Page 65 of Tell Me Why
“Well, welcome to Nashville. You’re going to love it here. Some of the best night life in the world, music culture capital of the universe. The people are great. If you ever need help figuring out what you’d like to do with your time, bars, clubs, live music, anything like that, feel free to stop in at the desk. I’ve lived here since I was four and I know more locals than the average small town. I can find just about anything you’re interested in.”
“Thank you,” Tina said.
He looked back at them.
“You musicians?” he asked, and Tina smiled, shaking her head.
“Here for business,” she said.
“But not the music business?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“No.”
“Too bad,” he said. “You’ve got a great look. Know recruiters who could do just about anything with your look.”
Tina glanced at Isabella, who twitched the corner of her mouth, but otherwise didn’t show any reaction at all.
They reached the top floor - of eight - and the man went to unlock the door.
“The building is old enough that we still have mechanical locks on all of the doors, but we’re willing to renovate tomagnetic, IR, or smart, if you prefer,” he said, opening the door and letting her in.
Tina went past him into a high-ceilinged apartment with dark hardwood floors and red-wood furniture.
“Comes furnished for an extra three hundred a month,” the manager said. “Pool on the roof, exercise facility on the main floor with freelance professional trainers there three mornings and four evenings a week. We have laundry service if you are interested, and chauffeur services, as well, that can be charged to the rent. And the view…”
He walked her through to the glasswallat the far side of the living room, standing to look at the Nashville skyline, backlit and twinkling.
“We have a park a quarter mile from here, and walking paths to get there. It’s a quieter corner of the city, compared to living all the way downtown, but it’s only ten minutes to some of the best entertainment anywhere. Feel free to take some time and look around, but I don’t think you’re going to find anything better anywhere in the city, especially at this price.”
“Thank you,” Isabella said, drifting away from the man toward the hallway where the bedrooms would be.
She put her hands on the wall as they got out of sight, looking toward the ceiling.
“It’s better made than you’d have right to expect,” she murmured. “They poured cement up there for the pool, and there’s a lot of metal between here and there. Midday wouldn’t be too bad. But…” She looked at Tina. “As much as you can reinforce something like this after it’s built, you can’t get it the way that we do when we intentionally build a building from the ground. You’re still so young and soft… You should consider bringing in a contained sleep chamber.”
“You mean a coffin,” Tina said wryly.
“They remain in our imagery because they work,” Isabella said with humor. “You can get one that disguises well enough when you aren’t using it, so that someone wandering past would never know that that’s what it is. And they aren’t…” She looked at Tina with humor. “They aren’t as small as you imagine, but it’s not as though youusea lot of space, is it?”
She had a point.
“It’s nice,” Tina said. “But I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
“Just pick something you like,” Isabella counseled. “This could be a long time, and… you may as welllikebeing there.”
“You really think that this is going to take that long?” Tina asked.
“I would plan for it,” Isabella said with something akin to real compassion. Tina wondered how well the woman faked such a thing.
They went through the bedrooms, looked at luxurious bathrooms and closets - they’d assigned half the floor space to bedroom suites, and half of each suite to bathroom and closet - and Isabella went to sit on one of the beds, looking around at the marble-topped furniture there in the room.
“May I give you some advice?” she asked. Tina went to pull drawers, just to feel what they moved like.
“I’m listening,” she answered.
“You have no concept of timeline,” Isabella said. “This could take me ten years and it would be nothing, to me. Are your parents alive?”
“No,” Tina said.
