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I find myself feeling sorry for him. Bringing up a girl alone, having no clue how to handle her, having to work simultaneously, and then fighting his brother for control of this empire of theirs. It can’t be easy spinning all these plates at once.
As he sinks into his red leather armchair, it seems to weigh on his shoulders. He motions toward the chair nearest to me. I sit down, expecting to be berated once again, but his voice is surprisingly soft when he speaks.
“I like how you handle Alicia,” he says. “She never had a good mother, and I’m not the best father.”
“You’re doing all right. She’s coming along fine.”
“No thanks to me. I’m always too busy. I’m missing out on a lot.”
“Then maybe let your brother take the empire and focus on bringing her up instead.”
He shakes his head. “If I do that, everything I’ve worked for will burn within a couple of years.” He rubs his eyes. “You’ve no idea of the depths of his incompetence and profligacy. I let him win, and I lose everything. This house, her school, her future. All gone. I have no choice but to see this through, but that’s not why I wanted to speak to you.”
He digs into one of his drawers and pulls out an enormous pile of catalogs. He slides them toward me across the desk.
“What’s this?” I ask, flicking through the first one.
“Choose how you want your store fitted out, ready for the end of our contract. Bring them into the office with the things circles that you want.”
“Getting ahead of yourself, aren’t you? We’re not even married yet. I could still run off and leave you.”
“You won’t.”
“You sound very sure.”
“Take them to bed with you and make a note of whatever you think you might need. Give my people an idea of your style choices.”
“This has got a real Brewster’s Millions vibe to it.”
“A what?”
“Have you not seen that movie? Richard Pryor? John Candy?”
“Never heard of it.”
“Right. Have you got a TV in this place?”
“A dozen or so dotted about. Why?”
“How busy are you?”
“Permanently.”
“After the wedding, we sit and watch that together. Got it?”
“That’s what you want to do?”
“You have to see it, so you understand when I say this is like that bit in the movie where he has all these different styles put into his place one after the other, and it takes ages to get the right one.”
“Doesn’t sound very interesting.”
“Wait until you see it. You’ll get it then.” I scoop up the catalogs, looking at him and noticing something. “What? What is it?”
“Nothing. You can go.”
“No, there’s something else. Something you’re not telling me. What is it?”
He rubs his eyes again. “I wasn’t going to worry you with it, but Oswald’s gone missing.”
