The Upward Ripple

Chapter 11

The next few days were pure bliss as far as Cynthia could think of. There was a lot of things to be done and there did not seem nearly enough hours in the day to take care of everything but somehow, she made it work. The first thing she did was close the deal on the penthouse and then she called her boss letting her know that she was going to be staying in New York for the foreseeable future. Cynthia would have expected that to be the end of that conversation, but her boss was only too excited to grab the opportunity to set up a realty in New York.

“You have the upper hand here. I am sure Nate Duncan has a number of wealthy clientele that he would refer to you,” Geraldine said.

“Yes, but…” Cynthia started but Geraldine was not ready to take no as an answer.

“I would make you a partner at Barker Realty,” she said quickly, and Cynthia gasped silently.

“What?”

“Yes. I know that this may sound too good to be true, but you did walk into my office as a woman who knew hardly anything about real estate and asked me to let you list a house that had proven to be problematic to almost every real estate agent in Colorado and it paid off. Now, I am asking that woman who walked into my office that day to give me a chance,” Geraldine said in a soft voice.

Cynthia exhaled loudly. She did owe her success, practically everything she was and everything she had, to Geraldine.

“What percentage are we talking?” she asked.

 “Twenty per cent,” Geraldine said.

“Forty.”

“Twenty-five.”

“Thirty-five.”

“Thirty, and that is my final offer, Cynthia. You and I both know that it is a great beginning offer,” Geraldine insisted.

Cynthia grinned.

“Deal,” she said, excitedly. “Send the paperwork over and I will have a look at it.”

“Of course, but I have a question, what do you plan to do with your place here?” Geraldine asked.

Cynthia bit her lip. She’d had so much going on that she hardly had any time to think about her place. Her little haven that had been her pride and joy. With the recent sales she had brokered for Nate, the house was finally all paid off. She could not stomach the idea of selling it any time soon.

“I’ll make plans to come down there and pack it up sometime next week,” Cynthia started. “I don’t want to sell it though. You can rent it.”

“That makes sense. The place is in a great neighborhood and an even better school district. Getting someone to occupy the place is not going to be a problem,” Geraldine pointed out.

“Great. I’ll try and get the place ready for you as soon as I can. Meanwhile, I will get started with Barker Realty on this side of town.”

“Great.” Cynthia could not help but picture Geraldine smiling. “I always knew that you were a good egg.”

“I would rather refer to myself as a good goose. Maybe the best goose.”

“Ah, of course. You are the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

“What else would I be?” Cynthia asked, proudly.

After that, Cynthia was in a race against time. Nate was busy with the business and the feds so, it was up to her to clear out the town house, list it and set them up in the penthouse. Apart from that, she also had to get her paperwork in check so that she could get an office and set up her real estate business. She also had to find a few eager realtors who were willing to work with a small real estate firm with a potentially healthy client list. The hardest part of doing all that was doing it with two armed men at her side. She was not exactly used to wait outside a door as her security detail cleared every room before she got in. She hated the idea but then again, she had just agreed to marry a billionaire who was wanted by an outlawed motorcycle club and at the same time working with the feds to take said club down. It was not the easiest life but at the back of her mind, she could not help but wonder if this was what ‘ride or die’ meant.

It had been a busy seven weeks by the time Deloris and Leon flew back into New York. Sometimes Cynthia thought it was sad that her only friends were her boss and a woman she had known for less than three months but that was the life she had chosen and so far, it had proven to be good to her not without its ups and downs of course.

Cynthia had just dismissed Lola after she helped setting up a room for their guests. The plan was for Cynthia and Nate to host Deloris and Leon for dinner. It was also the first time the two were going to share the news of their engagement. They would have done it sooner, but things kept on coming up. Leon and Deloris had their own business to run and that kept them plenty busy. Apart from that, Nate’s cooperation with the feds was not exactly going as fast as Nate and Cynthia would have wanted. The good news was that there were other potential witnesses that needed someone of Nate’s status to take the first step so that they could also step up. Finally, life could once again go back to normal. Well, as normal as it possibly could. Cynthia was still not used to living in a property crawling with armed guards let alone being accompanied by them. She would have loved the opportunity to simply get out of the house and ride the subway or just walk the streets without a care in the world, but Nate had told her that it was still not safe. It was going to take a little more time before he dismissed the heavy detail but even then, Cynthia was never going to go anywhere alone. She was no longer Cynthia Washington, the little simple girl from Colorado. She was now Cynthia Washington, soon to be Cynthia Washington-Duncan, wife to one of the few black billionaires in the country. The life she had agreed to came with a lot of baggage, but it was baggage she could handle as long as she had Nate in her corner and that ring, he had given her was a promise that he was always going to be by her side.