And yeah, his damnprideover that is the reason I have a babysitter and he doesn’t. Working hard to not be pissed about that.
Not there yet.
But I’m not refusing to help Sabrina because I’m a dick, or because I want Bean & Nugget to fail.
I know she can get the money. She has friends like Laney, whose family could bail out the café without hardly blinking. Kingston Photo Gifts has done fucking awesome for themselves.
The Kingstons might not be my favorite people in the world, but I can’t deny they’ve been successful, and they’ve done a lot of good things for the town and the people in it.
And they’re not the only people who could afford to help Bean & Nugget.
Much as I love my hometown and the people in it, I don’t want them knowing anything about my side hustle or what it’s done for me. The minute people find out you got yourself something of a windfall, it’s no longerlet’s go hang pickles off the tree in the park and see how long it takes people to figure out it was us.
Then, it’shey, wanna get a box at the Avs game?Oryou need a financial planner, because I’d love to help you make your money make more money for you.Oryo, Theo, we should hit Vegas and see if we can get into the high-roller rooms.Or,can I borrow a fuckton of cash because my family’s café shouldn’t have expanded to more locations that we can’t support and now we’re in debt up to our eyeballs?
Add inhowI make my money with my side hustle, and there are even bigger problems.
I spent the first twenty or so years of my life as the problem child of Snaggletooth Creek before I found where I fit and what I love. Now, when I hit a bar with the triplets, I know they’re with me because they like hanging with me, not because they’re hoping I’ll pick up the tab on some high-end whiskey.
When I’m on a job with the construction crew I’ve worked with for about five years now, my coworkers aren’t nice to me because they’re hoping I’ll drop off random sacks of money outside their house at Christmas, and the boss doesn’t ask my opinion because he’s hoping I’ll buy out the owner or give him tips on how he can get himself a side hustle to make him some dough too.
I don’t keep my day job as a cover. I keep it becauseI like it. It makes a difference in the community.
Imake a difference in the community.
Having something physical to do where I’m improving something around town matters to me. Makes me feel good.
And I do care that Bean & Nugget is in trouble.
It affects Emma. It affects her friends. It affects the whole town.
“Why didn’t you ask Laney?” I repeat.
Sabrina sighs and rubs her palms into her eye sockets. “Already did.”
“You know your lip does this funny thing every time you lie?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
It doesn’t. But I’m not telling her what her actual tell is. And she is definitely lying. “Can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
“You’re not going to help me anyway. Even though it would be helping Emma too.”
“If Emma wanted my help, she’d ask for it herself.”
Sabrina pulls another face and looks off toward the lights of the other bungalows glowing in the darkness down the way.
I bite my tongue to keep from asking if Emma knows.
She knows Chandler.
She knows what she’s getting herself into. Says all the time that they don’t keep secrets. Which means she probably doesn’t want to tell me because she knows I don’t like him, no matter how much I try to hide it. Or, if he’s keeping secrets from her, I’m still the bad guy if I let it slip.
Just when I think Sabrina’s gonna mutter something about finding someone else to loan her the money to get Bean & Nugget back in the black, she makes eye contact with me and scowls. “Ican’task Laney because my family won’t take things from her family. That’s all you need to know. But if I have the cash to save the company, I can buy it off of Chandler andfix this.”
My dad runs a taxidermy empire that’s grown in the digital age, much to Emma’s credit for getting Dad on the internet and managing his sales and advertising. But it doesn’t have the same impact in the community as Bean & Nugget.
If Rocky Roadkill went under, no one would care. They’ve never really cared. Why would they?
