Page 33 of The Newcomer
“Wow!” Tanya said, later that night, as she was making up the sofa bed. “You didn’t tell me your boyfriend was, like, smoking hot. Seriously, Letty, he’s amazing. And this apartment is so cool! I feel like I’m living in aFriendsepisode. Tell me again, what is it you exactly do to earn this place?”
Letty was hard put to explain her job.
“I’m the on-site manager. We had six units in this building when I started, but Evan just closed on two more. And he owns ten more units in the neighborhood.”
“Do you happen to have any white wine?” Tanya asked, poking her head in the fridge. “That Italian food we had tonight was soooo salty. I’m parched.”
“There’s a bottle of Sancerre on the door,” Letty said.
Tanya found the bottle and filled a wineglass nearly to the rim with the sixty-dollar-a-bottle wine Letty had splurged on the previous week. She held up the bottle. “There’s like half a glass left. Want some?”
Letty shook her head.
Tanya sat back down on the sofa, her lovely nose wrinkledin disapproval. “So, you’re like Evan’s receptionist? I don’t get it. I thought you moved to New York to act.”
“So did I. But breaking in isn’t easy. In the meantime, like most actors when they get here, I started waiting tables. And then I met Evan. You might say I work in guest relations. All his units are rented out as Airbnb. No long-term tenants. But we’re strictly on the down low, because the co-op board in this building, actually in all our buildings, prohibits short-term rentals. I make things run smoothly. It’s not exactly what I planned to be doing with my life right now, but it’s a living. And I get to live here.”
“Okay, so this dude? He owns all these apartments? And he’s rich?”
“I assume so,” Letty said.
“Super rich? Like, Mr. Big rich?”
“I don’t know,” Letty said. “That’s his business. Not mine.”
“As soon as I start making some serious money, I’m going to get me a place exactly like this!” Tanya said, running her hand over the sofa’s cool leather surface. “How much does an apartment like this cost, in this neighborhood?”
When Letty told her, Tanya flopped backward, pretending to faint. “That much? Seriously? You could put a down payment on a house for that back home.”
“You couldbuya house for that, back home,” Letty said. “Or at least a double-wide. Which reminds me. Have you talked to Mama lately? Does she even know you’ve moved up here?”
“No.” Tanya unzipped her jeans and let them drop to the floor. She wriggled out of her bra and added it to the pile of discarded clothes. She gathered her long blond hair into a careless knot on top of her head and fastened it with an elastic band and walked toward the bathroom, dressed only in her T-shirt and a pair of panties. Her legs were long and slim and tanned, and Letty noticed her sister had a new tattoo high on her right hip. A tiny shamrock.
A moment later she popped her head around the doorframe. “Hey, Letty Spaghetti? Do you have any decent skin cream? My faceis like sandpaper. I swear, I can feel the zits popping up right this minute.”
“Top shelf in the linen closet,” Letty said. “But you didn’t answer my question. When was the last time you talked to Mama?”
“It’s been a while,” Tanya admitted. “How about you?”
“I’ve lost track. Last I heard, she’d moved out to Lake Tahoe for a ‘new job.’” Letty’s fingers flashed air quotes.
“Yeah. New job is mom code for new boyfriend,” Tanya said. She sighed heavily and started to close the door. “Okay if I take a bath?”
Amonth later, Letty was asleep when she heard the apartment door click open and softly close. She rolled over and picked up her phone. It was ten ’til three.
“Tanya?” she called.
Her bedroom door opened and Tanya appeared. “Sorry,” she whispered. “Didn’t mean to wake you up. Go back to sleep.”
“Where’ve you been?” Letty asked, sitting up.
Evan had taken the sisters to a new restaurant on the Upper East Side. They’d just started on the calamari when Letty’s phone pinged with a text. She looked up at Evan and shrugged. “It’s the guest at Houston Street. Three-F says the doorman won’t let him in.”
“That’s not possible.” Evan frowned. “Wait. Didn’t you tell me Dontae was going on vacation this week? Did you talk to the new guy?”
“No,” Letty said. “I thought you were going to take care of him. You know I don’t keep that kind of cash.”
“Dammit!” His lips tightened and he took his own phone from the inner breast pocket of his linen blazer. “I’ll text Dontae and tell him to talk to the guy. Let him know the deal. In the meantime, you better get over there. I don’t want that busybody on the third floor making any more trouble for us.
