The next morning was Wednesday. Things had been a little hectic the last five days, so Paige set an alarm for an early wake-up. Of course, it woke her mother up as well, "Wh..why are you getting up already?"
"Go back to sleep, Mom, I'm making breakfast this morning!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, I got this; you sleep in!"
She sat down with her laptop and spent thirty minutes on a search (for the Steadmans) in River Oaks and bookmarked two possibilities. Glancing at the clock she thought, "Jamie will be up any minute," so she went to the kitchen and poured two glasses of juice. It only took ten more minutes to get everything set up for french toast. She looked around the kitchen trying to find some other thing to do to surprise her mother. What a lost cause THAT was; the kitchen was immaculate, as usual!
Jamie came in and sat down at the table. "Hello Sweetheart! You still sleepy?" Her little munchkin nodded and picked up the juice cup. "Is Jimmy awake?"
"No, he sleeping."
She sat down at the table with her coffee, and for the next five or six minutes engaged her daughter with "mommy conversation." It was almost humorous when her mother appeared in the archway. "I don't call that 'sleeping in,' Mom!"
"It's hard for me to break my routine; fifteen more minutes was very nice!" Trudy looked at the fixings on the counter, "Oh, nice! French toast...a real treat!"
Paige poured her a cup of coffee, "You sit down here; I'm doing the serving this morning!"
The next hour went well, the younger kids got fed and dressed, and then Paige got herself ready for work. She sent a text to Marie, "If I come by, want to do lunch?"
"Food court in Safari, noon?"
"I'll be there!"
Leaving the house at 9:00 she got in her car and and called the listed phone number of the house she had discovered two hours previously. The owner picked up and Paige asked if it was too early for her to come by for a look-see. Ten minutes later the redheaded agent was knocking on the door, and twenty minutes later she left with a grin on her face. "I'm getting really good at this!" she thought. In her mind, this house was almost perfect; the only drawbacks being it had four bedrooms and the asking price was $399,000. Still, she felt Ginny Steadman would like to take a look at it!
"Hello Ginny? It's Paige!"
"Hi Paige, I'm putting you on speaker; Jack's home this morning!"
"Hi Jack! Do you have the whole day off?"
"Hey there, Paige; yes, it so happens I do. Every other week I have Wednesdays off. It's nice to connect, Ginny says you're fun to work with!"
"Well, thank you for that, my boss thanks you too! The reason why I'm calling is because I recently found a listing you'll want to explore. Perhaps you might even want to come look at it right now; are you busy?"
There was a short pause; Paige could hear them talking. "Actually, we're not at the moment; I do have an appointment at 1:00."
"It's a four bedroom house listed at $399,000, but it's move-in ready and I think you're going to like it!"
"Wonderful! Text me the address and we'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Now she was fired up! Paige sent the address, and then she texted Jimmy with a cross-your-fingers sign-off! He replied sixty seconds later, "You GO, girl!"
When the Steadmans pulled into the driveway twenty minutes later, Paige was standing with the owner at the front door. "Jack, Virginia, this is Sandra...the owner! It's very nice of her to let us visit on such notice!"
While her clients were shaking hands with Sandra, Paige checked out Jack Steadman. He had the typical bank executive look but without the clothes to go with it. Today he was wearing jeans and a collared shirt that wasn't tucked in. His gray hair was somewhat thin on top, but his brown eyes were warm and friendly. She judged him to be 6'1 with a medium build and it was clear that he worked out at least semi-regularly!
When Sandra went back into the house, Ginny said, "Well Paige, I must say that the look of this place from the street is even better than that first house the other day! Look at how well-maintained this front yard is, Jack!"
"Yeah, even though the listing is a little higher than I like, we won't be spending anything on improving the curb appeal!"
"Let's go around back," said Paige, "I think you'll like that even more than the front!"
Ginny commented on the "nice-sized" windows on the side of the house, but going through the back gate, Jack whistled! "Wow, outstanding! A pool with a diving board even, impressive!"
They both gushed over how big the yard was with a pergola above the patio, a large screened-in gazebo in one corner, and a fire-pit surrounded by log benches and deck chairs in the other. This yard is perfect for entertaining!" Ginny enthused.
"I thought you'd say that!" said Paige, "So let's go inside; I think you'll like that too!"
In the next thirty minutes (as they went from room-to-room,) the redheaded agent didn't hear a single negative comment from either Steadman. When they went out the front door, Virginia said, "I LOVE what they've done to this place; it's almost as if they consulted with me before they upgraded it!"
They stood in the driveway talking. "So," Paige finally said, "from everything I'm hearing here, this is the one?"
Jack grinned at her, "Well now, I don't know about that, Paige!" When he saw the surprised look on her face, he added, "After all it's three whole minutes farther from my bank!" He said it with his tongue firmly in cheek and they both laughed at Paige's blushing reaction!
After a little more discussion, they settled on a first offer of $375,000. By this time it was 11:30, Paige had to meet Marie in thirty minutes. They all shook hands, "I'll write up the offer this afternoon and call you in the morning, Ginny!"
As she got in her car and checked her phone, there was a message from Marie, "I have to run some errands this afternoon, wanna do Mannino's for lunch?"
"Perfect, see you at noon!" After a quick checking-in call to her mother, she headed over to the restaurant and walked through the door at 11:50. She didn't see Marie, but she DID see Allie Pruitt taking a lunch order from a couple of men in a booth by the bar.
The hostess looked up at her and smiled, "Hi, table for one?"
"No, a friend is joining me in ten minutes."
"Great!" she picked up two menus.
On impulse, Paige touched her arm, "If you don't mind, we'd like to have Allie be our server?"
"No problem, follow me please!"
When she sat down, Paige took the wait-time to really look at Allie Pruitt. She and Chad weren't wrong; even from thirty feet away it was easy to see how cute she was, despite the fact that the girl wore the standard server's clothes at Mannino's: not-too-tight black pants with a light teal polo shirt (embroidered with the restaurant's logo,) and black sneakers. She was a strawberry blonde (very close to brown,) tied back in a ponytail.
As she approached, Paige guessed she was approximately 5'6 and maybe 130 pounds. Her brown eyes had a lot of life in them, her bright smile was genuine, and her teeth were perfect! And from the look of it, her boobs weren't small; yes, it was hard to tell in the polo shirt; but Paige giggled a little because her chest jiggled when she walked...just enough to be noticeable!
"Hi, I'm Allie; I'll be your server today! Are you alone?"
"Hello Allie! I'm Paige, my friend Marie will be joining me shortly! I'll have a Coke, but Marie's a bit unpredictable."
"I'll be right back!"
