A/N Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. It means a lot and is definitely
an inspiration. I have so little "me" time now with the baby that I have
to pick and choose what I'm going to do. Getting reviews helps make typing
worth it! Even if it is a true challenge some times. For instance, I had
to type this note with only one hand, and the last two whole pages were
typed while holding Collin! (a.k.a. squirming 4 month old also known as
"The Insomniac"). Thanks again!
Chapter 20
They laid there on the couch like that for awhile longer. Cass listening to his heart beat in his chest and Roger playing with her hair. Not talking. Barely moving. Just laying there in the semi darkness of the living room as the sunlight coming in through the two open windows faded towards darkness.
After awhile they heard Mark's key in the lock and the door opening. Neither of them moved. Mark came in and closed the door behind him. They could hear him setting the plastic grocery bags on the counter.
"I'm back." They heard him call out to them. When Cass still didn't move, neither did Roger.
"Cass? Roger? Are you guys here?" Roger knew from the kitchen you couldn't see anyone lying on the couch.
"I can't believe them!" Mark started.
Cass turned her head toward Roger who was starting to crack a grin. He put a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet.
"I go to the grocery store, to get them food and they take off! Great! I can't believe they went out!" Mark was throwing food into cupboards and slamming the refrigerator door. "And it's not like they leave me a note or anything to tell me where they went!"
Roger was having a hard time not laughing out loud. And holding it in was making it even harder. Which was making Cass laugh too. She had her hand over her mouth trying hard not to make any noise.
"I can't believe him. He won't go anywhere for months. She's here five days and he take off. Since when does leaving a recluse alone with someone who won't leave the apartment without a fist fight mean they eat out and I'm stuck eating cereal alone." They could hear him opening a box of cereal.
"I can't believe him," Mark set a bowl on the counter. "God Roger, don't waste any time. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all I went and told him it was okay to--"
"Hey!" Roger sat up on the couch so fast he almost knocked Cass onto the floor, but he wanted to shut Mark up before he finished that sentence.
Mark jumped as he heard Roger's voice. "What the! What the hell are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Um, sorry." Roger could feel his ears starting to burn and was glad it was somewhat dark in the living room. "We were, um, taking a nap and didn't hear you come in."
"Right." Mark just looked at Roger and smirked at him. Actually he was pretty proud of himself. Usually he didn't catch on anywhere near this fast, but this time he did. He caught on right away, and dropped the whole subject. For now anyway.
Roger helped Cass up from the couch. "Sorry" he whispered to her. She looked from him to Mark and back to him and just laughed a little. Roger could feel his ears burning again.
"So you, um, got groceries?" Roger asked him. God I sound like an idiot he thought as he and Cass sat down on the barstools.
"Yeah Roge, I got groceries." Oh this could be fun after all.
"Yeah, I guess you did huh? So what did you get? Dinner?"
"Where are my cigarettes?" Cass asked him
"Um," Mark stalled a little. "I got some Twinkies and Oreo's and more coffee and milk."
"Cool Oreo's. Where are they?" Roger asked.
Mark tossed him the Oreo's. Roger opened them, pulled two out; handed one to Cass then twisted the other one open. "That takes care of dinner." He said as he started to lick the filling from the inside.
Cass looked at her Oreo and then Roger and then rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever. Where are my cigarettes?"
"Um, I got some of those microwave black bean and vegetarian burritos you liked Cass. But you'll have to use Jen's microwave I guess."
"Uh huh." Cass was looking at him. "Great, but my cigarettes?"
"I got you gum." Mark said in an almost little kid voice.
"Gum is good," she could tell he was stalling, "but what about my cigarettes Marky?"
"Um, okay I forgot to get cigarettes."
"Right. Forgot." She just looked at him.
"Okay, I didn't forget. But you know what, you want cigarettes, then you go out and buy them." There, that should take care of that he thought.
"Oh give me a break Mark. Just pick them up for me. What's the big deal?"
"Yeah, what's the big deal Mark?" Roger asked, twisting his fourth Oreo open.
