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And no matter what does happen, all will be well with my three restauranteurs by my side.
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EPILOGUE
LIVVY
Maybe there’ssomething to all that law of attraction mumbo jumbo Jewel introduced me to. I’m actually beginning to think it’s not so far-fetched after all. I shot her an update recently to let her know things in both Pawsh-land and Livvy-land are looking up. Not fairy-tale perfect, not by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re definitely looking up, which is all I can hope for. Her ecstatic response? She was thrilled and told me to keep meditating for even brighter days. “The universe is listening!” she wrote.
I don’t have the heart to tell her I never actually meditated. Instead, I just pasted the instructions she gave me on the wall by my desk, and looked at them from time to time.
But love, now that’s something I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about, even if it’s not meditating in the conventional sense, which I suck at anyway. The whirlwind of emotions swirling around me thanks to the three gorgeous men next door is enough to put anyone in a trance.
Either way, I am one satisfied customer.
Jewel also let me know she and her boyfriend were about to start working on some big fishing boat in the Mediterranean, and that I might not hear from them again until they reached Northern Africa.
Lucky for her, she likes to eat fish.
From time to time, I still look over at the law of attraction stuff hanging by my desk and have to wonder, was it really believing in and appealing to it that got me where I am today? Did it work its magic on little old me? Who knows. Part of me wants to believe in it because if I ever need anything else for future challenges, I can tap into it again. But I’m also a firm believer in creating your own fate—that the universe is mostly indifferent and you have to make your own luck. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. The way everything worked out for me, could just as easily have gone in the opposite direction.
But it didn’t, so I’m not dwelling on it.
Thanks to Amy, Mrs. Perkins’ blogger niece, and her write-ups, things have livened up at Pawsh again and the cash register is singing sweet melodies. I’m not saying I’m going to get rich from selling pet stuff, but I’m confidently back in business, so to speak, paying my bills on time without sweating over it.
As he’d offered before, Weston, ever the knight, generously wanted to use his own money to bail me out of my debt. He really believes in me and Pawsh. I ended up accepting his offer as a loan—or an investment as he puts it. I insisted on making monthly payments to him. He thinks it’s silly, but he understands I need to stand on my own two feet as a testament to my independence.
I actually had the chance to meet up with the blogger, who gave me some tips to keep the buzz around Pawsh alive, like having weekly pet adoption events with the local animal shelter. Brilliant idea. People from all over the city are coming here now if only to see the adorable kittens and puppies. And every time someone adopts a pet, which they often do, they get a gift certificate to Pawsh as a cherry on top. It keeps them coming back, for sure.
Then, after taking in a new fur baby, people pop in next door for a drink and a nibble to celebrate.
See, Enzo has tweaked the menu there.
The guys still serve all kinds of weird and crazy-expensive carnivore delights, but they added a lighter menu so everyone—not just those who are loaded—can enjoy their restaurant.
I love that. Something for everyone.
For all she’s done for us, not least of which was introducing us to her niece, Mrs. Perkins now gets free dog food for life. She’d also get free human food from EastSide, but has made it clear she has no interest in what they are serving. Imagine, turning down some of the best food in the city. But hey, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it.
Speaking of the best food in the city, the blogger exposed a whole big story about how the food critic who tried to tank EastSide was on the take and was full of shit. He wrote a tearful retraction, recommended EastSide with the highest possible praise, and resigned. He left the city with his tail between his legs just as he should, and EastSide is soaring again.
In fact, they’re so busy, we hardly get to see each other. But when we do, watch out. We always make up for lost time.
The restaurant critic was not the only person to go down in disgrace. Turns out Bartlett Murray did as well, although his downfall took a little longer. He spent the rest of his term bending over backwards doing nice things for EastSide and Pawsh since he played such a big role in trying to get rid of us. But when re-election time rolled around, it turned out no amount of goodwill could save his sorry ass. Our district voted him out with a bang.
Arthur came by last week to check out the animals on pet adoption day. When he got there too late—all the kitties were gone—I asked him if he wanted to take Harry home for a couple days to see how it worked out. I brought him into the store and he and the cat stared each other down for a while. Then, miracle of miracles, Harry walked over to Arthur and rubbed on him.
That cat doesn’t even rub on me.
I couldn’t freaking believe it, but I think those two had some sort of meeting of the minds. I would have figured two divas would repel each other like oil and water, but it’s more like they get each other. God knows they deserve each other.
Yikes. I’m sounding like Jewel.
So now, these two are living in domestic bliss, unbelievable as that sounds. I do watch Harry when Arthur’s out of town though, so it’s not like my mascot is gone completely. And he still has the nerve to hiss at me, even though I got him the home of his dreams. Seriously, Harry treats him like a king.
Do I miss having him in the shop every day? A little. But it’s nice not to have to keep an eye on him, waiting for him to turn one of my customer’s pets into a meal.
Thanks to the press we got, which started with the blogger’s exposé shedding light on the safety violations of the developer trying to take the block, they are now on probation here in New York, finally paying fines for their mess-ups. I’m not sure how they slipped through the cracks for so long, but I did hear some people in City Hall got fired over it. It’s not been hard to figure out that Bartlett wasn’t the only person the developer was paying off.
