Yes, she thought. Let’s move on to something you can do something about.
“First, call me Alicia. And before we get down to business, I want to know about those dead plants in the window. What’s the idea?”
Jack glanced over to the window. The dead stuff had been there so long he hardly noticed it anymore.
“Julio uses them as totems. To ward off evil spirits.”
“You’re kidding. What evil spirits?”
“The kind that order Chardonnay.”
Her smile was crooked. “Oh, I get it. A macho bar… testosterone thick in the air.”
Jack shrugged. “I can’t speak for Julio. He likes a certain type of customer and tries to discourage others. But sometimes it backfires. Sometimes those plants actually attract the wrong type because they think the place is so ‘authentic’… whatever that means. But let’s get back to you.”
She sighed, feeling the tension mount. Here we go.
“It’s a long, complicated story, and I won’t bother you with all the details. In a nutshell: A man named Ronald Clayton died in a plane crash two months ago and left every damn thing he owned to me.”
“Who was he?”
“He fathered me.”
“Your father? I’m sorry to hear—”
“Don’t be. We shared some genes, and that was the extent of it. Anyway, when I got the call from the lawyer who’s the executor of the estate, I told him I wasn’t interested in that man’s belongings or anything connected to him. Then he told me that I was sole heir.”
Across the table, Jack raised his eyebrows. “Not your mother?”
“She died twenty-some years ago—and that you can be sorry about, if you wish.”
Alicia barely remembered her mother. If only she hadn’t died… things would have been so different…
“Well, anyway, I was shocked. I hadn’t spoken to him in a dozen years. Hadn’t even thought about him.” Wouldn’t allow myself. “I told the executor I wanted nothing to do with the damn house and hung up on him.”
Jack remained silent. Still waiting for the “problem” part, Alicia figured.
Don’t worry, she thought. It’s coming.
“Next thing I know, my half brother Thomas is on the phone, and he’s—”
“Wait,” said Jack. “Half brother?”
“Right. Older by four years.”
“Which half—the mother or the father?”
“Ronald Clayton is his father.”
Jack cocked his head. “And he was left out in the cold.”
“Right. Not a dime.”
“Any other halves floating around the Clayton family?”
“No. Just Thomas. He’s enough, thanks. So Thomas is on the phone saying that if I don’t want the house, can he have it. I tell him no. I say I’ve changed my mind. I do want it. I tell him I’m going to donate it to the AIDS Center for use as a satellite facility. So forget about it.”
“Got along with your brother about as well as your father, I take it?”
“Worse, if that’s possible. The next day Thomas is back on the phone offering me two million for the house.”