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Jane, meanwhile, was pacing back and forth across the top of the yard, fit to be tied.
Her carefully planned meeting had devolved into chaos.
“We'll think about it,” Michael replied treacherously.
Humberto's radiant smile returned.
“Very reasonable price,” he said. “You won't regret.”
“Harumph,” Jane said.
☼ ☼ ☼
“I tried to protect you boys from yourselves,” Jane said after the rickety truck sputtered
away.
That was the thing about Jane. As annoying as she'd been all afternoon, she really did
have our best interests at heart. We had named our top price and she had duly noted it and
done everything in her power to ensure that we didn't exceed it.
But sometimes she got a little carried away.
“So how big do you think his mark-up is?” I asked, struggling to wrestle the conversa-
tion back into the realm of fact.
“Huge!” she said. “Probably a hundred percent.”
This wasn't particularly helpful. I doubted that the retail price of the windows was less
than $600.
“Maybe we'll just stop by the hardware store to find out,” Michael said, in such a firm
tone that Jane finally clammed up and began talking about something else.
The windows retailed for $625.
I called Humberto myself and said he could replace all of them if his $800 price tag
included installation.
He agreed.
Jane was furious.
But on our next visit to the island, as we stood with her in the side yard admiring Hum-
berto's craftsmanship, she remarked, “You know, this guy is absolutely great. He just re-
placed all the windows in one of my rentals up the road. And his prices are so reasonable!”
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