"Well the big deal is, you don't smoke Cass. Not any more. And if I keep buying you cigarettes, then you'll keep smoking. And then he'll start smoking again." He pointed at Roger. "And then he'll start burning holes in the couch again."
"Hey! How did I get into this?"
"Why do you think there's duct tape on the chair to begin with?" He said to Roger before turning back to Cass. "And then this whole place will stink of smoke again. And he'll burn holes in my clothes, again. And holes in the floor. And holes in my note books. And over flowing ashtrays, because it must take some special advanced degree in I don't know what to know how to empty those. And then I gotta start getting up at 4 am again to make sure he doesn't pass out smoking in bed and burn the whole place down along with everything in it, which by the way is everything I own. And," Mark suddenly realized he was kinda going off on them. "Besides, I thought you were a marathon runner now?" Well, that was a feeble attempt at a save.
Cass just looked at him for a second. "I see. First I thought you were concerned about my health. Then I thought it was Roger's. But I understand now Mark. You're worried about your wardrobe and all your priceless belongings." She couldn't stop herself any longer. She started laughing. And so did Roger. That only made Cass laugh harder and Mark start laughing when he looked at him as well.
Roger looked at them, still laughing. "What?" He said between Oreo's.
"Nothing Oreo boy!" Cass teased him. "Let's just say your teeth match your eye right now."
"Oh well." He laughed, reaching for another Oreo.
"You're going to ruin your dinner." Mark told him.
"Most likely this is my dinner, Mom."
"Oh very healthy." Cass laughed at him. "Ill tell you what. Now that I'm not the only one with a black eye, I guess I'd be a little more willing to go out. If we go somewhere that's kinda quiet and dark. Maybe not too busy."
"You actually want to go out?" Mark asked her.
"Maybe." She shrugged.
Roger could tell she was losing her nerve quick. "Okay. We'll go anywhere you want. You do realize you are paying right?" He asked as he walked around to the fridge and pulled out the milk. "I can guarantee you we don't have any extra cash. Especially after Benny today I'm sure." Cass laughed. Good he thought.
"Yes, I figured I'd pay." She smiled at him.
"Cool. I'm in." Roger said as he drank the milk out of the carton.
"Will you please use a glass!" Mark yelled at him. "And brush your teeth before we go anywhere."
Roger put down the milk on the counter and walked up behind Mark. "I don't know Cass. Maybe we should leave Mark here." Mark was about to argue with him, but before he could say anything Roger put him in a headlock. "I mean it just won't look right if we take him out with us. He looks wrong. Maybe we need to give him a black eye too. So he fits in. You know, matches the group." He was laughing and smiling an Oreo smile.
"You guys are too much."
"Let me go loser." Mark told him.
After pretending to rough up Mark, Roger let him go. "Hey was that Benny out front today? How did that go anyway? Did we have enough or did you hear shit from him?"
"Yeah, that was him alright. I got back here just in time too. He saw me come around the corner just as he was about to drive over to the Life Café. I think he honestly believes we do nothing but go there when we walk out this door." Mark shook his head.
"You go other places?" Cass asked him, trying to sound astonished.
Mark didn't pay any attention to what she said and kept going. "Yeah, we had enough, sort of. What we were short, I convinced Benny I had worked off, what with the empty apartment and all."
"How much does he make you pay?" Cass asked them.
"Well, it sort of varies." Mark told her. "It depends on how much I had to do for him that month to take care of this dump. Plus it depends on how much we actually have." He gave Roger a look. "It's not like we all don't know there is no way he can legally rent any of the fourth floor the way it is now. Besides lately he doesn't seem to argue too much about however much I do have. It's not like whatever it is isn't going straight into his pocket. I mean it sure doesn't go into a business account or anything I'm sure."
"Maybe Muffy cut his allowance." Roger joked.
"Yeah well," he looked at Roger. "Alison," then back to Cass, "does kinda keep him on a short leash lately."
"Sometimes I wish she would have made him give this place up like she was threatening to do. Then we'd be done dealing with his sorry ass."
"Ah, hello? You do remember our only other option is that cardboard box thing right? So until one of us makes it rich and famous, maybe we should just try to play nice with him. Or I'll play nice and you just stay away from him. Okay?"
