“Not yet.” She grabs my hand and squeezes it. “I said I’d think about it.”
“Well call him and say no.” I reach for the phone. “I’ll do it.”
“Natalie.” Her voice is stern and I move my hand away from the phone. “We need to think this over.”
“Ihavethought it over,” I say.
Mom rolls her eyes. “It’s only been a few seconds.”
Little does she know, I’ve actually had weeks to think it over from all the times I’ve intercepted Jack’s attempts to talk to my mom. And maybe yesterday I would have considered selling if it made Mom happy, but after the conversation I heard just now in the game store, I refuse to let that asshole win.
“Jack Brown can’t buy our store,” I say through clenched teeth. “Sell it to someone else if you want, but not him.”
“Honey, no one else wants it,” she says with a sigh. “I’m not saying I’m happy about the idea of selling, but maybe this is what we need. Money has been tight for so long now and I just want to breathe again.”
“But this is your dream.” I point to the other side of the store. “And that’s going to be my coffee shop one day. I’ll go to college soon and I’ll get my degree and open the store.”
“College is four years away,” she says.
“So what? I’ll get a two year associates degree in business at the community college. I’ll be close enough to keep working here and then I’ll open my coffee shop and finish out two more years of college.”
“Honey…” I know what she’s thinking, that opening a businessandgoing to school is pretty much impossible. But I don’t care right now.
“We can’t sell to that asshole.”
“Honey,” she says again, this time with a warning in her voice.
I grab my backpack from under the counter, knowing I need to get the hell out of here before I lose my mind. “I refuse to let you sell the store,” I tell her as I sling it on my back. “You of all people know how important small businesses are. If you let the Jack Browns of the world buy up everything, then that’ll all be gone. He’ll be more of a rich asshole and the little guys will lose.”
This hits home, I know it. Her eyes widen in recognition and I know I’ve struck a nerve with her and her love of small businesses.
“I’m going home to work on homework,” I tell her. “And you can stay here and think about what a terrible idea it would be to sell this place.”
Mom and I both know the best thing for me to do is to hang out at the store for another hour until it closes and she can take me home in her car. But the fact that I walk right out, ready to trudge home in the summer heat with my heavy backpack instead of being with her one more minute should hopefully prove my point. My mom needs the time alone. She needs to remember what this store means to her. And I need some time to come up with a better plan than simply begging Mom to turn away Jack’s offer.
If I wasn’t stuck going to school every day then I’d have more time to spend trying to drum up business. I haven’t even updated the store’s Facebook page in a week because I’ve been too busy trying to pass my classes. Well, that’s not good enough. I need to work harder. I need to save this freaking store.
When I get home, it’s almost six o’clock and I’m drenched in sweat. I take a quick shower and then plop on my bed, too exhausted and pissed off to do any of my extra credit worksheets.
My heart aches for Jonah, for his warmth and his smile and a hug. He would make me feel better if he were here right now, but since Mom will be home soon and the tension between us is so high, I can’t invite him over. Instead, I’ll have to settle for the next best thing.
Me:Can I call you?
The phone rings a few seconds after I send the text. “If you want to call me, just call me,” Jonah says. “You don’t have to text me first.”
“I didn’t know if you were busy,” I say as I sit on my bed and stare out the window.
“I’m never too busy to talk to you. What’s up?”
I sigh. “How much time do you have?”
“As much time as you need,” he says with a smile in his voice.
I tell him about the store, and how we’ve been suffering with money lately, which he already knows. Then I tell him about stupid Jack Brown and all his previous inquiries about buying The Magpie and how I blocked them. Jonah balks when I tell him Jack’s offer price.
“Surely the store is worth more than that,” he says. “Typically businesses sell for twice the yearly profit. His offer is an insult.”
“He’s offering low because he doesn’t want the business. He just wants to strip the space clean and make it another one of his office buildings. Jack Brown doesn’t care about anything but himself.”
