“Thank you so much, Donald.” I say it as prim and proper as I can. I stand and nod at him. “I will see to the rezoning at my earliest convenience.”
“Yes, miss, please do. Please do. I just… please do.”
I frown a little. I can tell he’s afraid for his job and I want to say something to reassure him.
But I can’t. It’ll just be a lie.
So I turn and leave, waltzing out of there with Dean’s permit in hand. Once I’m outside, I pick up my phone and call him. “I have a present for you,” I say when he answers the phone.
“Yeah, you do?”
“I sure do.” I walk down the street, practically skipping.
“What is it?”
“You’ll have to come collect in person.”
“Ah,” he says, and laughs. “If you wanted to hang out, you could just ask.”
“Shut it.” I’m smiling huge and can’t help myself. “So do you want your present or not?”
“I very much do.”
“Good.” I tilt my head. “Come meet me at the abandoned warehouse on Spruce.”
“You want me to leave in the middle of the workday?”
I hesitate. I forgot people worked normal hours. “Oh, uh—”
“Kidding. Fuck this place. See you in ten.”
I laugh and hang up the phone. I skip over to the black car that’s waiting for me at the corner and tell the driver our destination. He hesitates, but he takes me there. We park in the lot and he sits there idling, trying not to act like he’s curious about our location.
I look at my phone until I see Dean’s truck pull up the driveway and into the lot. I hop out and tell the driver to wait as I walk over. Dean kills the engine and gets out, glancing over at my driver. “Look at you,” he says. “Got your own chauffer.”
“Well, I am rich, remember?”
“Can’t forget.” He tilts his head at me. “So what’s this about a present?”
I hold out the piece of paper. He takes it from me, reads, and his eyes go wide.
“Lora,” he says.
“I know, I know. It’s nuts. But it was really easy to get. I just went into the office, dropped my name, and boom. There’s something about having to rezone the area or whatever, but I’ll just get my mother to do it, or maybe one of my brothers, they like that sort of thing.”
“Lora…”
“Don’t be mad,” I say quickly. “I just wanted to help. I hope you’re not upset. I didn’t mean to—”
He reaches out and pulls me against him. He pulls me into a tight hug and holds me close against him. I relax and hug him back.
“I appreciate it,” he says. “I promised myself I wasn’t going to use you for this.”
“You didn’t do anything. I did it all on my own.”
“Yeah, I see that.” He sighs and shakes his head. “All you had to do was drop your name, huh?”
“Yep. Can you believe it?”
“I absolutely can, yes.”
I laugh and grin up at him. In the background, the warehouse looms empty and foreboding.
“I guess I should let you go back to work,” I say.
He shrugs. “Nah, no rush.” He follows my gaze and tilts his head at the warehouse. “You ever go in there?”
“What? No, of course not. It was an actual warehouse for most of our lives.”
“True, but it hasn’t been for a while now.” He takes a step toward it. “Want to?”
I hesitate but follow him. I glance back toward the car and can just make out the driver watching us closely. I’m sure he’ll report back to my parents, but screw it, whatever. I don’t care.
We walk around the side. Dean stops at a door and looks back at me. “This one’s never locked,” he says and yanks on the handle. The door opens and creaks loudly, the squeal echoing down the halls.
“Are we allowed in here?” I ask him.
“I doubt it,” he says. “Then again, I’m pretty sure your family owns this place. So…”
“Of course,” I say with a sigh. “Of course we own it. I should’ve known.”
“Come on.” He takes my hand and leads me down a series of hallways. There are small things left all over, piles of papers, old Coke cans, empty chip bags, things like that. They all add up to a place that once was vibrant and full of energy, but is now just a home for spiders and stray dogs.
He takes me through a side door and we walk out onto the warehouse floor. I look around at the huge, empty space, and I can suddenly see life again.
It hits me like a flash. All this space, the concrete floors smooth and barren, the support beams holding up a corrugated tin roof. I can see people moving through here, laughing and smiling.
“You okay?” he asks.
I start and shake my head. “Fine. Sorry. I was just… never mind.”