Grabbing my laptop case from the room, I quickly looked through my email, which had really stacked up in the nearly two weeks of my radio silence. Realizing I had a solid day of simply responding to the ones that really needed it, I fired off a quick couple of emails to let people know I was back in communication, then stuffed my laptop back in the case and made my way across the street to crunch some numbers with Rob.
Later, having dinner at Sana and Donny’s house, I told them about the trip, then we talked about the newbies and the restaurant it seemed I was going to buy.
“We don’t go downtown any more,” Sana admitted. “Too many tourists, too many panhandlers, and parking is… Well, it’s terrible,” she said.
“I can’t think of the last time we even went down there,” Donny agreed.
“Yeah, but look at you two. You’ve got a little kid, who’s too young for anything you might find down there anyway, right? And Donny, how much free time do you even have with med school? And Sana, between work and being a mom, how often do you even get out of the neighborhood?” I asked.
“Not very often,” Sana said.
“Right. It’s just the wrong time in your lives to go out to a nice restaurant, or do stuff like go to that market where they throw fish at each other,” I said.
“Locals don’t go to Pike Place,” Donny said, rolling his eyes. “Unless they’re showing visiting friends around.”
“Exactly,” I said. “But a few years from now, once you’re past your residency and Aaron is in school, maybe you will. Maybe you’ll take him to see the undercity or whatever and you’ll rediscover the Seattle that locals try to ignore.”
“It’s ridiculously true,” Donny agreed. “Us natives or long-termers totally try to never admit about any of the stuff that tourists love about Seattle. You know, I’d never seen the Fremont Troll until Sana demanded I show it to her, and it’s like a mile and a half from here and maybe two miles from where I grew up.”
“He didn’t even actually know where it was!” Sana said with a laugh.
“I think that’s true about most locals most places. I couldn’t tell you how many people in Los Angeles I’ve met that have never, not once, been to the beach, for example. If it’s not in between their house and their work, it might as well not exist,” I replied.
“No, it’s true. People talk about Alki Beach down in West Seattle, but I’ve never been there. Not once in my life,” Donny said.
“And your complexion proves it,” I said with a laugh.
“I like to think of myself as ‘vitamin D receptive’, thank you very much,” Donny said in a haughty tone, his familiar goofy grin on his face.
Feeling a little pang of nostalgia or maybe a bit of loss for how close our friendship had been for the four years at Stanford, I regretted that our lives had taken us in different directions.
“Hey- when, not if, but when, you guys come down to LA to visit, we’ll make sure to take you to all the touristy hot spots. Disneyland, the Universal Studios tour, the Hollywood sign, La Brea tar pits, all of it. So make sure you plan for a long enough visit. Or New York. We could see the Empire State Building, catch a Broadway show- you know, all the touristy stuff,” I said.
“It would be nice to take a break, but traveling with Aaron… It’s hard,” Sana said, helping the little guy cut up his pork chop.
“I want to visit Aunt Emmy!” Aaron said.
“There. The boss has spoken,” I said, holding up my hand, getting a high five from Aaron. “You know you can come down to visit any time, little man. It’s O.K. if you want to bring your mom and dad, too. We have two swimming pools. Just sayin’.”
“Two pools? Why not just one big one?” Aaron asked.
“One is big- it’s huge, actually. The other one is our own private little pool, just for us and our very best friends and family. Since you’re family, you get to use the big pool or the little pool, whichever you want.”
“Do you have pictures?” he asked, hopeful.
“Of course I do, but it’ll have to wait until after dinner,” I told him.
“That doesn’t mean you should rush through your dinner,” Sana said, scolding her son.
When Sana took Aaron to bed, Donny and I kicked back on the couch with a couple of beers.
“We really need to come down and visit,” he said.
“You really should. Don’t worry about the cost of the plane tickets- I’d be happy to cover you guys on that, and of course, we have plenty of room for you to stay. Either in LA or New York, for that matter. Come to LA when you decide you need some vitamin D. Maybe over Christmas break?”
“Sana and I sure could use a break,” Donny admitted. “I feel bad, her being stuck with mostly being a single parent while med school kicks my ass, you know? My parents take Aaron on Wednesdays, and that helps a lot, but still…”
“You know Emmy adores the little man, and I can promise you, Angela will, too. Come down, plan a few things for just you and Sana, and leave Aaron with us for the day, or maybe two. There’ll always be reasons why you can’t do it right now, whenever right now actually is, so just write it down on your calendar in permanent ink and make it happen.”