"Fine. Whatever."
"Wait, I'm confused." Cass started to ask. "So who actually owns the building? Benny or his wife?"
"Well, that's sort of complicated. See Benny had some money sort of. What happened was, he had inherited like a big chunk of money from his grandmother's estate after selling her house after she died."
"It wasn't a 'big chunk,' only a few thousand dollars." Roger said with a bitter edge to his voice.
"Actually more like closer to 100 thousand before taxes. Regardless, way more than either of us have seen in like forever, hence it's a big chunk."
"Whatever, just tell her the rest."
"Okay so he's got this money see, and he's just started dating Alison. Well this is like what, about a year after we got here?"
Roger nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
"So he thinks it will really impress Alison if he asks her dad for investment advice. I mean Benny's not stupid. At least financially. He knew he would lose a bundle of it to estate taxes unless he did something smart with it. Anyway her dad's got all these investments going and I guess he was a good person to talk to seeing as how he was pretty successful and rich."
"Not to mention also a total ass like Benny."
Again Mark ignored him and kept going. "So he talks Benny into investing in something with him. We all thought he was crazy and her dad was going to royally screw him, because he really didn't like Benny. But apparently his opinion changed after Benny had all this extra cash that her Dad could use for investing in his stuff. But surprise, this stuff actually pans out and he ends up making more money."
"Which her dad kept a real close eye on and kept putting back into his own investments." Roger smirked.
"Yeah well, that's true. I think he was using Benny's money to help all his stuff along. Which meant Benny was actually making money, but he couldn't really touch it. It also meant he had to stay in good with her dad."
"Which meant keep Muffy happy."
"Can I please tell this story?" He gave Roger an annoyed look. "But yeah, keep Muffy, I mean Alison, happy. So he marries her. Which means he gets to use her family's name and money to keep investing in stuff, sort off." Mark laughed.
"He means after Muffy approves it and gives him the money because Daddy still has his all tied up." Roger laughed. "And he can't really do anything about it because Daddy made him sign a pre-nup."
"Well, yeah." Mark smiled. "But so we had all been living here illegally. Well, we were living here, Benny was technically living here but staying at Alison's."
"When she'd let him, and when Daddy wasn't going to be dropping by."
"Anyway," He paused and gave Roger another look; "the old guy that owned this place lived on the first floor. That's why those are the nicest apartments. He bought it when it was a still a working music publishing house. After that closed he started to convert the whole place over. He put basic apartments in floor by floor and then really did up the first floor nice. He lived in the big one and his sister and kid in each of the smaller ones. Unfortunately, or actually fortunately for the poverty stricken us, he started to run out of money and had to slow down. He was doing most of it himself. He was old and retired and after he got the second and third floors done and rentable, he went back and really did up the ones on the first floor. He always planned on finishing the fourth floor, but he had a heart attack before he could do it.
"So that really cut down on his working on it. Well it was here and vacant and his kid knew someone who needed a place real cheap I guess. So they moved in and it got handed through NYU students a couple of times until somebody Collins knew was moving out and finally we ended up here.
"Well we were here a little over a year when the old guy died. And by then the sister had moved to Florida or something."
"Oh she was a bitch too." Roger felt the need to add.
"And the kid inherited this place. Well Benny kind of knew him and all and when he started complaining about the hassles of owning this place Benny told him he should sell it. See Benny had heard rumors, through Alison's dad's company about the zoning changes and stuff. I told you about Benny's Cyber Arts dream and all right?"
Cass nodded.
"So Alison's pissed at her dad about something, so to get at daddy, she helps Benny get the loan for the money to buy this place. So technically, it's Benny's, but he can't really do anything without Alison's okay."
"Or daddy's." Roger added.
"Right. Alison or daddy's okay."
"But why didn't Benny kick you guys out and just finish off the fourth floor like the rest of the building? Then he could rent it out."
"Cause he can't." Roger grinned
"What do you mean? Why not?"
