In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

cowards," he called it.
"Black Label, double," he told the bar tender, and lit his
cigarette.
"Vodka tonic, wedge of lime, and you Penny?"
"Whatever, kid's stuff."
"Orangina?" Ula teased.
"Sure."
The drinks were placed in front of them and they moved to the
tables by the window so they could keep an eye on things.
The real estate guy spotted them through the window and
sauntered in with his hands in his pockets. He could just as well have
been whistling. The suckers loved it, the deal was sealed.
"They like it raw, so I guess you'll be moving in soon."
Dick and Beatrice tumbled in, giggling.
Sandro took his mother aside and hissed something in her ear,
but she just laughed in his face.
The real estate agent chortled at one of Dick's flat jokes and
ordered a bottle of Champagne. Ula squeezed lime into her second
drink. Penny drew steadily on the Orangina through her straw,
watching the show. Sandro threw a hundred dollar bill on the counter
and nudged Penny and Ula to go.
Back on Penny's futon Ula rearranged the folds of her jellaba,
deep in thought. Sandro paced back and forth, livid.
"She has gone completely mad. What about the Loire place she
fell in love with? The Agnes Sorel chateau, with the flowers painted on
the red beams and the formal herb garden? It would have been the
perfect maison de campagne! What has happened to her? She could
have bought three of them for the price of this factory. And we can
never dance there, the floors are rotten. Che disastro."
Penny made coffee, found her set of espresso thimbles and
brought them, full of steaming coffee topped with a frozen curl of
lemon peel on a little plastic sushi tray from Pearl River Market on
Canal.
"Well, if it's any consolation, real estate is down in Manhattan
since fall, but it's sure to skyrocket back, so, if you just let 'em get this
out of their system, they can sell the place for twice what they paid, and
buy that chateau after all."
"Good point, but where shall we go now?" Sandro said, still
avoiding her eyes. Ula patted the futon for him to sit, then reached for
her thimble. "Well, I won't live there, can you imagine?" Ula blew on
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