This meeting with Reuven Stagler was his idea, and his brother was there under protest. It was his show, and he would lead it

The younger Lauer brother was not happy.

He was the one more inclined to attend business seminars and conferences, where he took notes and asked questions of the presenters. He checked LinkedIn daily and posted whenever he felt he had wisdom to share. He believed that reputation was the single biggest asset a company has, and that a stain on that reputation could be a blow to the overall health of what appeared to be a successful firm.

The rumors of politics in Alameda Gardens concerned him tremendously, and he wanted to nip the unrest in the bud. His brother waved it off, patiently explaining that politics is part of life, and every shul and every neighborhood had its stuff, but he didn’t agree. This wasn’t the usual slow chazzan/fast chazzan stuff, this was like someone had drawn a line through the middle of the development and created two teams.

They were just three months away from launching the ads for Alameda Creek, and he wanted the development sold out by the time the second round of ads went to print, a large “sold out” banner blocking the middle of the page, another clean win for the Lauer family. Nobody did second-stage living better.

The way things stood, the noise filtering out of Alameda Gardens threatened to affect that plan, and even if his older brother didn’t see it, the trouble was clear to him. (Not that he would mention it, but he had also been first to realize that Uncle Mendy’s second marriage was a bad idea, and his brother had waved away his concerns at the time. Look how that had worked out.)

This meeting with Reuven Stagler was his idea, and his brother was there under protest.

It was his show, and he would lead it.