“Thanks for the vote of the confidence,” I said sincerely. I had no idea if it was a joke or not, but I was very fucking close to shoving my cart to the side and making extremely salacious propositions. I wasn’t in the mood to get shut down, so I went with something benign instead.

“Is your place in town?”

Also, I had no shame.

He gave me a funny look, but after a second he nodded. “Yeah. It’s that old building behind the co-op, I rented the apartment on the top floor.”

I kept my expression neutral but was surprised. That place catered more to students than faculty. He didn’t look very excited about the apartment, and I didn’t blame him.

“I signed the lease months ago, but they’ve been delaying the move-in date for weeks now.” He scowled, obviously frustrated, an interesting departure for someone who always seemed unfazed by what was going on around him. When he spoke, it was clear he wasn’t happy about the situation.

“They seem to have some issues with the building. I’m starting to think I may need to look for something else. But housing here is such a hassle. I’m not sure I’ll be able to find something close to campus this late in the game. Classes already started.”

I should have left it alone, but the temptation was too strong and before I knew it, I was blurting it out. “Landlords in Ithaca can be a pain in the ass. If you do want to look for other options let me know.” This time I was the one clearing my throat and feeling awkward, but I pushed through. “My building has a couple of units open.”

He perked up at that but almost immediately went back to his calm, cool and collected demeanor. I could tell he was interested though. He’d been to my place a few times last summer and knew it was in a nice location and that the apartments were pristine. Still, I braced for him to turn me down.

In the interest of not coming off like a full-on creep, I decided not to offer up the fact that I owned the building. I fidgeted with the kale I had in my cart as I figured out how to proceed. It wasn’t like “my money” was a secret; Patrice and I had talked about my family’s vineyard when we met, he’d seemed interested, but not exactly impressed by my status within the one percent. I didn’t want to give Patrice one more reason to run in the opposite direction by reminding him about that, so I kept my mouth shut while he considered my offer.

He thought about it for another minute and then nodded. “I might call you up to ask for the landlord’s info. If I can’t move in this week, I’m going to start looking for another place.”

“Sounds good. Listen—”

I was about to take my shamelessness to the next level and ask him out for a drink or something when I saw him jump and then pull his phone out of his pocket. He smiled when he looked at the screen, and spoke before I could.