“I do,” I said. “Now, what properties are you looking to acquire?”
He actually laughed. Nervous. Disbelieving.
“Camille, come on. You can’t just—”
“I can, actually,” I said pleasantly. “This is a business meeting, so let’s conduct business. Or…” I folded my hands on the table. “You can leave. Those are the only two options available to you today.”
The silence between us was dense enough to hold weight.
Seven years of it.
He opened his portfolio.
The meeting lasted 40 minutes.
Edwin was looking to purchase three properties, one of which I recognized immediately from the address: it was a parcel directly adjacent to a city development project I had been tracking for six months.
He didn’t know that.
He thought he was making a smart speculative play.
He was, in fact, about to make a catastrophic one.
The zoning variance he was counting on had already been denied in a closed commissioners’ meeting. I knew because I sat on the Shelby County Real Estate Advisory Board.
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