“We get the good bagels again?” I ask.

“No. Fuck ‘em. They don’t deserve the good bagels,” Sarah responds.

When she’s done putting out a pot of hot coffee for Lee and the others, she takes a seat at the head of the conference room table.

“You really think this is going to work?” she asks, playing around with the projector she has set up in the middle of the table, hooked up to her laptop.

“It’s going to have to. I know how their firm works, because it’s how my firm works. It’s how all of the players in this space work”

“Just don’t let your brother hear you call Anderson Equities your firm. You’re going to have a bigger problem on your hands if he hears that kind of thing come out of your mouth.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s too busy being paranoid to even notice if I hang a portrait of my face in the lobby and don’t put his picture up next to it.”

“You’re right. Too busy looking down at his phone.”

I pulled some of the plans Lee’s firm filed with the Department of Buildings, along with financial statements that were publicly filed with the state last year. It should have been the first thing I did, but my arrogance got the best of me, and with all the cases O’Malley’s had in the pipeline, he hasn’t had a chance to make much headway yet.

That’s fine. I’m the one who likes a tight timeline.

My research revealed that not only did Lee’s firm already think they were going to be able to acquire Rich’s building without even the slightest of a fight, they had a large portion of their liquid capital tied up in the Limited Liability Corporation they’d set up to fund the alterations to the building, the buyouts, and the contracts.

I guess they didn’t think Rich would put up as much of a fight as he did.

And now that the contracts between Rich and me have been signed and sealed, Lee and his firm are going to have to find a different multi-family building to put their capital into. I guess next time they won’t over leverage their assets, if they’re smart.

He could drag it on and on, but now that I know he has so much money tied up in Rich’s building, any threats he makes to take this to court will be a bluff. I know it, and I’m going to let him know that I know it by showing him the gorgeous plans I worked on all morning drafting in CAD and creating quick renderings on for Rich’s building.

I guess it’s technically my building now, but I’m going to put a little plaque on it, honoring Rich. Maybe add a palm tree to the plaque. The last I talked to him, he was planning to buy a little place of his own on the intercoastal.

It’s really a win-win for everyone. A compromise. That’s a new word to me.

But Molly, the person who’s the most important to me, is really the one who’s going to come out ahead. She shouldn’t have to compromise. Not for me, and not for anyone.

There’s no way Lee isn’t going to drop his suit against Anderson Equities. All of the capital they were going to use against us is tied up in Rich’s building. There’s no way out of this one for them.

But I’ll do the right thing. I’m not going to totally fuck Lee over. He’s a good guy. He’s just too cocky for his own good.

To make the deal sweeter for everyone, I’m going to give his firm a little bonus to drop the lawsuit he has with Anderson Equities. They’d do it anyway, because they have no liquidity without Rich, but let’s just call it a little incentive between friendly adversaries.

“Shit. They’re coming.”

Sarah scrambles up and adjusts the projector so it flashes against the white dry-erase board on the wall of the conference room.

“How do you know they’re coming, Sarah?”

“I have psychic powers.” She stares at me and blinks. “Freaking Eric sent me an instant message on my laptop. Get it together, man!”

She runs out of the room and hustles down the hallway to the reception area. It’s amazing how she can walk so fast in those heels. It’s just one of her many superpowers.

I hear her tone change sweetly when she greets the men and ushers them into the small conference room to sweat them out a little.

But today, I don’t want to play games. I’m ready for them. I don’t have to keep them waiting to show that I’m too important or too busy to meet with them right away.

“Sarah, bring them in, please,” I say as she makes her way back to me, turning on a dime when she hears my words and shuffling back to them.

“Wait,” I call after her. She spins around again to face me from the middle of the hallway.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” she huffs. “You want them to wait, or not?”

“No. I don’t want them to wait. But why don’t you go into the conference room and sit down and make sure that the presentation is ready? I’ll get the boys.”

Sarah gives me two thumbs up and smiles.

“Wow. You’re your own assistant now? You think Molly will be okay with dating an assistant to some rich guy, or is she going to hold out for an actual rich guy?”

“Won’t matter to her,” I say with a smile as I walk past her through the hall and to where Lee and the guys are sitting.

I open the door and the men stand up.

“Very nice for all of you to come by on such short notice.”

