This Mess We're In by Echo R. Brooks

Author:Echo R. Brooks [Brooks, Echo R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-18T23:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Erin sat, staring down at the books for the last quarter. She was in the last stretch of the year, and the shop was in the black, but just barely, only by about ten thousand dollars.

Not nearly enough to buy Jack out of his share, if he made good on his threats to sell.

What if she listened to Jen? What if she really did just walk away? If she sold the shop, at least some money would come her way, and she could use it to start a new business, one that was all her own.

Jack’s voice whispered bitingly in her ear. Obviously. You’ve done such a great job managing your own business so far.

What business would she even go into, anyway? Baking? She couldn’t cook at the best of times, and baking was a science, not an art. A coffee shop? Too many startup costs. A yarn shop? Same as a coffee shop.

She was paralyzed, the numbers swimming before her eyes. Flowers were the only thing she was kind of okay at, the only thing she could do business with, and business wasn’t great. It was fair at best.

Her cell phone rang. It was Jack. His real voice would be speaking in her ear, in the same bitter tone as the Jack who spoke in her head.

“Hello?”

“Hello.” He’d been gone a week, and Erin hadn’t spoken to him at all in that time. Jack’s voice was stiff, as though he were speaking to someone he was about to fire, not to his wife. They hadn’t even exchanged a text. It was heavenly.

“Hi, honey.” Her own voice was sweet, dripping with liquid sugar, and she couldn’t figure out why. It was the tone she always used when she spoke to him on the phone. High-pitched, girlish. Nothing like the way she spoke in real life.

“How are you?” He sounded bored. It couldn’t be more obvious that he didn’t really care how she was.

“In bookkeeping hell. How are you?”

“How are the books looking?”

She looked down at the dismal numbers. “Fine,” she said quickly. “How are you?” She desperately wanted the subject to turn back to him. Once he got started talking about himself, he wouldn’t stop.

“I’ve never been to a more boring conference,” he said. “I can’t even find a poker game.”

“That does sound boring.” When he started talking like this, he usually thought about coming home. “You must be able to find something. Charlotte has great golf courses. Just go see what you can shake up there.”

Jack hummed. “There was one thing,” he said.

“Oh yeah?”

“I’ve found a buyer. Another rep who owns some property in town.”

“A buyer?” Erin didn’t like where this was headed. He couldn’t mean a buyer for the shop.

“He wants to buy the shop,” Jack snapped. “Try to keep up.”

“You’re trying to find a buyer without me?”

“I’ve found a buyer. Are you listening to me?”

“I’m not selling.”

“You don’t have a choice. I’ve told him yes, and you know you can’t buy me out.”

“You did what? You asshole!

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