Page 20 of Seven Summer Weekends

“You two know each other?” You Again asked.

“We’ve met,” Addison responded, adding with a smirk, “He is the lovely neighbor who wants to steal my house, I believe.”

It was the first time she had saidmy house, and as the words left her lips, she felt like a fraud.

“I don’t want your house—that would be your neighbor Ben here,” Shep insisted.

She took it in, reflected on Nan’s warning about bulldozing and sweet-talking, and felt irrationally betrayed. Maybe it wasn’t irrational. What a phony! Was the You Again flirtation all a manipulation? Her chest burned, and she could feel the heat traveling to her cheeks.

“You’re Gicky’s niece? You never told me that,” Ben barked, as if he had been wronged. Her cheeks burned brighter.

“Wait,you’rethe guy who wants to steal my house?”

“Not steal,” Shep butted in. “Gicky sort of kind of promised him first dibs. Did you bring the clamshell contract with you?” Shep asked Ben with a laugh.

“A clamshell contract?” Addison protested. “She left a will, you know, a legal document that coordinates the distribution of your assets.”

“We know what a will is, Addie,” Ben mumbled.

“It’s Addison.”

“Sorry,” he said, “I only know you as You Again.” He smiled, thinking himself funny. It was obvious that she didn’t.

“How convenient for you,” she snapped in reply.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Her hands began to shake, a common occurrence for Addison when anticipating a showdown. She was now feeling certain that this You Again thing was a scam to butter her up. He musthave known who she was the entire time. She felt like such a fool, and there was little she liked less than feeling foolish. The notion fueled her response, justified or not.

“I heard about you from my real estate agent. Very swift with this whole ‘let’s not exchange names,’ You Again thing. Well done, trying to get on my good side before introducing yourself. But guess what?”

You Again was completely taken aback. Shep stepped up.

“What?”

“It didn’t work.”

As Addison turned to flee the scene, Ben grabbed her arm.

“Hey, wait, I swear I didn’t know it was you, really. I didn’t know.” He let go of her arm and held out his hand for a proper introduction.

“Let’s try again. Hi. I’m Ben. Nice to meet you.”

She didn’t return the greeting. She decided right then and there that she wanted out. She would take the money and put it toward her dream apartment in the city.

“I hope you don’t mind if I don’t say, ‘Nice to meet you too.’ ” And with that, she turned her back to them and marched directly to Nan.

The effects of Addison’s unfortunate interaction were still visible on her face, as the satisfaction she felt from her dramatic exit had quickly morphed into sadness. Things had soured so quickly. Even the standoffish agent took notice.

“Hey, you OK?” Nan asked. “I saw you talking to Ben and Shep. Remember what I said—don’t let those two get under your skin. They can be quite charismatic, in an off kind of way.”

“They got under my skin all right, like ringworm.”

Nan laughed. “Want to mingle with me? I’m happy to introduce you to a few good people.”

“No thanks. I’ve decided to sell.” When she heard the words come out of her mouth, she quickly backpedaled. “Well, I’m leaning that way. So there’s really no point. Maybe we can sit down sometime soon and discuss it.”

“Absolutely. I’m available allweek.”

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