Kate’s responses and seemed pleased with the package.
“Well, all right, Ms. …” he glanced at her card, which was paper clipped, with a large paper clip, to the front of the synopsis, “Parker. Great presentation. Hey, are you related to the mayor, Edward Parker?”