Donny took a drink from his bottle, then looked at me for a long moment. “Is it just me? Can other people ever tell you no?”
“No, nobody ever does,” I said with a laugh. “Not ever.”
The next morning I had a meeting with Skye Blue and her husband Jasper, so I got my workout in early before having breakfast with Mia before she drove me to the apartment building.
Jasper was just as I’d imagined, an aging Pacific Northwest outdoorsy hippie with a kind face. It was easy to imagine him teaching high school kids, and being pretty much everybody’s favorite teacher, the kind of guy you could tell things to.
Skye fixed me another cup of tea before we sat down, which I accepted, even though tea really wasn’t my thing.
“Hey, is that offer for tickets to see The Downfall still open?” she asked when we were all seated.
“I’d be happy to see what I can do,” I said. “You said you teach guitar, right?” When Skye nodded yes, I said, “Learn a Downfall song. Maybe more than one. I’d bet Emmy would be happy to pull you up onstage to play.”
“What? No! I couldn’t!” Skye protested, but Jasper’s eyes lit up.
“Babe, you could,” he said. “You used to talk about playing big gigs like that when we were in college.”
“I've given up on those dreams, roughly a hundred years ago,” she shot back.
I interrupted to head off any further arguments, asking, “Um, Skye- have you given any thoughts to what I said last time I was here? Did you two talk it over at all?”
“Yeah, we did,” she said, sipping her tea. “I talked to my guys at Rainier, too. It looks like the building is gonna get sold to one buyer or another, but at least with you, there’s a guarantee we won’t get asked to move out. So yeah, we’ll do it. If you do buy the place, we’ll stay on and keep running things around here.”
“Alright,” I said. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. I’ll go ahead and make my offer today.”
“Skye said that you’d want to make it a bit more formal, the stuff that I do around here,?” Jasper asked. “Like, a real paycheck?”
“I’ve actually been giving it some thought since I talked to Skye,” I said. “The short answer is yes. The long answer is that if you’re willing, I’d love to make your job a bit different than just building handyman. Skye said you teach wood shop at the high school, right?”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“Mostly I’m a school counselor who also teaches wood shop,” Jasper corrected.
“Do you enjoy the teaching?”
“It’s the best part,” Jasper admitted. “No office politics, no drama, just kids who want to learn.”
I leaned back, trying to come up with a way to say what had been percolating in the back of my mind for the last couple of weeks.
“Alright, and this is just an idea I want to float, to see if it’s even something you’d consider. Skye told me you do all the work here in this old building yourself, and anybody with eyes could see that it all looks great. You’re a teacher, too. Well, here’s the thing. There are a lot of good jobs in construction, here in Seattle and all over the rest of the country, but kids don’t think of these things as possible careers. I was thinking that- and again, this is just a really rough idea, no details or anything- that if you’re interested, I’d be happy to supply you with plenty of training opportunities, for an after-school program in construction. You could show kids that are interested… Heck, I’m doing a terrible job of this,” I admitted, leaning back.
Jasper looked at me for a moment, then asked, “Are you thinking I could somehow run a work training program? Something like that?”
“Yeah, but I have no idea how it could be set up, or anything. All I know is that I like the idea of buying older properties, like this one, and renovating or restoring them, at the same time as kids or even adults could learn the trades,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound as half-assed as I thought I did.
Jasper looked thoughtful for a long moment, then leaned forward. “What would everybody get out of this?”
“Well, I’d get updated rental properties. You’d get paid for your time, and so would the kids, plus they would get real-world job training in a field that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.”
“You’d pay the kids?” he asked for clarification.
“I don’t expect free labor from them, but obviously it’d be at apprentice trainee rates. I can’t see how kids could really put in many hours during the school week, but maybe make it a summer program?” I suggested.
“I’d have to figure out how to make it work,” Jasper said, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
“I’d leave that up to you. Like I said, this is just a sort of half-baked idea that came to me after talking to Skye last time.”
“What do you get out of this?” Skye asked, curious.
“A big part of the reason I ever started this business is to help people from underserved minorities get established careers and good, safe, clean affordable housing. Right from the start I was pushing for my contractors to take on these willing but unskilled workers to give them a break,” I said with a shrug. “The way I look at it, this is a very immigrant-friendly neighborhood, right? I’m guessing a lot of Jasper’s students are immigrant kids, or kids from low-opportunity situations. Giving these kids a way to earn a decent living doing an honest job, it’s not just good karma, it’s good long-term business planning.”
