When Giselle went back to work on Monday, she told Carry to proceed with the deal and then took her afternoon off to see the bank. Ian wouldn't be required to tag along. Part of her wanted to do this meeting via phone, but her contact at the bank had said that there were some formalities and details they could already take care of. Since she had spent most of her Sunday in bed with Annie, her muscles ached and she hadn't called Laury again, or sent out text messages. Monday morning started with a conflict and a grumpy coworker who was seriously worried. She didn't know what to respond, so she apologised and tried to salvage the situation. With her brief announcement that she needed the afternoon off, it backfired, too. Laury shot her displeased glances and didn't want to talk. Giselle was certain that her friend would recover, given some space.
The local office of URM Bank & Associates, which included an investment department and a very run of the mill public bank for people who wanted to save money or required credit cards, it also had a department for loans and other varieties of financing for personal or corporate entities. She'd been here twice in a single month now and she didn't like the vibe that the place had. An info desk in the hall announced her to a certain Miss Granger, who resided on second floor in office 207. Giselle stepped into the elevator together with three others, all busy bodies in suits. She got off the elevator first and felt completely underdressed in her clerk clothes.
A brief knock on the door caused a woman to respond, "Come in!" and so she entered. Two chairs stood in front of a large desk that appeared organised on first glance. On second glance however it became apparent that Miss Granger worked on many different cases at the same time. Four stacks of paper were in front of her. The woman wore a dark gray jacket and blouse, red lipstick, a decent amount of makeup and had her dark hair neatly pulled back into a spherical bun at the back of her head. Her gaze shifted up from a stack of papers and she peered at Giselle across the top rim of her glasses, which she probably used for reading only. The woman was at least fifty and she folded her hands, waiting for Giselle to sit down on one of the chairs.
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Intimidating was one word to describe the atmosphere. Giselle was silent until spoken to. She felt uncomfortable and clasped her handbag that she placed on top of her lap when she took a seat. "So you are selling your apartment and want to pay the loan with that money?", Miss Granger stated with a judgemental tone in her voice that only someone in law or finance could muster. "Yes, the buyers have already agreed to the purchase and it'll be done by the end of the month", Giselle confirmed. "Right, that means next month you'll be in possession of the money. So, look here, this is the form I'll need back once you're able to pay off the loan. You'll find the bank details and the remaining debt on it", the business woman explained while pointing with a pen at the relevant areas. After giving the client a moment to read the important lines, she added, "Here's another form that both you and your husband need to sign. It contains the fee for ending the loan early, the process costs and a partial payment of the interest we lost. It is rather self-explanatory".
When Giselle looked at the numbers, she sighed deeply. Having to pay part of the interest was normal, but it still felt like a rip off. The processing fee of 1500 was ludicrous however. She swallowed and added the numbers in her head. And while Celestine offered to pay a lot more than they had, more than 20% would be eaten up by the bank. At least she didn't have to pay taxes on the sale. Why was everything so fucking complicated?
"Alright, understood. I'll return these once we got the money. Anything else?", she asked as friendly as she could and received a grunt. "Yes, as explained on both forms, you'll have to transfer the money separately and by using these codes so we can identify the payments properly", the pen circled around a code printed on the top right of the form. "Understood. Anything else?", she wondered while already making an effort to get up. "That's all, thank you for coming by", Miss Granger said and pushed one stack of papers, which supposedly was her house loan, to the side and looked at yet another stack of papers. That woman was stuck in the old age it seemed. She probably could do all of these things digitally, if she had wanted to. "Please close the door behind you!", came the yell and Giselle complied. Her handbag held the folded forms and she muttered to herself how stupid that visit had been. All of this could've been taken care of via e-mail or the phone. Going there in person had been a complete waste. Grumpily she took the bus home and arrived late afternoon.