27

                                    

                                          
Jess hadn't seen it coming, but the jetlag was getting to him and he had dozed off on the couch in the middle of the afternoon while reading, the light air moving the voile curtains unguardedly.
"Oh, sorry," Odette said suddenly as she stepped into the apartment, noticing Jess napping on the couch, worrying she woke him with the racket the door made.
"It's fine, I must've dozed off," he yawned, rubbing his face and neck with his palm, as he rose to sit.
"Wouldn't have figured Sedaris to be that boring," she chuckled, noting the book that lay besides him, as she leaned down to kiss him in greeting.
"Nah, it wasn't. Must be the jetlag," he added, raising from his seat and getting a glass of water.
"Did everything go okay?" Jess asked after gulping down a large sip.
"Hmhm," she replied, "Give me some, I'm really thirsty," she added, suddenly feeling like she could drink a bucketful.
"Ahh...," Odette exhaled as she swallowed. "Natalie seems very smart, very on point, you'd like her. But today at the notary it was just me and the notary and dad's executor. This was the easy part," she explained. "Feels kind of weird to be getting that amount of money, even if it's temporary," she sighed a moment later, feeling a little overwhelmed nonetheless by the fairly casual procedure. She released her hair from the braided bun she'd had all day and feeling her scalp relax as she ran her fingers through her hair, continuing to throw her heels off her feet, with a satisfactory sigh.
He had never really asked about her net worth, he'd always assumed, and she probably knew a lot more about his financial status than he knew of hers. He'd seen her stock portfolio once, which was what she trades with on a daily basis, that had been around 60 000, nothing extreme, but not pennies either. He could guess the worth of her townhouse but other than that he knew very little. He felt as if asking her these things, that didn't really matter to him, would somehow cast doubt on him, whether he was in it for the right reasons, and he wasn't going to ask unless she herself offered, just like he had.
"I'd be tempted to just donate the money, just in spite of him, if I was you," Jess commented as he looked through the contents of the fridge, he'd purchased before, adding "Are you hungry? I could make you something, or we could go out."
"It would be interesting indeed - buy goats for the women in Ghana or something. God, he'd be furious. He hates goats," she commented laughingly, briefly beginning to wonder what would happen if she did deviate from the plan. She couldn't deny having that amount of money would enable her to really protect herself if needed. She could buy a small island, build a technological fortress and hire a pack of guards, a private medical team, never having to deal with Henri again. But that would literally mean excluding herself and everyone she loved from the society, as the reputations were the thing Henri played with, and that was not the life she wanted.
"Yeah, I'm hungry, sure, but I'm exhausted... maybe I'll just have something small now and we can cook later. Feel free to eat now if you want," she added.
"Here," he handed her a chocolate croissant, getting a muttered sound of approval in return as she bit into it, landing onto the couch.
"So when do you have the next meeting?" he inquired, wondering if she'd gotten any clarity in the timeframe.
"It could take up to three days for the asset transfer to take place, then I'd have to pay the inheritage tax, another day for that to register, so my guess is that on Friday we can schedule the next time for the notary - I'm sure he already has it booked but it's not confirmed. So earliest next week I would say. So this means we have like 5 days to kill in between. Anything you want to do while here?"