The next step

The property

It was a Friday night and she had zero interest in going out.

She needed to see who this Mark guy was.

She needed to pull up any information on this land that was for sale, but not for sale.

She needed to fine tooth comb the large stack of documents from her informant.

She needed to truly sit and think about Sarah's predicament.

No wine tonight. She needed a clear head.

She started with Marks social media. Pictures of him. Him and sold properties. More of him. Him again.

He definitely liked himself an awful lot, she thought to herself.

He dressed to the nines. To a point that through his pictures she recognized his brand of clothing.

There was only one place in town that supplied that brand - Pierre's.

"Looks like I'm going shopping tomorrow."

As she was closing down the social site, she noticed an open house being advertised and made a note in her calendar on the time and location.

The morning sun streamed through the part in the curtains showing a beautiful cloudless sky. She could almost feel the warmth of the day and decided to dress comfortable for the time being.

She took a little extra time, with extra attention to her appearance, while preparing her hair and makeup. Although light makeup emphasized her features just fine, she needed to catch a big fish today.

Heading down to Pierre's, she stopped and got a quick latte from the coffee shop nearest to the retailer. She'd noticed in one of the realtors pictures that he'd had one of their specialty mugs in the background.

Throwing it in the cup holder for later, she proceeded into the store, picked out a strapless, form fitting, knee length pencil dress and headed off to the dressing room.

Once it was on and fastened, she proceeded to rip off the tag and make her way to the cashier.

Pulling out her credit card and handing the young girl the tag, she politely asked for a bag for the clothes she arrived in.

The cashier complied, rang her up and placed the tag and receipt with her original clothing.

The open house was nearly over. She strolled in, picking up a property flier in the hand opposite her latte, and made her way around the first floor making fake mental notes about the layout and design.

"Hello. Welcome." A sultry voice over her right shoulder greeted her.

She swung around to come face to face with none other than Mark Thomas.

She smiled sweetly. "This is a beautiful house."

He took a mental inventory of the gorgeous creature in front of him. From her swept back ponytail, to the specialty coffee in her hand, to her taste in attire. Butterfly's fluttered within him as he made sure not to break eye contact for the remainder of the conversation.

"I haven't seen you at any other open houses in the area." He knew open-ended questions would be the way to keep her attention on him. He didn't want to press too hard for additional information, so chose to ask in a less direct way.

"This is my first one." said Kris feigning innocence.

Damnit, he thought, not breaking his gaze. Ok. Direct it is.

"Are you on the market for this kind of house, Mrs..." He said trailing off at the end.

"Ms." She stated plainly. "I'm always in the market for a good acquisition."

She spun around away from him and headed towards the back of the house, holding up the flyer, pretending to compare what was printed against the houses reality.

As she'd suspected, he wandered around behind her, like a lost puppy dog following his owner.

"This isn't the only property owner you represent, correct?" She asked without turning around.

"No. No of course not. I represent all different kinds of residential and commercial properties."

"Are they all listed on your website?"

"Most of them."

Now, with her interest piqued, she again turned to face him. "Why not all of them?"

He hemmed and hawed and darted his eyes around the room. "Well..some of the properties are being sold low key. There are conditions for the sale. There are owners who would prefer to sell privately while still keeping records by the book."

"And how does one go about seeing that list?" She took a step forward, not breaking her gaze, coming a mere 12 inches away from his face.

He swallowed hard. "By saying yes to dinner." He said confidently.

She smiled larger.

Gotcha.