As one of the lawyers opened his mouth to say something, he shook his head, and continued, “And all that stuff about the doors alone would have probably warmed his heart…” his voice trailed off as he looked away to glance outside the picture window on one wall of the law firm’s conference rooms. 

He appreciated that Tina’s bid, which she presented when the meeting began, was enhanced by her intentions for improving the building.  So not only did her offer for the duplex seem reasonable to him, the added dimension of being able to hand the “torch” so to speak, of ownership of the property his grandfather, at least, had cared about, to someone who was going to care for the property in the same way, was going to be better than anything that they would be getting for it. 

Luke continued to prod his lawyers to agree to the terms Sarah had set out, pointing out the reductions were roughly in line with several estimates by three different firms, one of whom was contracted by his lawyers.   

He was absentmindedly twisting a very expensive looking leather-strapped watch on his left wrist as he spoke.  Tina noted the onyx-and-gold cufflinks that flashed when he glanced at his watch, a complementary touch to the elegance of the watch.  It was his reputed sense of style Bette had kept in mind when she picked the classic herringbone Chanel suit for Tina to wear to the negotiations/closing on the duplex from amongst Tina’s clothes, after the blonde had confessed to indecision about what to wear.  Bette and Tina had found out that silver-maned, elegant, and flawlessly-dressed Luke had a reputation of being courteous and full of old world manners, and they had an intuition he would appreciate all that they wanted to do, if presented in a certain way.  How can you go wrong with Chanel?, Bette asked Tina, in jest.  The brunette had only been half-joking.

Luke shifted his glance away from the scene of the Hudson River outside the picture window, and turned back to the lawyers, “Besides, these ladies look like they know what they’re doing, and will be well-prepared to grind this out, all day if needed – make no mistake, about that.  So I think we better agree with the current offer, before they get to charge me for other things!”