Page 92 of Menage a Passions
So, here they were, sitting around the table and going over the two final candidates.
“The bigger the house,” Jane began, “the farther out it is.” She referred to the one by the marina. “On the other hand, if we move into the four-bedroom flat, we’re looking at smaller bedrooms than what we have right now.” She sighed. “And it’s across the street from the Thomas-Cole Building, and I don’t know about you two, but I don’t want to live across the street from the office. That’stooclose.”
“That’s a good point,” Caitlyn said. “The house does offer more privacy…”
“But less security. There has been a rash of break-ins over the past year.”
Jane kept expecting Rebecca to pipe up with something, but she was busy texting and scrolling on her phone.
“Also,” Jane said, “the flat doesn’t have that kind of bath you like, Cait.”
“But it has a magnificent pool. And shower.”
Everyone’s phones buzzed when Rebecca sent them something in their group chat. “What about something likethis?” she asked. “It’s the same commute distance to work but on the other side of town. Gated community, because someone is worried about us all getting abducted…” She glanced at Jane when she said that. “Houses are not too big with five bedrooms,and…” She steepled her fingers over her phone. “Two primary bedroom suites, so Mom and Dad can have their own domains. Mm. Good job, Becca. Really good job, I know.”
Jane was already scrolling through the private listing in a gated community calledWest Haven Estates.Most of the homes were neo-colonial, with shutters, topiaries, and symmetrical wings boasting what looked like separate apartments. The square footage was impressive compared to the actual size of the properties. No pools, but Jane didn’t care about that. She would rather have a covered garage for her cars.
“Where did you find this?” Jane asked.
“It was in the listings the Monroes sent over.”
“Why are we just now seeing it then?” Caitlyn asked.
“You guys originally brushed it off becauseyoudidn’t like the unfinished basement.” She pointed to Caitlyn. “Andyouwhined that one of the primary suites was on the opposite side of the house from the other bedrooms and it would be like someone wasn’t really part of the family.” She pointed to Jane.
“Aw.” Caitlyn looked up from her phone. Jane immediately avoided looking her wife in the eye. “She cares so much about us feeling like a family.”
“I did not have that growing up, all right? My room was down the hall from my sister’s, but everyone else was a mile away on the other side of White Fir. My nannies all slept closer to me than my parents did.”
“Maybe we should go see this place.” Caitlyn picked up her phone again. “Gated community means a hefty HOA, but how bad can it be? Some of these places haven’t sold in over tenyears. Why in the world are the Monroes holding on to it? This isn’t their style at all.”
Rebecca had an answer for that too. “This listing is from their subsidiary Claria Real Estate. It’s where the Monroes funnel any property they want to sell, including what they pick up and flip. Honestly, the only downside I’ve found so far is that it’s near where the Andrews live.”
“Who the bloody hell are the Andrews?” Jane asked.
“If you don’t know,” Caitlyn replied, “you don’t wanna know.”
“Lana Andrews has hit on you quite a few times,” Rebecca said. “At The Dark Hour. You remind her of her husband Ken. They’re swingers.”
“Of course they are.”
“No straight couple can resist Jane when they’re unicorn hunting,” Caitlyn said. “It’s really bad in Vegas for some reason.”
“Bloody hate Vegas…”
Caitlyn agreed to handle a showing appointment at the West Haven Estates house. While she and Rebecca went off to discuss something else, Jane scrolled through the pictures again, attempting to see herself living in an American estate with her hodgepodge of a family.
Five bedrooms plus an office area for me…That meant they had a bedroom leftover to curate as a guest room.
Her mother and sister could never, ever know about this!
Even with Claria Real Estate eager to sell the grand house in West Haven, these things could not be as fast-tracked as Jane might like once she set her sights on getting things moving. First, there was the haggling, which she was accustomed to getting away with in real estate.Caitlyn makes fun of Chinesehaggling until I’m the one scoring us the kind of deals she can only dream of.Sure, they had the money to outright buy the house at its asking price and do the renovations desired, but it was the principle of the thing. Caitlyn got middle-class panic when she saw the total, and Jane heard her mother’s voice saying,“Are you an idiot?”
Damon could only cut her so much of a deal in return for hooking him up with the price drop on Priscilla Winchester-Payne’s penthouse. Claria was one of his businesses, but he wasn’t inchargeof it. He could only put private pressure on the president of Claria, a woman who looked at Jane with the same kind of,“Oh, this hot mess!”that Willow had for her daughter.
In the end, Jane got the price down. Not only did Caitlyn have some changes she wanted to make to the interior of the house, but Jane did as well. Although everyone in the family joked about who would be “banished” by themselves to the far end of the house, Jane silently accepted that it would be her. But she knew exactly how to make it her own hideaway.
First, as she went over with the contractor who did a walkthrough with her while Caitlyn was at the office, she was claiming the bedroom, the walkthrough closet, and the big bathroom for herself – as well as the nursery next door which would be transformed into her at-home office. She wanted softer hues on the wall but the white could stay in the bedroom. Once she walked through how she liked to organize her clothing in averyparticular way, she motioned to the bathroom floor, saying, “This has got to be heated. This country is so drafty I often catch pneumonia going to the bathroom in the morning.” The contractor thought she was serious.