“I hate to say it, but that kinda sounds like bullshit- too good to be true,” Skye said.
“I can have some of my guys that have come up through the program give you a call, if you’d like,” I said. “Besides the construction and property maintenance work, I also own a lot of restaurants and night clubs, again, as much to put people to work learning the service industry as anything. It’s pretty accurate to say that it’s all a giant jobs program, in a way.”
“Does this have any… What I mean is, would this affect the sale of the building, and Jasper’s, um, work here?” Skye asked.
“No, not in the way I think you’re asking,” I said. “I’m going to make my offer, and if the sellers accept, then the deal I proposed last time is still one hundred per cent valid. I just thought that this job training thing was a possible add-on, if Jasper was interested. It’d be on him to set it up and organize it. I’d provide the funding, and the projects to work on, but it won’t affect the setup here,” I said, waving my hand to indicate the building we were in, “in any way.”
“How soon would you need an answer?” Jasper asked, obviously giving the idea some thought.
“The ball is in your court right now,” I said with a shrug. “You think about it, first, if it’s even something you’d be interested in, and second, what it would take to get rolling. Come up with some sort of proposal, however informal. I can have my non-profit guys work with you if you want to maybe go for local government grants, or need to pitch the idea to the school district or whoever. When you’re ready, if you want,” I added.
“You have non-profit guys?” Jasper asked.
“I have non-profit guys,” I said. “I directly employ literally thousands of people in various capacities, and yes, I’ve got a small office that deals exclusively with grants, subsidies, stuff like that.”
“I guess that makes sense,” he admitted.
“So, yeah. This is a thing that I think could work, but only if you want to commit to it. Think about it, let me know when you decide one way or another,” I said, leaving it at that.
Back at the hotel I called the San Jose office and had them submit the offer on the building. “Keep an eye out for similar properties in the area. I think we may want to move into the region in a serious way soon.”
That settled, I dove into my email backlog. Mia texted to ask what my plans were for the evening and when I told her I was going to stay in and catch up on work, she asked if it was cool if she went out. I reminded her that my plane took off at eight, so be back in time to take me to the airport.
“No sweat”, she texted back. “C U at 6:30”.
Needing a break and feeling a bit hungry, I went down to the hotel bar for a quick bite and maybe a drink, since it was after ten o’clock. The place was surprisingly busy, so I just grabbed a seat at the bar.
“Can I buy you a drink?” asked a guy who looked to be in his mid thirties. He had that well-groomed look that told me was probably in sales, in town on some sort of business trip.
I made a point of tapping my wedding ring, but he shrugged. “Hey- if I were married to Emmy Lascaux, I wouldn’t be sitting in this hotel bar all alone,” he said.
Not too surprised he’d recognized me, I laughed. “Business,” I said. “She’s back at home in LA, recording with the boys.”
“I really like their version of Werewolves Of London,” he said, sitting down next to me.
“Yeah, it’s fun,” I agreed. “So, you know who I am, but…”
“Sorry,” he apologized. “My name’s Robert. I’m not actually married to a rock star, myself.”
Chuckling at that, I said, “Take a seat, why don’t you.”
“Thanks! I think I will,” he replied, signaling to the bartender. “A gin and tonic, please. And get the lady another one of whatever it is she’s having.”
“So, Robert, what brings you to Seattle?”
“A big client meeting,” he replied offhandedly, as if work was the last thing he wanted to talk about. “You?”
“Setting up a non-profit,” I said. “And buying properties. And visiting with old friends.”
“Sounds hectic,” Robert said, handing his credit card to the bartender.
“Oh, and there was a trip to Alaska in there, too,” I said.
“Very hectic.”
“It wasn’t too bad, actually, but I’ll be happy to head home in the morning,” I said, giving him a little salute of thanks with my glass.
The cocktail I’d ordered (and then Robert ordered for me again) was some sort of berry-infused, blood orange-essence I don’t know what, but it was actually pretty good.
“Last night in town?” he asked. “Out of curiosity, what airline do you fly?”
“God, we flew commercial up to Alaska,” I groaned. “What a pain that is. I tell you, it’s hard to go back to that.”
“I take it you don’t often fly commercial?”