"It's because of the zoning. He thought he could do just that, when the Cyber Arts thing happened. That was his plan. But then it all fell apart. Because of the zoning, to re do the fourth floor he would have to bring the entire building up to new code standards, not just he fourth floor.
See the old guy before, because he lived here on the property and had had it for so long, was grandfathered into all the old zone codes. He could have done it, but not Benny, or any new owner. Benny looked into it. For anyone new, you would have to re-do the whole building which not only meant putting money out, but not getting money in because some of the second and third floor would have to be vacant while the renovations were going on. And Alison wouldn't give him the money he needed to do that."
"And she wouldn't let daddy do it either." Roger said dryly.
"Why not? It would make much better business sense?"
"Basically to punish Benny." Mark told her.
"What do you mean?"
"By that point Alison had found out about some stuff." Mark looked toward Roger, who was pulling apart another Oreo with much more concentration than any Oreo ever warranted. Cass gave him a confused look and was about to ask him what he meant by that. Mark wanted to keep this whole part of the story to a minimum for Roger's sake so he just told enough. He knew she could fill in the blanks. "Benny had some other investments and hobbies." He could tell Cass caught on when her eyes went to Roger and the Oreo for a moment.
"The only way to re-do just this floor would be if the owner was doing it for themselves to live in. Because it was owner occupation or something like that Benny said it could be done. And there were some other rules that went with that too, but it didn't matter, there was no way Alison was going to move to the village and live in this place. She told Benny to go ahead if he wanted to, but there was that whole pre-nup thing so even if he did leave her and move in here, he'd never be able to afford to actually do anything to this place."
"In other words," Roger got an evil grin on his face, "Benny got screwed. And not in a good way."
"Basically, yeah." Mark agreed.
"So technically, by punishing Benny, Alison is saving your butts. That must kind of piss him off a little."
"Yeah it must." Roger grinned.
"I think that's why she keeps it up. Like I said, short leash any more. But Roger's right, it is fun to watch him squirm." Mark laughed. "However Benny and Alison have a somewhat sick and twisted relationship anyway."
"So was he his usual jackass self today? Did he give you a hard time about the money?" Roger asked.
"No, not really, but I thought he would never leave. I kept telling him I had stuff to do, but I think she was home waiting for him or something. He just kept talking. Asking about Collins, my film, even Maureen."
"What? He didn't ask about me?" Roger said sarcastically.
"Um, no. But just when I had him almost out the door, the Fed Ex guy shows up with Cass' boxes and he starts in on that. I thought I'd never get him out. I was about to ask him if he was moving back in or something." Mark said exasperated.
"My stuff came? Already?"
Roger could hear the nervous edge come back into her voice. "What did you tell the nosey SOB?"
"Just that one of my friends was on their way to New York and shipped some stuff they couldn't travel with. Then I started asking him about Alison. She got a new dog by the way."
"Another one? What is that the fifth? What happened to the last one?" Roger was watching Cass. She was staring at the two large boxes just inside the front door.
"Fourth. Last one chewed through the electrical cord on a lamp while they were out. Unfortunately the lamp was turned on." Mark noticed Cass looking at the boxes. "Cass you still want to go to dinner or do you want to go through your stuff?"
"Um, I don't know I guess. Maybe. Mark where are those painkillers the doctor gave me? My arm really hurts again." While she spoke she never took her eyes off the boxes.
"Um," Mark paused. "I, um put them somewhere. Um, where did I put them? I think in my room." He shot a look at Roger who, behind Cass' back held up a finger and mouthed the word 'one' to him. "Yeah, that's right. I was trying to talk to Benny and all. I'll get them." He went to his room for the pills.
"Cass why don't we go eat and we'll do this tomorrow. Didn't you deal with enough crap today?" Roger asked her.
"No. No I want to do it and get it over with. Besides, maybe it's not that bad. Giavanna tends to over exaggerate a lot of things. Maybe it's not so bad."
Roger was pretty sure she was trying to convince herself more than him, especially since she still hadn't moved yet. "Okay, if you're sure."
"Here you go Cass." Mark handed her one small white pill and a glass of water.
