“Well, shit,” Jagger muttered.
“Yeah, you’re seeing how this feeds into itself.The thingis, yougottabe pretty fucking selfish not to seewhyit does.”
“Yeah,” Jag agreed.
“And, you know, I’m in retail.There are going to be fattimes, there are going to be lean times.The shop isn’t that old.I’m justgetting my mojo with that and learning which is which.Christmas is big, obvs.Summer, sales pick up.And I’m learning how to stretch the good times to coverthe bad.But anyone can use more bank.I sacrificed for him then and I’msacrificing for him now because Elijah’s so…” Archie shook her head, shruggedand said, “Elijah.It’s easier just to suck it up and to put up withhis shit.”
Jag had fallen silent again.
“You don’t agree?”she pushed.
“I will repeat, I’m gonna side with you.”
That was unhelpful to say the least.
Thus, Archie nabbed her coffee mug, sat back from her IrishBenedict and looked to the floor.
“Babe,” Jag called.
She looked back to him.
“What I’m gonna say is gonna suck,” he told her.
“What are you gonna say?”she asked.
“You haven’t had it easy with all of this, but you suckingit up is gonna keep fucking you.No one likes to get fucked.Not that way.Youare the singlechillestchick I know.But right now,your voice is wrong when you talk about your brother.You’re hurt and you’reangry and you’re enabling that.If you want it not to get out of control, youcan’t do what’s easy.Yougottaface it.”
Yougottaface it.
Archie said nothing but she was finding that Jagger Blackwas not one of those oblivious dudes who was incapable of inner reflection (hejust didn’t seem real hip on sharing those reflections).
And she knew that comment triggered that he needed to bedoing some reflection.
But when she saw the pain shadow his eyes, something thatwas too damned familiar (and it was that and they hadn’t even been together twoweeks), she did what she’d been conditioned to do with the men in her life.
She set about making things easy on him.
This time, by sidestepping that completely.
“So, you think I should…” She let that trail for him to pickit up.
“First, did you use some of your inheritance onimprovements?”
She nodded.
“And your brother did not kick in on any of that?”
She shook her head.
The air got heavier, which meant Jagger was getting morepissed.
But he got a handle on it and continued.
“Okay, what I think is that you should deduct half of whatit’s inarguable he should pay for.If you want, I could go over all of it withyou to offer feedback, but definitely anything to do with the rental units andmaintenance of them.Cleaners don’t come cheap.Not sure how long it takes youto clean the common areas, but that’s part of maintenance and I’d deduct anhourly rate for that too.”
He took a breath, and when she nodded that she got what hewas saying, he went on.
“Personally, I’d make a list of what it cost to do theimprovements, provide him with that list, and make a schedule of deductions forit until he’s paid his half, but he still gets a monthly payment so he isn’ttotally out that income.”