“This was the first time in a few years for me,” I admitted.
“You have your own jet?” he asked, impressed.
“No, I just mostly fly executive charter. I’ve been thinking about buying a plane, but you know what they say.”
“Rent it,” Robert said with a laugh.
“Oh, it gets worse. There’s been talk in the household about buying a yacht,” I said.
“Rent it!” Robert said again, raising his glass in salute.
“Yeah, I think that’s what we’re gonna do for a while, anyway,” I agreed.
"Must be nice, being in the kind of tax bracket where you’re actually considering buying a yacht and a jet,” Robert said.
“It beats living in a cardboard box down by the river,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s no lie,” Robert agreed. “So what kind of jet would you buy, if you were going to buy one?”
“A private one,” I replied.
“Best kind,” he said.
After a moment of silence, I said, “I’m curious. You knew who I was, and knew I’m gay, but you still came over with just about the most tired pick-up line ever.”
“I know it is,” he admitted. “But it’s a good ice breaker, since it is so cheesy.”
“It is that,” I agreed.
“But yeah, I just wanted to talk. It isn’t every day I get to have drinks with a celebrity.”
“I’m not a celebrity- my wife is,” I corrected.
“Hey- if you’re ever on the cover of People magazine, you’re a celebrity,” Robert said.
“I guess, by some definition.”
“Bask in it! Seriously, I recognized you from across the room, right? That’s fame.”
Robert had made a pretty good point, so I just shrugged.
“So, what do you want to talk about? You said you wanted to talk to me,” I asked.
“I hadn’t gotten that far,” Robert admitted. “Maybe watches?” He suggested, pointing at my wrist, then pulling up his sleeve to show off his own watch, an Omega Speedmaster.
“I’m not much of a watch geek,” I admitted.
“Says the woman wearing a watch that costs more than the average home price in Milwaukee,” he said with a wry grin.
“Yeah, it’s a ridiculously expensive watch,” I agreed. “But all it does is tell time.”
“And look good.”
“And look good,” I conceded.
“Well, if you’re not into watches, what does float your boat?” Robert asked.
Thinking about it for a moment, I said, “Well, I like fast cars.”
“Yeah? Like American muscle fast, or Italian fast?”
“I’ve got a few German fast cars,” I said.
“When you say ‘a few’, what are we talking? A collection?” Robert asked.
“Calling it a collection implies that I’m collecting them, right? I just buy ‘em to drive ‘em, not to ‘collect’ them,” I said, making air quotes with my fingers.
“What’s your newest? Or maybe I should ask what’s on your shopping list to pick up next?” Robert asked. He was good at keeping the conversation moving.
“I guess my most recent purchase was my Porsche 918 Spyder,” I said, thinking about it.
“Wait- that’s the hybrid one, like the Ferrari LaFerrari, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the one,” I agreed.
“Wow- that’s like a million dollar car, right?” he asked.
“They’ve gone up in value. It’s more like two million now,” I replied.
“Crazy,” Robert said, shaking his head.
“So, Robert, do you have any cool cars?” I asked, trying to turn the conversation his way.
“I’ve got a BMW M3, but that’s nowhere near the Porsche’s league,” he said.
“Yeah? I’ve got an M3 in Yas Marina Blue,” I told him. “It’s a pretty fun car to drive,” I said, an image of driving at night with a naked Ashley in the passenger seat coming unbidden to mind.
“That’s a great color,” Robert said. “Mine’s Austin Yellow Metallic.”
“Flashy!” I said.
“Yeah, it is a bit… boy racer, I guess, but it was what they had on the lot,” Robert said with a shrug.
“Next time you’re in the market, bring it in to one of my dealerships and I’ll make sure you get a great trade-in,” I said.
“Dealerships?”
“Yeah, I have a couple of BMW dealerships in Southern California,” I said.
“And you just bought a million-dollar Porsche?”
“It fell into my lap,” I said, sipping my drink. “I got a good deal.”
“As great as that offer may be, I’m based out of Nashville, so…” Robert said.
“Your loss,” I replied.
“So, let me get this straight,” Robert said. “You own car dealerships in California, but are buying properties in Seattle.”
“I own properties all over the western US,” I said. “Mostly along the West Coast, but a few in other places, too.”
“And that’s how you can afford a million-dollar Porsche.”
“I paid cash,” I said. “And it was one point seven million.” Sure, it was a flex, but why not, right?