"Thanks. Yes, Gia, she tends to get a little carried away. It can't be all that bad. Besides I can get my glasses hopefully. Gia's sweet and all, but she gets excited. It can't be as bad as she said. Right? I mean she just tends to get excited."
Chapter 20
They laid there on the couch like that for awhile longer. Cass listening to his heart beat in his chest and Roger playing with her hair. Not talking. Barely moving. Just laying there in the semi darkness of the living room as the sunlight coming in through the two open windows faded towards darkness.
After awhile they heard Mark's key in the lock and the door opening. Neither of them moved. Mark came in and closed the door behind him. They could hear him setting the plastic grocery bags on the counter.
"I'm back." They heard him call out to them. When Cass still didn't move, neither did Roger.
"Cass? Roger? Are you guys here?" Roger knew from the kitchen you couldn't see anyone lying on the couch.
"I can't believe them!" Mark started.
Cass turned her head toward Roger who was starting to crack a grin. He put a finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet.
"I go to the grocery store, to get them food and they take off! Great! I can't believe they went out!" Mark was throwing food into cupboards and slamming the refrigerator door. "And it's not like they leave me a note or anything to tell me where they went!"
Roger was having a hard time not laughing out loud. And holding it in was making it even harder. Which was making Cass laugh too. She had her hand over her mouth trying hard not to make any noise.
"I can't believe him. He won't go anywhere for months. She's here five days and he take off. Since when does leaving a recluse alone with someone who won't leave the apartment without a fist fight mean they eat out and I'm stuck eating cereal alone." They could hear him opening a box of cereal.
"I can't believe him," Mark set a bowl on the counter. "God Roger, don't waste any time. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all I went and told him it was okay to--"
"Hey!" Roger sat up on the couch so fast he almost knocked Cass onto the floor, but he wanted to shut Mark up before he finished that sentence.
Mark jumped as he heard Roger's voice. "What the! What the hell are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Um, sorry." Roger could feel his ears starting to burn and was glad it was somewhat dark in the living room. "We were, um, taking a nap and didn't hear you come in."
"Right." Mark just looked at Roger and smirked at him. Actually he was pretty proud of himself. Usually he didn't catch on anywhere near this fast, but this time he did. He caught on right away, and dropped the whole subject. For now anyway.
Roger helped Cass up from the couch. "Sorry" he whispered to her. She looked from him to Mark and back to him and just laughed a little. Roger could feel his ears burning again.
"So you, um, got groceries?" Roger asked him. God I sound like an idiot he thought as he and Cass sat down on the barstools.
"Yeah Roge, I got groceries." Oh this could be fun after all.
"Yeah, I guess you did huh? So what did you get? Dinner?"
"Where are my cigarettes?" Cass asked him
"Um," Mark stalled a little. "I got some Twinkies and Oreo's and more coffee and milk."
"Cool Oreo's. Where are they?" Roger asked.
Mark tossed him the Oreo's. Roger opened them, pulled two out; handed one to Cass then twisted the other one open. "That takes care of dinner." He said as he started to lick the filling from the inside.
Cass looked at her Oreo and then Roger and then rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever. Where are my cigarettes?"
"Um, I got some of those microwave black bean and vegetarian burritos you liked Cass. But you'll have to use Jen's microwave I guess."
"Uh huh." Cass was looking at him. "Great, but my cigarettes?"
"I got you gum." Mark said in an almost little kid voice.
"Gum is good," she could tell he was stalling, "but what about my cigarettes Marky?"
"Um, okay I forgot to get cigarettes."
"Right. Forgot." She just looked at him.
"Okay, I didn't forget. But you know what, you want cigarettes, then you go out and buy them." There, that should take care of that he thought.
"Oh give me a break Mark. Just pick them up for me. What's the big deal?"
"Yeah, what's the big deal Mark?" Roger asked, twisting his fourth Oreo open.
"Well the big deal is, you don't smoke Cass. Not any more. And if I keep buying you cigarettes, then you'll keep smoking. And then he'll start smoking again." He pointed at Roger. "And then he'll start burning holes in the couch again."
"Hey! How did I get into this?"
