house racing

you know that scene in casino royale, when jimmy bond slides over $7,000,000 worth of chips because mr. evil villain's left cheek is twitching, giving away that he's bluffing... but then he's double-bluffing and poor james has lost everything? buying a house in san francisco has more in common with this than enid feels comfortable with.

wind back to wednesday. enid and the man found the house of their dreams. it's a renovated victorian one in the sunny mission district of san francisco. they made an offer that afternoon, at just over the asking price.

on thursday evening, margaret phoned to say that there were nine other offers on the house. four were rejected, but the five others, and theirs, were still in the running. the vendor, ima propertydeveloper, was generously giving those six people until 5 p.m. on friday to make a higher offer. sigh. over dinner and the backs of some envelopes, enid and the man worked out how they could afford to offer more. who needs two kidneys, anyway?

this morning, margaret is putting their counter offer to ima. here is the casino royale part - it expires at 3 p.m. this afternoon, meaning that ima has to decide before all the other counter offers come in. enid just hopes margaret can twitch her left cheek at will.