Three Months Ago...
Stanwick Hill was a single dad who spent the majority of his time raising his daughter. Due to his successful career in architecture, he was what you'd call well off and didn't have to dedicate a lot of time to work, but he still kept himself busy by taking on projects here and there. The property that he and his daughter resided in was a state-of-the-art design he had built himself, which had won plenty of very prestigious residential design awards.
The estate was tucked away in the woods, built on high ground in the Los Angeles countryside, with a driveway that swirled like a snake leading up to the property. The mansion itself was about eight thousand square feet with seven bedrooms and five baths. At the time, before Stan's wife passed away, this seemed like overkill for a family of three, but neither of them had minded the space. They both enjoyed the extra room for family, friends, and guests, or if they decided to have more children.
"Nora, are you finished packing yet?" Stan asked, looking in the mirror and fixing his tie on his suit.
"Almost, Dad, just putting on my shoes," Nora said. She barely had any clothes in her suitcase and was sitting on her bed with her headphones halfway on, texting one of her friends. She began to rush, throwing whatever she could find into her dresser drawers when a notification popped up on her screen that read: "REMEMBER IAN IS HAVING A PARTY AT 8 PM TONIGHT. ARE YOU COMING?"
"Alright, Nora, I'm headed off to the car, don't take too long," Stan called out.
Stan then headed down the spiral staircase to the garage. To a person who stayed in a regular home, this walk would seem like a long one because of how massive the house was, but Stan had gotten used to it. He worked hard to get where he was, and he lived humbly but still enjoyed his collections. Stan never let the material possessions go to his head; he always remembered where he came from.
Stan finally made it to the garage. When he walked in, he was greeted by ten exotic supercars. He took a quick second to admire the collection of beasts he had acquired over the years. "It never gets old," Stan smiled and walked over to the key rack, feeling like a kid in a candy store. "Hmm, which one should I take today?"
Stan looked over at his vehicle of choice and grabbed the keys. He stopped right in front of it. "Well, it's been a while since I took you for a spin." His vehicle of choice was an all-blacked-out Rolls-Royce Cullinan that was slammed to the ground. He had the car custom-made to his liking; he'd had a thing for exotic cars ever since he was little.
Stan fired the car up, and a loud growl could be heard in the garage. He slowly pulled the car out and followed the driveway to the front of the house's main door. Once he got there, he stopped and started picking a song on the infotainment system, waiting for Nora to come outside.
A few moments later, Nora walked out, and Stan got out as well. "Let me help you with that." Stan then grabbed Nora's bags and set them in the trunk. Once he finished placing the bags, he closed the trunk lightly and hopped back into the driver's seat. Nora chose to sit in the back.
"So, are you ready to go spend time with your Aunt? It's been a while since you've seen her," Stan said with a smile on his face.
"I guess," Nora replied.
"You guess?" Stan asked, his face showing he wanted more information.
"It's just that there's not really much to do at her house; it's hard to keep from getting bored," Nora said with a little laugh at the end.
Stan drove the car out of the house gate. "Well, your aunt Pam said she was going to treat you to a girls' day today."
"Yeah, she told me about that," Nora said calmly.
"Well, you don't sound too excited to go," Stan replied.
"It's not that. I'm just not over the moon about it. I mean, we always go to the same places, so it's not a surprise anymore," Nora said.
"Aww, look at my little munchkin growing up," Stan teased.
"Oh my gosh, Dad, stop it," Nora said, annoyed.
"That's understandable, though. You are growing up, and soon you'll be off to college. Everything is happening so fast," said Stan.
Stan then pulled up to drop Nora off at his sister's house and drove to his business meeting with a client. The meeting was at his office he was renting at a high-rise downtown. His client was a middle-aged man, Mr. Rogers, who was accompanied by his wife, who looked way younger than him—possibly in her twenties. Stan found her absolutely stunning; she was a brunette, slender, coke-bottle-shaped woman with a beautiful smile.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Rogers, it's nice to see you. How's it going?" Stan reached out to shake his hand.
"Ehh, it's just been going, I guess." Stan and the client both chuckled in sync.
Then, looking at Mrs. Rogers with a smile, Stan asked, "And how about you, Mrs. Rogers?"
"Well, it's been going great for me." They all shared another chuckle, and Stan reached out to give Mrs. Rogers a side hug.
Stan opened the door to his office and led his clients inside. The air was cold and smelled fresh and new, like cleaning supplies—that clean office smell, as if it had just been cleaned by a janitor. Stan offered his clients water.
"Water, anyone?"
His clients both responded, "I'm good."
"Okay, just making sure we are all comfortable and ready to discuss the project. Are we ready to get down to business then?"
Mr. Rogers replied, "Let's do it."
Stan continued, "So, what do you guys have for me? It's been a while since we've discussed plans for the estate."
"Yeah, it has been quite a minute. Me and Nick have almost killed each other since we last spoke," Mr. Rogers laughed.
Stan chuckled and said, "I'm surprised you didn't go out and find a new construction manager for the job if it's been that bad."
"Trust me, I thought about it," Mr. Rogers sighed and shook his head. "So, here's the deal. I know you've already sat down the plan for how the property is to be constructed, and I hope this is not too much of a pain in the ass to ask of you, but I will compensate you for your work and however much extra it will cost for the job."
"Let me guess, you want me to edit the blueprint for the property?" Stan said with his arms folded.
"Oh, you know me too well, Mr. Hill," Mr. Rogers replied.
Stan smiled and asked, "So what did you have in mind?"
"Well, I have just adopted a new hobby and want to add a gaming room to the plans."
Stan lit up. "Ah, a gaming room? That sounds great. Where did you pick that hobby up? No offense, but that's the last thing I would expect from you," Stan said with a surprised look on his face.
"Well, I'm sure you are! I mean, it's not every day that a married man with kids in his late 50s would have such a hobby, haha," Mr. Rogers laughed. Then he explained, "I've been spending a lot of time with the new generation, more specifically my son. I had gotten addicted to playing Souls games first, and it grew from there—from hardcore competitive first-person shooters to simulation games. I've been spending hours playing them all, and I eventually plan to stream, so I want to dedicate a full gaming room toward this," Mr. Rogers said happily.
"And stream, too?" Stan said, shocked. "Man, you're taking this gaming thing really seriously, I see. I don't want to put off your idea, but couldn't you just turn one of the rooms that's already built into the plan into a gaming space?" Stan questioned.
"I could, but I wanted something that's truly custom and unique with the way I envisioned it," Mr. Rogers said.
Stan and Mr. Rogers then went on to discuss the new project until Stan got the idea of how he wanted everything. "Okay, this can be done. I'll put this down in my schedule, and I'll have something drawn up for you and your construction manager to go over in the coming weeks. This shouldn't be too difficult to implement and doesn't affect the progress as a whole."
Stan, Mr. Rogers, and Mrs. Rogers then got up and shook hands once again on their way out. "Looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me. Might as well get started now."