"Why do you think there's duct tape on the chair to begin with?" He said to Roger before turning back to Cass. "And then this whole place will stink of smoke again. And he'll burn holes in my clothes, again. And holes in the floor. And holes in my note books. And over flowing ashtrays, because it must take some special advanced degree in I don't know what to know how to empty those. And then I gotta start getting up at 4 am again to make sure he doesn't pass out smoking in bed and burn the whole place down along with everything in it, which by the way is everything I own. And," Mark suddenly realized he was kinda going off on them. "Besides, I thought you were a marathon runner now?" Well, that was a feeble attempt at a save.
Cass just looked at him for a second. "I see. First I thought you were concerned about my health. Then I thought it was Roger's. But I understand now Mark. You're worried about your wardrobe and all your priceless belongings." She couldn't stop herself any longer. She started laughing. And so did Roger. That only made Cass laugh harder and Mark start laughing when he looked at him as well.
Roger looked at them, still laughing. "What?" He said between Oreo's.
"Nothing Oreo boy!" Cass teased him. "Let's just say your teeth match your eye right now."
"Oh well." He laughed, reaching for another Oreo.
"You're going to ruin your dinner." Mark told him.
"Most likely this is my dinner, Mom."
"Oh very healthy." Cass laughed at him. "Ill tell you what. Now that I'm not the only one with a black eye, I guess I'd be a little more willing to go out. If we go somewhere that's kinda quiet and dark. Maybe not too busy."
"You actually want to go out?" Mark asked her.
"Maybe." She shrugged.
Roger could tell she was losing her nerve quick. "Okay. We'll go anywhere you want. You do realize you are paying right?" He asked as he walked around to the fridge and pulled out the milk. "I can guarantee you we don't have any extra cash. Especially after Benny today I'm sure." Cass laughed. Good he thought.
"Yes, I figured I'd pay." She smiled at him.
"Cool. I'm in." Roger said as he drank the milk out of the carton.
"Will you please use a glass!" Mark yelled at him. "And brush your teeth before we go anywhere."
Roger put down the milk on the counter and walked up behind Mark. "I don't know Cass. Maybe we should leave Mark here." Mark was about to argue with him, but before he could say anything Roger put him in a headlock. "I mean it just won't look right if we take him out with us. He looks wrong. Maybe we need to give him a black eye too. So he fits in. You know, matches the group." He was laughing and smiling an Oreo smile.
"You guys are too much."
"Let me go loser." Mark told him.
After pretending to rough up Mark, Roger let him go. "Hey was that Benny out front today? How did that go anyway? Did we have enough or did you hear shit from him?"
"Yeah, that was him alright. I got back here just in time too. He saw me come around the corner just as he was about to drive over to the Life Café. I think he honestly believes we do nothing but go there when we walk out this door." Mark shook his head.
"You go other places?" Cass asked him, trying to sound astonished.
Mark didn't pay any attention to what she said and kept going. "Yeah, we had enough, sort of. What we were short, I convinced Benny I had worked off, what with the empty apartment and all."
"How much does he make you pay?" Cass asked them.
"Well, it sort of varies." Mark told her. "It depends on how much I had to do for him that month to take care of this dump. Plus it depends on how much we actually have." He gave Roger a look. "It's not like we all don't know there is no way he can legally rent any of the fourth floor the way it is now. Besides lately he doesn't seem to argue too much about however much I do have. It's not like whatever it is isn't going straight into his pocket. I mean it sure doesn't go into a business account or anything I'm sure."
"Maybe Muffy cut his allowance." Roger joked.
"Yeah well," he looked at Roger. "Alison," then back to Cass, "does kinda keep him on a short leash lately."
"Sometimes I wish she would have made him give this place up like she was threatening to do. Then we'd be done dealing with his sorry ass."
"Ah, hello? You do remember our only other option is that cardboard box thing right? So until one of us makes it rich and famous, maybe we should just try to play nice with him. Or I'll play nice and you just stay away from him. Okay?"
"Fine. Whatever."
"Wait, I'm confused." Cass started to ask. "So who actually owns the building? Benny or his wife?"
