Chapter 73

We had lunch at the club with Gloria.

"I thought I'd bring this with me instead of popping it in the mail." She handed me an envelope.

"What's this?" She shrugged so I opened it.

Inside was a letter from the County Commission on Real Estate informing me that I was being considered for the position of Commissioner. It cited my long history of ethical service and my work on Gloria's committee.

"What the hell, Gloria?"

She shrugged again. "He asked me if I knew anyone good."

"What is it?" Both boys asked.

"I'm retired. Retired! Does no one know what that means?"

"You're retired and I'm a housewife." Gloria rolled her eyes.

"What is it?" Yann insisted. "Some kind of job?"

"Say no, papi." Juan advised. "You work too much as is."

"There, see? I'm supposed to be retired. And you were never a housewife."

"I notice you renewed your license." Gloria waved in the direction of the bar then lifted her empty glass. "Surely you didn't hire that pretty Chinaman just for my benefit."

Yann yanked the letter out of my hand. "Oh. My. God. This is a big deal, isn't it?" He handed the page to Juan. "It that the same Commission Lorraine works for?"

"Lorraine's at the State office; this is for the County." Juan clarified. "And yes, it's a big deal. Are you going to accept?"

"No! I haven't even been offered the damn thing yet!" The waiter arrived with Gloria's drink and I tapped my glass. "Another round. Look, I did the committee thing for you because I figured I'd make a few bills off it. Yeuhan's doing all the condo sales now so that I don't have to and I only renewed the license so that I could legitimately claim that we're a realty firm." Which made me wonder. "Why are you delivering this anyway? How are you involved?"

"Just doing a favor for a friend." Which was almost believable and assuredly only half the story. "And you don't even have to decide now. I'm sure they're considering loads of candidates."

"Tell them to consider one less."