From the May 18, 2023 writer's prompt on the JE FF Facebook page. Write a one-shot using the words "asking for a friend". No longer a one-shot. Not by a long shot.
Disclaimer: All familiar characters belong to Janet Evanovich. I am not making any money from this. Mistakes are mine.
Asking for a Friend - Chapter 29
Remy 2.0
Remy's POV
My mom is so smart! Mom and Santos are kicking butt in the Sales Department and her searches are helping to bring in a lot of medium and high bonds. Rangeman has taken over Mom's low bond FTA's so Vinnie doesn't even have a BEA anymore. He pays Rangeman a higher percentage than he paid Mom but, between Mom and her MM, they bring in every one of them so Vinnie never loses his money! Mom still goes out on takedowns of low-risk FTA's - with a partner, of course. Mom's Man is still leery even of the low bond skips - he claims that Mom could find trouble in a phone booth. Check. Mom's argument is that it's hard to even find a phone booth nowadays. Checkmate.
So, Mom and Santos were on their way back from a sales call when Mom noticed that the old fire station is for sale by the City of Trenton since a new fire station was just built and occupied. She tells Lester that Rangeman needs to pursue buying the building since the apartments in the Rangeman building are always full, with a waiting list, for all the new guys that are being hired for monitor duties, installations, patrols, troubleshooting, and responding to alarms. They park the SUV and peek in the windows of the vacant fire station house. Lester asked Mom if she would be willing to slide down the fire pole. Wow - Mom hasn't lost her Burg glare! Mom takes a cell phone pic of the agent's contact information and calls him to indicate Rangeman's interest in the property and heads back to Haywood to research the building.
She gathers all her info and asks to be on the next Core Team agenda. When Her Man learned the topic, he asked for it to be at a Leadership Team meeting, which is the Core Team plus Mom, Hector, Cal and Hal. That meeting is tomorrow morning where she explained to them that it was set up as a barracks and can sleep eight, divided between second and third floors, as all the bed frames and mattresses were left in place because the new station got a donation of beds from a furniture store, with all open space on the second and third floors except for bathrooms and closets. The guys don't mind - most of them lived that way in the military anyway. The first floor is a kitchen, dining area, rec room and another bathroom/laundry room, and space for a couple of treadmills. And four SUVs can fit in the space where the fire engines used to live.
I have my ear up against the door during the meeting - if anyone opened the door, I'd fall into the room. Oh, sheesh, Santos is thinking he wants to learn to pole dance as performance art. Hal and Cal are more interested in making sure the pole is stable for the guys who will want to climb it for exercise. Anyway, all the guys revert back to their childhoods when they wanted to be firefighters - exciting!
They vote unanimously to pursue purchasing the building and Mom's Man contacts the agent to ask for first right of refusal followed by a call to the Zoning Commission to see what's needed for them to be happy. Onward! They can decide on how much to charge the MM for rent if they buy it. Ella's services wouldn't come with the building - they'd have to do their own cooking, cleaning and laundry plus not having privacy due to it being open space. Rent will be cheap but who wouldn't want to live in a fire station, come on! Rent will be even cheaper if the MM take care of snow removal and yardwork.
Things are happening quickly! Mom's Man made a full price, cash offer, which was accepted, and the Zoning Commission doesn't differentiate from a 24/7 fire station and a 24/7 security service. Mom's Man orders a team of MM to move out the old bed frames and mattresses and donates them to a shelter. Mom and Ella are in charge of decorating and spend several hours at the outlet mall. New bed frames, mattress, pillows and bedding plus towels, downstairs furniture, dishware and other kitchen stuff, plus a nice TV and sound system and CD's, DVD's, books and boardgames. Ella will do an initial stocking of the cupboards and refrigerator plus paper products. I can't wait to see it!
A herd of MM bring supplies and Louis supervises the indoor painting on Thursday. The outside is red brick and looks just like a fire station should look - lots of character. The flooring is in good shape and just needs an industrial cleaning, which happens on Friday.
Hal and Cal are in charge of receiving and setting up all the new furniture on Saturday, which includes two treadmills from Haywood that are being replaced. It's good to have military guys in charge! After that, Mom and Ella and I arrive and the SUVs are unloaded that are carrying the smaller stuff like dishes, silverware, glassware, utensils, small appliances, and, oh yeah, bowls for my visits. All of that happened in three hours! Go, Team Rangeman. Next comes food and paper products. And a small bag of dogfood.
Now, the hardest part - Mom manages the apartments in the Rangeman Building as far as maintaining a waiting list or any employees who want to change apartments. Guess how many guys want to live at the old fire station? A lot. Mom's Man has decisions to make. He decided that all Core Team members need to live in the Haywood Building because they have to be readily available for anything, and that Bones needs to be at Haywood also since he's on the medical team. Mom's Man prefers that the Leadership Team also live at Haywood and Hal, Cal, and Hector agree to that. That still leaves a bunch of guys who want to try living in an old firehouse - the most senior guys will get first dibs. Woody wants to move and take care of the lawn since he misses living on a ranch. Louis will be his backup if he can't do it. Raphael, Brett, Manny, Vince, Gene, Zip and Zero all want to move. That will open up some of the apartments for the new hires coming on board, who need to concentrate on making the Rangeman team and not worry about cooking, cleaning and laundry. Mom will contact them on Monday morning after the apartments are vacated and cleaned.
Everyone is moved into the fire station house by late Sunday and a huge amount of Chinese food is ordered for the new tenants as well as anyone else who wants to stop by. That includes me! We had an awesome time - this is a great place - did I mention it's a red brick fire station house, for Pete's sake! Thanks to Mom and Ella, it already feels welcoming and a fun place to just hang out. I wonder if Ella would make me a Dalmatian costume so I'd fit right in? Asking for a friend.
A/N Credit for this chapter goes to DW on the JE FF Facebook page, whose prompt led me to write the chapter I've had in mind for awhile. Your reviews are appreciated.