Chapter 4
They were all at breakfast the next morning when Austin Wylie called Eugenia on her cell, and she left the table to speak to him. She walked out to the porch and sat down in the swing.
“Good morning, I’m sorry to call you so early, but I wanted to catch you before you got busy.
As I said last night, I’d like to meet with you.
Would you have any free time today?” He was certainly eager, which was encouraging.
For an instant, she thought about not going on the boat, but decided to stick with the plan.
Austin Wylie could wait another day, if his interest was real.
“I’m sorry, we’re going out for a day sail, and I don’t know when we’ll get back. Does tomorrow work for you?”
“Of course. What time is best for you?” he asked her, and they agreed to meet in the morning at eleven.
The house was big enough for her to have a meeting without being disturbed by the others, and having him wait a day wouldn’t do any harm.
“Enjoy your sail. See you tomorrow,” he said, sounding cheerful.
It really did appear that he was seriously looking for an investment for his wife.
But he wanted to discuss the business end with Eugenia first. She wondered how big an investment he wanted to make and what he wanted in exchange, how big a percentage of her business.
She didn’t want to give up majority ownership, and hoped that wasn’t what he was after.
When she got back to the breakfast table, the others had finished, and were chatting over coffee. Geoff preferred breakfast in bed and Gloria had taken it to him.
“Are you coming with us?” Eloise asked her, when Gloria came back from delivering Geoff’s breakfast to him.
“Geoff says I should go without him,” she said hesitantly.
“You should do what you want to do, not what he tells you to do. That’s a bad habit to get into,” Eloise said, and Gloria gave her an evil look. Geoff was making things hard enough without Eloise adding to it by criticizing him. Geoff could never tolerate criticism.
“Says the woman who hasn’t had a relationship since college,” Gloria responded, while Eloise rolled her eyes and picked up The New York Times .
“What’s the name of the guy hosting us today?” Stefano asked his mother, and she told him, and Stef looked pensive.
“Oh my God!” Liz said and stared at them both.
“That’s whose boat we’re going on? I read an article about him in The Wall Street Journal a week ago.
” Liz was the CFO of a very successful startup that had just gone public, and she had equity in the company.
She didn’t know how to dress but she was smart about money, respected in business, and well-informed.
“He’s the biggest commercial real estate developer in New York.
He owns seventeen of the biggest, most prestigious commercial buildings in the city.
” She listed a few, and they had heard of them.
“He owns them, but with all the big corporations working remotely and not ready to go back yet, his buildings are standing empty. He’s worth billions, and his whole net worth is going down the tubes.
His seventeen fancy buildings are ghost towns. ”
“Daphne said he’d had a tough time in the pandemic,” Eugenia commented.
“We’d better enjoy his boat today. He won’t have it for much longer.
He’s going to start selling some of the buildings soon, at a significant loss, but he can’t hang on to them any longer.
Someone will buy them for next to nothing.
He’s got a plane, a boat, and houses all over the place.
But those seventeen empty commercial buildings are killing him.
” Eugenia felt sorry for him as she listened to her daughter-in-law.
She was in the same situation he was, on a smaller scale, and he must have been even more worried than she was.
She needed a lot less money than he did to get her out of the hole.
“Actually this isn’t the right time to sell, but it will be a great time to buy when the market hits rock bottom. I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
“I won’t mention that to him today,” Eugenia said with a pained look.
They got their things together shortly after that, and Gloria decided to go with them. Geoff had given her permission. He said he was going to lie by the pool all day and didn’t want to deprive Gloria of a fun outing, which Gloria thought was generous of him.
They were all ready when Patrick’s crew member arrived in a van. He was wearing a crisp white uniform, and they piled in, feeling like kids going on a picnic.
He drove them to Gurney’s Star Island Resort and Marina in Montauk and stopped at the end of the pier.
There was no boat moored there, just a speedboat big enough for all of them, with two crew members waiting to assist them.
Patrick Hughes’s yacht was too big to dock, and was at anchor just outside the port.
