“Your mom looks better,” Jonah says.
“What?” I look up from my phone, where I’d been posting stuff to the store’s Facebook page. Jonah is driving me home and he should have no idea what my mom looks like since she’s at home, and in bed, I’d assume.
Then I see her sitting on the porch, a cup of coffee in her hand even though it’s eight in the evening. She’s dressed, which is unusual. When I left her this morning, she was in her bathrobe and looked ready to spend all day in bed. Now she’s wearing her nice jeans that only come out of the closet occasionally, and a pink top that’s been ironed since I last saw it. Her hair is brushed, maybe even curled at the tips. She waves at us as Jonah pulls into my driveway.
“Er,” I say, biting on my bottom lip as I look at my boyfriend. “Can you maybe just drop me off and leave? I’m sorry…I … I just don’t want to introduce you to her now.”
He chuckles and reaches over and squeezes my hand. “No problem, Nat. You don’t have to introduce me until you’re ready.”
“You’re such an amazing boyfriend,” I say, my face falling into a pout because I can’t kiss him, not with my mom watching. “Pretend I’m kissing you right now.”
He closes his eyes for a second. “Wow, chica. That was dirty.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “I didn’t know you liked to kiss that way…”
I punch him playfully in the arm and get out of his car.
“Hey…Mom,” I say as I walk up to the porch. I’m not sure if I should keep it casual or ask why the hell she’s dressed so nice when she couldn’t bother coming to work today. We could have used her help with all the extra customers.
“Sit down, honey.” Mom pats the dirty wooden step next to her. We should really power wash these porch steps one day. I sit, the smell of her coffee wafting in my direction. She takes a sip.
“Jack Brown has increased his offer to fifteen thousand dollars, plus I will have two weeks to remove and keep all of the inventory.”
My fingers tremble, so I shove them under my thighs and sit on them to keep still. “Okay…”
She gives me a soft smile. “That’s pretty much unheard of in business, Natalie. When someone buys a business, they’re buying the whole thing. So this offer…well it’s quite a bit more because we have at least ten, maybe fifteen thousand dollars of inventory.”
“So what would you do with it?” I ask, trying to play along until I find the right moment to tell her about our profits today.
“I’d sell it online. I think we could box it up and fit it all in the living room, maybe some of it in my room if there’s not enough space. I can spend a week or two listing everything for sale, and that will be my full time job until we’ve sold most of it. Jack will even let me keep the business name, so we can change our website and social media accounts to say that The Magpie is now an online store.”
I don’t even know what to think about this. I take a deep breath. “So that’s what you’d do? Run a business online?”
She shakes her head and takes a long sip of coffee. “Not exactly. You can’t make a good living like that. I’d just sell off the inventory to get the value of it. Maybe sell some stuff in a big lot at a discount. I don’t know… I just want to get the value of the items back. Then I’d have to get a job.”
Okay, Natalie. Be logical so she listens to you.
I clear my throat. “Mom…that is a good idea,” I say against everything in my heart screamingno it isn’t!“However…fifteen thousand dollars isn’t much to live on for very long and then you’d still have the pressure of finding a job…maybe we should give The Magpie a chance. It hasn’t even been thirty days yet and—”
“Natalie, I’m selling.” Mom’s lips flatten and she gives me one of her looks, the classic Mom look that says I better shut up or I’ll get in trouble.
“But…”
Her eyes widen. “No buts, Natalie. I am the adult and you’re still a child. I make the decisions, and I’m selling.”
I grit my teeth as fear rockets through me. I can’t lose this store. “Mom! Why? That shouldn’t be enough money to make you give up on your dream. This store is our life.”
“We’ll make another life,” she says, looking away just as I think I see a tear form in her eyes. “Don’t bother arguing. You don’t understand, but we need that money.”
“I do understand, Mom.” I stand up. “I saw your debt. I know about the payday loan.”
Mom’s eyes flash with anger and then she looks down at her feet. “Well then you know how badly I need this money,” she says so quietly I almost don’t hear her.
“Mom…” I sit back down, put a hand on her shoulder. “We made a lot of money at the store today. We have all of the local schools telling parents to come shop with us. We will keep working until we get that loan paid off.”
She shakes her head. “You can’t pay it off. You’d need a ton of money and we’ll never make that much at the store.”
“You can’t just give up, Mom!”
Now she stands. She grips the coffee mug so hard in her hand, it might shatter. “Yes. I. Can. I am the mother and I can do whenever I feel it’s best for our well-being.”
