“Glad you found the place all right,” he said.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” she said, moving her sunglasses to the top of her head. “Could barely get out of the office, lots of deadlines coming up. You know how it is.”

“Oh, definitely.” He waved her in, stepping aside so she could take in the foyer.

The inside of the house was every bit as gorgeous as the outside, with rich wood lining every deep red surface. Laurie took a deep breath. Her agent laughed.

“I feel like that's everyone's reaction,” he said. “The place really catches people off guard.”

Laurie barely heard him. She was too busy running a finger up the wooden banister leading up to the second floor. “Mm, yeah.”

“I can give you the basic tour, if you'd like?”

“Hrm? Oh, yeah! Sure,” Laurie said. The agent smiled.

The tour was basic – here's the living room, here's the dining room, here's the kitchen, the pantry's over there, you've got a den toward the back, bedrooms are upstairs, bathroom-and-a-half down here, one full bathroom up there. In all it was probably a half hour, but to Laurie it felt like seconds. At the end of it, her and her agent sat down at the dining room table to talk.