The boat looked huge from where they stood.
“I’m sorry,” the chief purser apologized to them.
“They don’t have a berth deep enough for us, so we anchor out.
It’ll only take a minute to get there.” They glanced in the direction he had indicated vaguely with a wave and if they had understood him correctly, it looked like a cruise ship sitting just outside the port.
It was a three-hundred-and-fifty-foot motor sailer.
The biggest boat the marina could accommodate was two hundred and twenty feet.
“Oh my God, is that the boat?” Liz asked, shocked.
She had never seen a yacht of similar size before.
Eugenia had been on a few in Umberto’s days of glory when he was connecting people and earning commissions from them.
But this was undoubtedly the largest. “No wonder he’s going broke,” Liz said under her breath to her mother-in-law as they left the dock and headed to the yacht on the horizon.
The crew members on it looked tiny in the distance, and grew to normal size as the speedboat approached.
There were six decks and an elaborate sail system.
The chief purser had just told Brad that there were sixty crew members on board, in answer to his question.
It was one of the largest sailboats in the world.
It looked like a floating city to Eugenia, or an ocean liner.
But as they came up alongside it, she could see its beautiful sleek lines.
They pulled up behind, and entered an area below decks where all the toys were kept: Jet Skis, a one-man sailboat, even a small submarine, and every kind of water toy you could imagine.
It made her sad to think that Patrick Hughes might have to sell all of it, if what Liz said was true.
He must have loved the boat to have such a splendid one.
And he had seemed so unassuming when they spoke the night before, and his invitation had sounded so genuine and simple.
This was going to be the highlight of their vacation.
They stepped out of the motorboat with the crew helping, walked into an elevator, and rode to the upper deck, where Patrick was waiting for them in white shorts and a T-shirt.
He looked very fit, with a full mane of salt-and-pepper hair and electric blue eyes, and he smiled at Eugenia when he saw her.
“Welcome aboard,” he said to her, and then to all of them. “We’re going to pull up anchor in a minute. You’re welcome to watch from the wheelhouse when we set the sails, or you can just relax on deck with a mimosa or a margarita.” A stewardess was taking their drink orders.
They had all left their shoes on the lower deck when they came aboard, and despite the luxurious boat, the atmosphere Patrick created was easy and informal. They followed him into the wheelhouse as they left the port and headed out to sea so they could catch enough wind to sail.
Eugenia joined the others in the wheelhouse, which looked like the cockpit of an airplane, with dials and meters and state-of-the-art digital equipment.
He introduced them all to the captain, who was from New Zealand.
Most of the crew were British or Australian.
It was an incredible experience just being there and watching the proceedings.
Patrick came to stand next to Eugenia when they were well on their way.
There was a good breeze and the captain said it was a fine day for sailing.
They went back to the outer deck then and sat on the comfortable cushioned benches, enjoying the sea air, while uniformed stewards and stewardesses served their drinks.
“Would you like a tour?” Patrick offered Eugenia, and she nodded.
It was a unique experience as he led her down to the next deck with two enormous living rooms and a movie theater.
There was a piano, which he said he played occasionally.
The dining rooms were on the next deck down.
There was an indoor one and an outdoor one, an enormous galley, and the crew dining room.
Just below that was Patrick’s master suite, which was informal and inviting, with big leather chairs and couches.
The entire boat was equipped with an amazing sound system and contemporary art from Patrick’s collection.
He had an office, a dressing room, his own gym.
Everything about the décor was personal and told you something about him.
Eugenia noticed several photographs of him with a young man who looked strikingly like him.
“My son, Quinn,” he said proudly when he saw her looking at one of them.
“He has his own startup, engaged in food delivery in eleven cities. He’s a bright boy.
He doesn’t want advice from me, and he’s doing fine on his own.
” It touched her to see how proud he was of his son.
He said Quinn was his only child when Eugenia asked if he had others.
“I’m not as lucky as you, with five.” He smiled at her.