Possessive Best Friend

“Sign?”

Dean walks past Uncle Ron, right back into the room. Uncle Ron follows, looking confused, as Dean drops the contract down on the table.

“Well, ah, yes, ah, what is this here?” Uncle Ron gets a pair of glasses from the coffee table and squints at the contract.

“That was drawn up by Richard,” I say. “You can be sure that it’s fair.”

“You have a contract?” He sounds genuinely surprised.

“Of course,” Dean says. “We’re serious about this. I wouldn’t come into a business negotiation without a contract.”

“Well, yes, yes, of course, of course.” He reads through the first page and flips to the second. “You have the price in here already.”

“That was our highest possible offer,” Dean says, as if that explains a thing. “Flip to the next page and make sure the rights are all correct.”

“Well, ah, of course, yes,” Uncle Ron mumbles.

I can tell he’s incredibly uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s because he didn’t think we were serious about this, or if it’s moving far faster than he expected, but Dean does a good job managing him. I get the feeling that he’s never actually read a contract before in his life.

“So, pretty standard,” Dean says, reading over some language with him. “The undersigned, blah blah blah, rights revert, yadda, yadda. Pretty boilerplate stuff. And like Lora said, your own lawyer drew it up, so you know it’s ironclad and reasonable.”

“Ah, yes, but—”

“And the price is all right there,” Dean says. “We’re prepared to pay in cash today.”

“Today?” His eyes bug out of his face. “In cash?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Dean says like it’s no big deal. “If you’re interested.”

“Interested, yes, yes, that would be grand.” Uncle Ron flips to the back and signs instantly. “Very grand. If you could send it over today.” He begins to go back through the contract, initialing each page.

“I’ll contact my man at the bank,” I say. “He’ll take care of it.”

“Right, right, your man at the bank.” Uncle Ron looks utterly bewildered, but he flips to the first page, initials the bottom, and hands the contract to Dean. “Yes, today would be good. Very good.”

“I’ll see that it gets done,” Dean says and stands. They shake hands. “Thank you very much, Ronald. We’re going to do nice things with that warehouse, I promise you that. And I’d love to come back for whiskey and cigars.”

“Of course, of course. Whenever you wish.”

Dean turns and grins at me as we walk to the door. Again, we step out into the hall, and this time, Uncle Ron doesn’t follow. We walk away and when I hear the door shut behind us, I turn to Dean.

“Holy crap,” I say.

“I know, right?”

I laugh and jump into his arms. He hugs me back, pulls me tight against his chest. I kiss him on the lips right there in the hallway, not giving a damn who sees or cares.

“That was amazing! I thought he was going to call your bluff. I thought we were finished.”

“I’d be lying if I said I knew it would work out the whole time,” he admitted.

“I can’t believe you gambled it all like that.”

“Honestly, I don’t think I gambled. I think I convinced Ron to move faster than he wanted. Otherwise, that would’ve taken months, at best.”

“Can we really transfer that much money so fast? I mean, we have the money, but it’s a lot of cash.”

“I have no clue,” he admits. “Who cares? The contract’s signed. We’ll start the transfer today and just tell Uncle Ron if there are going to be any delays.”

“I really can’t believe this.”

“I know. But it’s real.” He laughs and hugs me again, hugs me tight.

“When can we get started?” I ask.

“We still have to close this deal. I’m not sure exactly what the laws are, but…” He trails off and shrugs. “I bet we can get the keys as soon as he’s got his money and go from there.”

“So in theory… tomorrow.”

“In theory, but don’t get too excited.” He grins at me. “Let’s just play it by ear.”

“All right.” I take a deep breath and let it out. I smile so big I think my face might fall off. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“You’re doing this,” he says. “I’m just along for the ride.”

I kiss him one more time then take his hand. “Come on, take me to the bank. Let’s go pay my stupid uncle.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We head off down the hall and I can’t stop grinning.14DeanThe money will take a few days to transfer, which annoys Ron to no end.

“You said it would arrive yesterday,” he says over the phone the next afternoon. “You said it would all arrive yesterday on time.”

“I didn’t know there was a delay on transfers this large,” I say. “And we’re not interested in paying any fines or fees to make it happen faster.”