Page 35 of Hail Marry
“I’ll call him and put him on speaker,” Zach says, scrolling through his contacts and tapping one. The line starts ringing. “Just remember, we don’t need to bog him down with specifics about how everything went down with you two. He just needs to know enough to push the visa through. Okay?”
I open my mouth to ask for clarification because I don’t think I quite understand what Zach means, but Preston picks up the line.
“It’s just off the fairway next to that tree,” Preston yells in a slightly muffled voice. “Hey, Zach,” he says, his voice loud and clear. “How’s it going?”
“Great, thanks. What course are you playing?”
“Hole thirteen at Pebble Beach.” Preston’s voice gets softer again, like he’s yelling but holding the phone away from his mouth. “That’s not yours? Right, you had the Callaway, didn’t you? Nope. I don’t see any others around. You might have to take a mulligan on this one. Let’s let this group play ahead while I take this call.”
“He’s golfing,” Zach explains to us.
“You there?” Preston says into the phone. “Sorry. Last-minute client meeting.”
I share a look with Victoria, who seems to feel similarly to me about the supposed urgency of this client meeting that takes place on a world-renowned golf course.
“No worries,” Zach says. “Thanks for taking the time to talk. I know you’re crazy busy. I’m here with Luca and Victoria in my office.”
“Hey, guys,” he says in a friendly voice.
We both respond with our own greetings.
“Let’s dive right in, shall we?” Preston says. “I saw you started the paperwork I sent over, which is great. From what Zach says, we’re on a real time crunch here.”
“That’s right,” Zach confirms. “You’re confident we can make it happen, though?”
“Yep! Here’s what I need from you as soon as you can get it to me, Luca and Victoria: joint bank account statements, some pictures of you two together, a couple of support statements from friends and/or family, a lease agreement with your names…”
I look at Victoria, whose eyes are wide. My gaze shifts to Zach, who seems to understand our concerns.
“Quick question, Preston,” he says. “Luca and Victoria’s relationship has been…a bit of a whirlwind.”
“Ah, okay.” There’s a pause. “How fast has this whirlwind been spinning?”
“Very fast,” Zach says. “It’s more like a hurricane. A love hurricane. Theirs is one of those rare love-at-first-sight, can’t-wait-to-get-married situations.” He winks at us.
“Uh-huh,” Preston says, clearly pondering this characterization.
“So, a lot of these things you’re mentioning, Luca and Victoria simply don’t have. Yet. Isn’t that right?” He looks to us for confirmation even though he knows perfectly well we have nothing.
And now I think I get it. When Zach said not to bog down Preston with specifics, he meant we’re supposed to give him the story we plan to give everyone else.
Zach prods us with an impatient raising of the brows.
Victoria clears her throat. “That’s right. We…knew it would be difficult to tie the knot once the draft happened, so we figured, why wait?” She forces a laugh, and Zach smiles encouragingly at her.
“I see,” Preston says. “So, are you not living together?”
“No,” she says, clenching her teeth.
“Not yet,” Zach amends. “With Luca’s future up in the air and with the current lease restrictions they’re operating under—occupancy limits and contract termination fees and all that—they figured it made more sense to wait. But once Luca knows where he’s headed, that’ll change.”
My brows shoot up.
“Gotcha,” Preston says. “Well, in that case, we’ll just include a statement explaining the situation, then once that lease or a sale contract is signed, we can add it to the file.”
“Perfect,” Zach says. “We’ll have a similar issue with these other things you mentioned. They haven’t been sharing finances yet.”
“Ah…”
