Selling it All by Josie Daleiden Read Free Book Online Page B

of
guys to sweep up all of those little wispy pieces of foam.” He
silenced his phone and dropped it in his gym bag. His veins were
filled with an almost viscous sort of pride that only came from
besting your true match in battle.
    Sarah kicked at the little white pieces as
she held her phone against her head. This made them even for the
last sale. It was all going to come down to the last open house.
She needed help like never before. She was also dreading what Joe
had planned for this last hurrah.

Chapter 5
    The last week was filled with more planning
than a mass wedding. She pulled out all the stops, and tried to
figure every angle of attack Joe might use. On top of that, she
also had to nail down her own open house, and make sure it was the
best one of her career. While she sat at her desk in the Nelson
Realty office, her boss came over and sat down across from her.
    “Hi Mr. Nelson.” She beamed with genuine
happiness. She always loved talking with him, but it had become a
little weird as of late, given that she was seeing him at the strip
club more than at work. They still talked shop at the club, as they
drank from his stash of top shelf scotch that he kept under lock
and key for just himself.
    They had become old souls. True friends that
didn't hide things from one another.
    “Bella, I'm starting to worry about how this
little wager is affecting you.” He admitted in a fatherly tone.
“It's been great seeing you here at the office again, but part of
me is starting to worry that you're changing for good. Even your
friend Jessica is getting worried. You will tell us if there’s
something wrong won't you?”
    Sarah waved her hand dismissively. “I'm glad
you're all so concerned for me, but I've got this. Even though I
might lose everything, and be forced to be Joe's little slave girl
for a while, it's been the best thing to happen to me. Its
uncovered things in me I didn't know I had. If I win this, I'm the
best realtor in the whole basin. Period. It's given me a sort of
clarity that I've never had before. I promise I'll tell you if I
start slipping over to the dark side.” She finished with a little
laugh.
    Mr. Nelson got up and smoothed out his
vintage suit coat. “ Come with me little one, I have something you
need to see.”
    Sarah followed him to his office. The wood
paneled room reeked of old whiskey and newsprint, but it held a
sort of warmth that she found comforting whenever she was in
there.
    Mr. Nelson wrestled a stack of photos from
under a pile of old real estate listings. As the vintage ads
spilled to the floor of his office, he stepped over the mess and
plopped down at his desk. He then motioned for Sarah to come
closer. She watched his eyes glaze over with nostalgia as he began
explaining the pictures.
    “ I bought this trailer park back in the late
sixties, but I could never bear to sell it and make all those
people homeless. This is the trailer park where Joe's mom used to
live. He was much younger in this picture, about eight or nine I
would say.” Sarah took the proffered picture and looked at the
little boy with bright green eyes. He was shirtless, and seemed to
be wearing the bottoms to a Superman pajama set. His hair was a
bushy shaggy mess, and he had the biggest smile on his face. He
seemed to be standing in front of a large travel trailer, and was
holding a big wart-cover toad.
    “It's funny how you don't know what poverty
is as a child. His single mother was on welfare, and he almost
never had clothes on. I would buy him some, but he just kept giving
them away to other kids in the park who needed them more. I had to
admire him for being so generous.” He said, as he flipped over to
another picture.
    “This was right after the Los Gatos fire. The
little trailer park was deemed 'unworthy' of CDF protection,
because they had a bunch of million dollar homes to protect up in
the hills. As the park burned to the ground, Joe ran around trying
to save everybody that he could. He ended up