Chapter 13: Big Girl Panties

“I think we should move the schedule up,” Jim said. “We could sell the apartments in your building now. Sort of a test market.”

“I can’t get a broker’s license for two more years. You know that.”

“I could hire a broker...”

“Jim, if you try to cut me out of this, I will ruin you.”

“You’re a little girl. You’ve had a good idea. But I can get anyone to do this. It’s not rocket science.”

“You think I’m a little girl, but I’ve got experience and resources that you can’t even imagine. In my head, I’m as old as you are. I just have the advantage of having that experience and this age. Don’t cross me, Jim.”

“You can be a hard bitch, can’t you?”

“Harder than you ever want to know.”

“Find a way, then. I want condos sold this summer. You’re such a hotshot, make it happen.”

“You damn betcha!”

The twenty units that I managed were a perfect place to start. I had to admit that. They were brand new renovations. Nothing had to be done to them. We would need a homeowner’s association that would include all the buildings that we sold. It would be a nightmare to manage a different association for every building. We’d need a good market analysis. I wanted to price our units just above what would be average for them. I wanted us on the high end of the scale. The craftsmanship of the restoration to original condition was way above the work that most new units had. Nowhere else could you find 1900s era housing that was in mint condition. I could sell these units.

“He what?” Lily screamed when I told her about my meeting with Jim. “I will go bitch on his ass!”

“I can do this, Lily. I will make a million dollars selling Loring properties. I know it will work and I will sell every one of them.”

“A million? What do I need to do to get a piece of this action?” she said. “You can’t mean that you could make a million in this old neighborhood.”

“These apartments will go for about 60 grand. I’ve looked at other properties Loring has. That old residence hotel across the street has units in it that will go for $500,000 when they are fully renovated and modernized. Let’s assume that I’ll average $100,000 per sale for everything that Loring owns. He has over 2200 apartments right now and 500 are recently enough renovated that we could sell them. He can keep acquiring and renovating if we’re flipping them. So 500 apartments times $100,000 is $50,000,000. I’m going to write this up so that I get a percent of every sale no matter what else happens or who sells it. That’s half a million. I intend to personally sell at least half of those units. 250 units at 100,000 is 25,000,000. Seller’s commission will be three percent.”

“Three? You only make a percent and a half on a listing!” Lily said.

“Thanks for reminding me of that. My base will be 1.5% instead of one. That makes the base closer to $750,000. Plus another percent and a half for every sale I make. That’s another $375,000. Add those numbers up, honey. 1.15 million. I think I can do better than that. And I plan to sell it out in five years. My limit is only how many apartments are available. I need to show Jim that he can’t keep up with my sales,” I said.

“But what about the broker issue?” Lily asked.

“I’m going to talk to Gordon. After I take some precautions.”

Sunday evening dinner with Bruce was a success. I actually got home early enough from my open houses to help prepare the food. Lily had done most of the prep work while I was flitting among the ten open houses I had that day. And we made a sale! I’d owe the agent who was babysitting the house a referral fee, but I still made $3,000. It was a good day.

Lily was a wreck.

“What if he doesn’t like me?” she said. “I’ll move out. It’s okay. I love you. I’ll leave so he doesn’t feel he can’t have you.”

“Lily, shut up!” I said.

“But...” I dragged her to the bedroom and threw her on the bed. I’d never been so dominant with her. She was so taken by surprise that I had her pants off of her before she could protest and my tongue was buried in her pussy when she finished the sentence by saying, “ ... he’ll be here in five minutes.” That was the last she said before she came and came hard.

“Now you put your big girl panties on and get ready to serve our boyfriend dinner,” I snapped. The doorbell rang.

I greeted Bruce at the door and offered him my cheek to kiss without ever thinking about where it had just been. He inhaled sharply.

“Welcome to our humble little apartment, Bruce,” I said brightly.