"Well, that's sort of complicated. See Benny had some money sort of. What happened was, he had inherited like a big chunk of money from his grandmother's estate after selling her house after she died."
"It wasn't a 'big chunk,' only a few thousand dollars." Roger said with a bitter edge to his voice.
"Actually more like closer to 100 thousand before taxes. Regardless, way more than either of us have seen in like forever, hence it's a big chunk."
"Whatever, just tell her the rest."
"Okay so he's got this money see, and he's just started dating Alison. Well this is like what, about a year after we got here?"
Roger nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
"So he thinks it will really impress Alison if he asks her dad for investment advice. I mean Benny's not stupid. At least financially. He knew he would lose a bundle of it to estate taxes unless he did something smart with it. Anyway her dad's got all these investments going and I guess he was a good person to talk to seeing as how he was pretty successful and rich."
"Not to mention also a total ass like Benny."
Again Mark ignored him and kept going. "So he talks Benny into investing in something with him. We all thought he was crazy and her dad was going to royally screw him, because he really didn't like Benny. But apparently his opinion changed after Benny had all this extra cash that her Dad could use for investing in his stuff. But surprise, this stuff actually pans out and he ends up making more money."
"Which her dad kept a real close eye on and kept putting back into his own investments." Roger smirked.
"Yeah well, that's true. I think he was using Benny's money to help all his stuff along. Which meant Benny was actually making money, but he couldn't really touch it. It also meant he had to stay in good with her dad."
"Which meant keep Muffy happy."
"Can I please tell this story?" He gave Roger an annoyed look. "But yeah, keep Muffy, I mean Alison, happy. So he marries her. Which means he gets to use her family's name and money to keep investing in stuff, sort off." Mark laughed.
"He means after Muffy approves it and gives him the money because Daddy still has his all tied up." Roger laughed. "And he can't really do anything about it because Daddy made him sign a pre-nup."
"Well, yeah." Mark smiled. "But so we had all been living here illegally. Well, we were living here, Benny was technically living here but staying at Alison's."
"When she'd let him, and when Daddy wasn't going to be dropping by."
"Anyway," He paused and gave Roger another look; "the old guy that owned this place lived on the first floor. That's why those are the nicest apartments. He bought it when it was a still a working music publishing house. After that closed he started to convert the whole place over. He put basic apartments in floor by floor and then really did up the first floor nice. He lived in the big one and his sister and kid in each of the smaller ones. Unfortunately, or actually fortunately for the poverty stricken us, he started to run out of money and had to slow down. He was doing most of it himself. He was old and retired and after he got the second and third floors done and rentable, he went back and really did up the ones on the first floor. He always planned on finishing the fourth floor, but he had a heart attack before he could do it.
"So that really cut down on his working on it. Well it was here and vacant and his kid knew someone who needed a place real cheap I guess. So they moved in and it got handed through NYU students a couple of times until somebody Collins knew was moving out and finally we ended up here.
"Well we were here a little over a year when the old guy died. And by then the sister had moved to Florida or something."
"Oh she was a bitch too." Roger felt the need to add.
"And the kid inherited this place. Well Benny kind of knew him and all and when he started complaining about the hassles of owning this place Benny told him he should sell it. See Benny had heard rumors, through Alison's dad's company about the zoning changes and stuff. I told you about Benny's Cyber Arts dream and all right?"
Cass nodded.
"So Alison's pissed at her dad about something, so to get at daddy, she helps Benny get the loan for the money to buy this place. So technically, it's Benny's, but he can't really do anything without Alison's okay."
"Or daddy's." Roger added.
"Right. Alison or daddy's okay."
"But why didn't Benny kick you guys out and just finish off the fourth floor like the rest of the building? Then he could rent it out."
"Cause he can't." Roger grinned
"What do you mean? Why not?"
"It's because of the zoning. He thought he could do just that, when the Cyber Arts thing happened. That was his plan. But then it all fell apart. Because of the zoning, to re do the fourth floor he would have to bring the entire building up to new code standards, not just he fourth floor.
