Russ was a Realtor that Stephanie befriended and used to look at her share of the fifty houses that we were determined to see before buying. We'd seen houses go from an average of $17,000 to 80,000 in six short years and wanted to make sure that we knew what a good deal was when we saw it. Our second Mobile Home had come up from the $15,000 we'd paid for it to 35,000 in two years and we needed all of it to count. Stephanie, with her Irish good looks, auburn hair, Sioux tan and gift for gab managed to charm Russ into taking her to lunch every time they went out looking. The fact that, with heels, she was taller than he was didn't seem to faze him in the least. The one time that I went with them Russ went on about how the place we were looking at on Rowland would be worth so much more when the new shopping center got built. Knowing how long it took to build things here sort of negated that wonderful line of bull. I really wasn't interested in hearing all the extraneous nonsense so I just went on my own or with Stephanie for those I looked at.
I was interested in Point Richmond at the time since I'd worked there for Santa Fe for a while and the guy that taught me Gung Fu on a three level terraced back yard there showed me what unique places there could be. So, for a while, Stephanie looked her way and I looked mine. Besides, I had discovered a very cute Realtor that was dying to show me some places. I was beginning to develop some very interesting fantasies about her. Not that Stephanie would have dampened that though. Hell, usually she said something to women that made them all that much more interested. At that point I really wasn't sure why women were becoming attracted to me but I had a few basic ideas.
First, it didn't hurt to be tall, in shape, a nice bulge and, from the right angle, halfway decent looking. At least that's the impressions I was getting from all of Stephanie's sisters and cousins. I knew the bulge was important because they kept sitting on it and wiggling around obviously. You had to beat me on the head (one of them) with things at that point. One of the most important things that Stephanie taught me was to listen for the silences in conversations. Now, I know that having learned to enjoy someone and how to openly admire and compliment them on things that genuinely appeal to you without managing to insult them is important but the most important is the twinkle in your eye that says you really really do enjoy them. I still lamely don't question females about their interests. It's still mostly about me. Well, I wouldn't want to be perfect.
It turned out that my Realtor was mostly interested in selling property and other than insisting on buckling me into her car and managing to push into my upper thigh in the process, we just looked at houses. She must have been a Mom. Everything seemed about ten thousand too high and I didn't see anything appealing or unique enough to be worth paying a premium or even making a lowball offer. She specialized in Point Richmond so that was the end of that.
Meanwhile, I had bought an airless sprayer for my Property Maintenance business since paint jobs seemed on the rise. Stephanie had told Russ about it and he decided that he needed their house painted before putting it on the Market. Later, Sue's brother had me paint their house and Peter Jo was a next door neighbor. The business was humming along nicely.