TURF

Sold!

"I must say, Ms Milton, you have impeccable timing!" The real estate agent humbly admitted to the woman as he presented a 146-page contract. "This house was only added to my database minutes before you contacted me, and it had already sparked the interest of a young Matthew Monrowe."

Dianne anxiously took the contract by both hands. She couldn't believe that it was finally happening! The only thing that was standing in the way of her next business endeavor were the unsigned pieces of paper shaking between her fingers.

The real estate agent, Frank, slid a silver-plated pen across the kitchen island towards Dianne. "Whenever you're ready." He smiled reassuringly.

She looked up at the man, then gazed one last time at her surroundings. "This is the house! It's the one." She nodded back at him. In order to believe that her troubles were soon coming to an end, she had to say it out loud. The house was hers! She had to claim it, maybe even stick a flag in it!

Her heart beat aggressively against her chest as she signed and initialed each page. When she was done, she felt an adrenaline rush like never before! It felt like a poison rushing to the deepest trenches of her gut, and causing a ripple effect to the rest of her body.

"Congratulations." Was all she heard from Frank.

Once she zoned back in, she was grinning from ear to ear. Frank saw that as an appropriate cue to move on to the next step of the process; handing over of the keys.

"Now, as requested, Ms Milton, I have made 20 copies of the main doors to the house as well as 20 remote controls for the gate and security systems. They're all arranged here nicely." He said as he presented a case with the keys numbered in ascending order from 1 to 18 and two spare keys at the bottom. "The numbered keys correspond to the number of bedrooms, key 1 only opens bedroom 1 and so forth. The unnumbered keys bare the master keys, which will of course be used only by you - the owner of the house."

Dianne was impressed by how quickly Frank had managed to organize this, seeing as she had only requested this virtually 8 hours ago.

"Thank you." She said with a breathy voice. Her nerves were still on edge.

"Lastly, Ms Milton, I apologize for my unprofessional presentation today. I usually bring a bottle of champagne when I close a deal-"

"Oh that's fine, hun, that's fine." She assured him. "This has been a wonderful encounter, I'm more than happy."

Proud of his biggest sale in over a year, Frank shook Dianne's hand one last time before heading out.

An ecstatic Dianne took to the wide and empty living space and started to imagine where she would put everything. She envisioned where she would place the sofas, the TV, the book shelves and especially the potted plants!

Whilst lost in her world, Dianne failed to sense a presence looming behind her. "So you beat me to it?"

Dianne spun so quickly around that she almost hit her head against his bold chest. While standing like a dear in headlights, she observed the man, or should we say boy, from toe to head.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about him from the neck down, he was dressed in business casual attire with an absent tie and the white shirt unbuttoned slightly at the top. His face, did not match his attire! Let it be said, however, that he was a handsome young man. He was clean shaven, with piercing emerald-green eyes and shoulder-length brunette hair framing his face ever so gently.

Since he was of extraordinary height, his locs curtained his face softly as he looked down at the tiny woman. Something about this amplified his mysterious persona. But back to how his face didn't match... Dianne could not comprehend why the young man had 2 piercings on his face: a silver stud on his nose as well as a silver ring on his lower lip.

Despite her laser focus on the young man's lips, Dianne failed to notice how a smirk grew on his face at the sight of her curiosity. "What's got you worked up, darling? Say something, please." He said with a facetious chuckle.

"Can I help you with something?" She said as diplomatically as she could.

"Listen," he replied "I have to give credit where it's due. Good job on getting to Frank before I could, but game's over. How much do you want for the house?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm offering you a 20% profit." he stood firmly by his ground.

20% was not enough! Especially since Dianne had bought the house to teach herself a little something about responsibility - about making her own money.

In her youth, Dianne was fortunate enough to fall into the arms of a debonair bachelor with more money in his bank account than medium population countries. Needless to say that she was swept off her feet and given everything on a silver platter, she was living the princess dream, she had seen paradise!

Years into her marriage, her trust had began to falter and their love was growing weaker. He wasn't at all faithful to her whenever he departed for important business trips. It was a matter of time before the marriage crumbled.

Dianne was predicted to end up in the gutter once James left her. She thought so too in the beginning, but with the right support and encouragement she worked up the guts to pioneer something of her own.

She had bought an 18 bedroom 8 bathroom house in an area that was in desperate demand of student accommodation - 4km away from the University of Hatfield. Renting out a mansion to 18 university students was not a bad way to make money, it seemed a little too easy to be honest.

Dianne was prepared and determined to be a business woman. To be independent for the first time in her 43 years of life!

"I'm not selling the house." She asserted.

Surprised by her boldness, the young man's hand tilted her head upwards slightly to further engage with the passion in her firey brown eyes. One would assume that he would be annoyed by her arrogant display of dominance, but he was, instead, inspired by it.

Truth be told, he took a liking to Dianne, but the property still had to be his. "What do you know about property, my love?" He snickered.

The young man continued to caress her cheek, despite her uncomfortable silence.

"Did you see the building next to this one? How about the one across the street? How about the one 4 doors down? Everything in this street, and the next street and within a 6km radius of the University of Hatfield is owned by me: Matthew Monrowe.

Dianne was taken aback by the name, Frank had mentioned him not so long ago. She had expected the man in question to be of a more mature age, when in reality, Matthew did not look a day over 19!

"You?" She blinked in disbelief, tearing his hand away from her face.

He pulled out a business card from his pocket and placed it between Diane's parted lips. She idiotically pressed them shut to keep the card in place.

"I'll be expecting your call, beautiful. We should do lunch. I want us to have a happy ending, because things can get ugly if I don't get what I want..." He slowly backed away from Dianne and casually made his way to the front door. "20%" He boasted one last time as he exited Dianne's mansion.