See the old guy before, because he lived here on the property and had had it for so long, was grandfathered into all the old zone codes. He could have done it, but not Benny, or any new owner. Benny looked into it. For anyone new, you would have to re-do the whole building which not only meant putting money out, but not getting money in because some of the second and third floor would have to be vacant while the renovations were going on. And Alison wouldn't give him the money he needed to do that."
"And she wouldn't let daddy do it either." Roger said dryly.
"Why not? It would make much better business sense?"
"Basically to punish Benny." Mark told her.
"What do you mean?"
"By that point Alison had found out about some stuff." Mark looked toward Roger, who was pulling apart another Oreo with much more concentration than any Oreo ever warranted. Cass gave him a confused look and was about to ask him what he meant by that. Mark wanted to keep this whole part of the story to a minimum for Roger's sake so he just told enough. He knew she could fill in the blanks. "Benny had some other investments and hobbies." He could tell Cass caught on when her eyes went to Roger and the Oreo for a moment.
"The only way to re-do just this floor would be if the owner was doing it for themselves to live in. Because it was owner occupation or something like that Benny said it could be done. And there were some other rules that went with that too, but it didn't matter, there was no way Alison was going to move to the village and live in this place. She told Benny to go ahead if he wanted to, but there was that whole pre-nup thing so even if he did leave her and move in here, he'd never be able to afford to actually do anything to this place."
"In other words," Roger got an evil grin on his face, "Benny got screwed. And not in a good way."
"Basically, yeah." Mark agreed.
"So technically, by punishing Benny, Alison is saving your butts. That must kind of piss him off a little."
"Yeah it must." Roger grinned.
"I think that's why she keeps it up. Like I said, short leash any more. But Roger's right, it is fun to watch him squirm." Mark laughed. "However Benny and Alison have a somewhat sick and twisted relationship anyway."
"So was he his usual jackass self today? Did he give you a hard time about the money?" Roger asked.
"No, not really, but I thought he would never leave. I kept telling him I had stuff to do, but I think she was home waiting for him or something. He just kept talking. Asking about Collins, my film, even Maureen."
"What? He didn't ask about me?" Roger said sarcastically.
"Um, no. But just when I had him almost out the door, the Fed Ex guy shows up with Cass' boxes and he starts in on that. I thought I'd never get him out. I was about to ask him if he was moving back in or something." Mark said exasperated.
"My stuff came? Already?"
Roger could hear the nervous edge come back into her voice. "What did you tell the nosey SOB?"
"Just that one of my friends was on their way to New York and shipped some stuff they couldn't travel with. Then I started asking him about Alison. She got a new dog by the way."
"Another one? What is that the fifth? What happened to the last one?" Roger was watching Cass. She was staring at the two large boxes just inside the front door.
"Fourth. Last one chewed through the electrical cord on a lamp while they were out. Unfortunately the lamp was turned on." Mark noticed Cass looking at the boxes. "Cass you still want to go to dinner or do you want to go through your stuff?"
"Um, I don't know I guess. Maybe. Mark where are those painkillers the doctor gave me? My arm really hurts again." While she spoke she never took her eyes off the boxes.
"Um," Mark paused. "I, um put them somewhere. Um, where did I put them? I think in my room." He shot a look at Roger who, behind Cass' back held up a finger and mouthed the word 'one' to him. "Yeah, that's right. I was trying to talk to Benny and all. I'll get them." He went to his room for the pills.
"Cass why don't we go eat and we'll do this tomorrow. Didn't you deal with enough crap today?" Roger asked her.
"No. No I want to do it and get it over with. Besides, maybe it's not that bad. Giavanna tends to over exaggerate a lot of things. Maybe it's not so bad."
Roger was pretty sure she was trying to convince herself more than him, especially since she still hadn't moved yet. "Okay, if you're sure."
"Here you go Cass." Mark handed her one small white pill and a glass of water.
"Thanks. Yes, Gia, she tends to get a little carried away. It can't be all that bad. Besides I can get my glasses hopefully. Gia's sweet and all, but she gets excited. It can't be as bad as she said. Right? I mean she just tends to get excited."