Pulling in, I remembered back to what they said. “You can’t just expect him not to, you know, he just wants the best.” But I figured, that if what we couldn’t agree to wasn’t best, than I should just leave. Normally, that was how I did things anyway. Shirking the right to a good full on fight. Scared of what it might cause. I can’t help it if I left the coast. It was only my nature….

The driveway was short and circular for the first house I pulled into, and I could see immediately that it was completely wrong. All over the property there was Virginia pines, broom straw and other scrub, where there should be a lawn. No shade could be offered to the roof of the house and the brick screamed a fiery red in the noon time blaze. The soil was a cracked and dusty, the same Virginia clay that the house was made with, baked into a solid brick acres wide. In the back, the hum of the air conditioner carried on the air like the buzz of hornets.

“I’m glad you found it ma’am” he said, reaching out a sweaty palm to me. I took it and shook it loosely, nodding. Once we unfastened I wiped my hand off on my dress as he stood there, watching.
“It sure is far out here, but it was no trouble finding it. Hot day, isn’t it?” I said, rearranging my dress. He made me uneasy, with a wrinkled shirt that was sweat stained where it contacted his body. “I’m really not sure it’s what I’m looking for, too big, you know?” That really wasn’t my trouble with the house. It was gorgeous in its design, a real modernist’s approach to the classic Southern planter’s home. But the surrounding area, and the total attitude of the house was wrong. He waved me inside and I followed obediently, my curiosity to search the inside overwhelming that sickness that comes when I walk into an empty home. It was cold as a Frigidaire as I stepped into the living room, steps echoing from blank dry wall and hardwood floors. I rubbed my arms, skin prickling with cooling sweat. He showed me around and blabbed on about the square footage and whatnot but I tuned him out and only responded to the silence with mmhhms, to show I was listening. The view out past the windows was horrendous, a real scraggly nightmare. I started heading back to the front door and he followed and I shook his hand there and told him goodbye.
“You’re not interested in the house ma’am?”
“No, I don’t think I am. It’s not what I was looking for at all, but thanks anyway.” I knew the only reason he had assigned me to the listing was because my price range was so high and he was looking for the extra money so I left him inside to lock up and walked out my car, cranking the windows down in the baking interior.