“Ronnie may be getting down the words, but you, my dear, were born like me." She pauses for a moment, so I wait for her to continue. "We both fight hard for the ones we love, and not nearly hard enough for ourselves. We use sarcasm as a barrier to hide our true feelings. And we tend to self-sabotage or run away when something good happens because we think we don't deserve it.”
"Mom, I don't think I've ever seen you act like that. You are one of the most self-assured people I know”
"Sweetheart, I wasn't always like that. I certainly wasn't like that before I had kids. Your poor father had to deal with a lot from me in those early years. I'll always be thankful that he stuck around despite my many attempts to push him away.”
"How did you get past all of that stuff to finally make it work?"
She thinks for a moment. “Well, most of the credit has to go to your dad. He was a fucking saint. He met me when I was at the absolute lowest point in my life. He just kept showing me that I was deserving of more. Eventually, I let my guard down enough to believe him."
"You make it sound so easy."
"It wasn't. It was hard, and it took a long ass time, but once we got to that point, things really started clicking. I realized just how great a relationship could be when it was with the right person. We were able to really start our lives together, and therest is history. But it's still hard sometimes. He still has to get me out of my own head occasionally.”
“I just find that hard to believe," I tell her. "You are the most badass bitch I know.”
She uses her finger to boop me on the nose. "Second most badass bitch. I think you dethroned me a long time ago.”
"Oh, yeah?" I smile.
"Absolutely. I heard about what happened at the bar while we were gone with the guys who were fighting.”
My face scrunches up. "You heard about that?"
"I heard about it and then went back to watch it on the cameras to see it for myself. You really held your own. That's actually part of the reason I wanted to talk to you.”
"Oh, man. This is where you are going to yell at me, isn't it?”
"No. Not yet.” She takes a deep breath. "Your dad and I didn't really go out of town to meet with a new supplier.”
"Oh, no. Did grandma die?"
"No, grandma is fine. We wanted to see how you handled the bar on your own."
"Why?"
"Because sometime, in the not too distant future, we'd like to leave the bar in your capable hands."
"What?" I ask, because I'm beyond confused. "Why in the world would you two give up Andre's? It was a dream for the two of you.”
"Well, it was. But now that we're getting older, we are getting close to our next act in life. We want to have more time to spend with our kids and grandkids. We want to travel and have new adventures. To do that, we need to take a step back from the bar."
"And you want me to take it over?" I question. "Have you met me? I'm not sure my ADHD brain could handle a whole bar.”
"Number one, I think your ADHD brain would be just fine. You did a great job getting Jack's shop in order. You also handled the bar fine for a week when we were gone."
"But that was me just helping out in an already established bar— not running one all on my own."
"Honey, we wouldn't be just throwing you to the wolves. This would all be a process. We would train you and make sure you were ready before we stepped away. When we finally decide to, Andre's will be yours. You can do what you want with it. You can change the name or redecorate. I don't give a shit. It will be your baby."
"The thought of that doesn't scare you?"
"Nope. You'remybaby, so I trust you implicitly.”
I sit in shock for a moment. I didn't think that after my week working at Andre’s, this would be the outcome. How do I really feel about taking over Andre’s? I’ve been harping on how I wanted to have something to call my own. This could be it. Is there a bit of nepotism involved? Sure. But one day, the bar would actually be mine to do what I want with.
I look at my mom again. “Do you really think I can run a bar? I mean, I’m not exactly great with customer service. I’ve been fired from way too many waitressing jobs for going off on rude customers.”
“I don’t think you’ll have that problem around here.”