“Ready to compromise?” Lee asks, reaching out his hand for me to shake.

“Something like that.” I hover by the door and gaze at the men. For so long, we were so alike. It’s all posturing and fighting with numbers in this business. It’s all on paper. Ephemeral. There’s nothing physical. Nothing real. “I want to show you all something.”

I stride back to the large conference room, where Sarah has our presentation open and Eric and O’Malley are just taking their seats.

They both look scared shitless. Eric, especially, but that seems to be his default setting these days.

“Gentlemen, please sit down,” Sarah says, gesturing to the empty seats around the table.

“Coffee, anyone?” I ask, making my way to the corner of the room and pouring two cups for me and Sarah.

“What’s going on, here?” Lee asks quizzically, putting his attache case down on the table in front of him and easing himself into his chair slowly.

“We have a little bit of a presentation for you all today,” I say, sliding into the chair next to Sarah. “Would you like to kick it off, S?”

“It would be my pleasure,” she says, standing up and sliding her laptop in front of her. An image of Rich’s building appears on the whiteboard.

“Anderson Equities has identified an opportunity to purchase a residential, multi-family building in Brooklyn.”

“What the hell is this?” Lee asks, pointing to the picture. “Are you trying to screw us over intentionally?”

“May I finish?” Sarah asks, with a cool smile. “As I was saying. The former owner of this lovely building has had many chances to sell.”

She taps a key on her laptop and the next slide appears - it’s an old, faded picture of Rich.

“In the late 1990s, during one of New York’s real estate booms, the previous owner, Richard Sender, received multiple offers a month to purchase the building. But he didn’t want to sell. No, instead, he wanted to hold the property so he would have a steady income, and because he liked working in the building. He was the original Superintendent, and he loved forging connections with the tenants. Getting to know them. Working with his hands. Building something.”

She taps her laptop again and another slide appears, this one a picture of Molly and Mrs. Martinez.

“These are just two of the current tenants in the building. The older woman, on the left, has lived in the building since the 1970s. She raised her kids there. And the young woman who you see on the right is a Brooklyn native who is just starting to plant roots of her own.”

“We have a lot of plans for the building.” She taps the keyboard a few times, flashing pictures of the renderings I’ve created: pictures of the interior and exterior, new finishes and a small garden outside.

“What the hell?” Lee asks. “We had a lot of interest in that building.”

“Look,” I say, getting up from my seat. Sarah sits down beside me and folds her hands on the table in front of her. I flash O’Malley and my brother a quick look. O’Malley nods. He thinks I’m doing okay.

Not bad for a non-lawyer guy, I guess.

“The owner wasn’t interested in selling it to a firm that was going to change it too much. He loves the neighborhood. And just because he can’t be as involved with it as he used to be, he still cares what happens to it. And I promised him I’m going to keep it in the same good condition he left it in.”

Lee and his men turn their backs to me and whisper to each other. I can see that they know they’re screwed, but of course, like any good businessman, none of them wants to be the first to admit it.

“Look,” I say again, walking over to the corner of the room to flip the lightswitch back on. “I don’t want to totally leave you guys in the lurch. Which is why I’ve decided to compromise by giving you a little incentive to walk away from the deal your firm is currently suing me over.”

“Suing us over!” Eric calls out.

“Excuse my brother. He’s the only person I know who gets FOMO over things like getting sued up the ass.”

“What kind of incentive?” Lee asks.

Bingo. Got ‘em. The first sign of wavering is always the first sign I’ve done something right in business.

“Why don’t I draw up the contracts and send them over to you boys.”

Lee gets up and grabs his attache case. The other men remain silent as they make their way to the door.

I guess they listen when their attorney tells them not to get involved.

I guess that’s just one thing I don’t have in common with them.

“Drew,” Lee says as he turns back to me. “The renderings look really good.”

He turns again to leave and everyone remaining in the room lets out a collective exhale.

“Holy shit!” Eric says, pumping his arms in the air. “We fucking did it!”

“We did do it,” Sarah says, taking a sip of her coffee and smiling. “And guess what? I have some of the good bagels for us to celebrate with. They’re just for us.”

“Those other guys don’t appreciate the good bagels,” I say, flopping down into my chair. I can’t wait to tell Molly the good news.

I take out my phone to text her, and of course I have about ten texts from Clarissa.