AllFreeNovel
Share Us
RORY
“That’s quite a story,” Jessie murmurs, her eyes widening as she takes it all in.
“I know.” I gulp down a generous mouthful of the chardonnay she poured me about ten minutes ago. I’m not normally much of a wine-drinker, but I needed something stronger than beer. “I have no idea what to do.”
“What’s your mom say about all of this?” She asks. Across the bar, Vinnie tries to catch her eye, but she makes a show of polishing down the bar counter in front of her. “She was always a smart lady. She have any words of wisdom?”
“I haven’t told her yet.”
I haven’t even told her I’m in town. She doesn’t know Dad is sick. There’s no way I can talk to her about any of this.
“So, I mean, do youwantto work for your dad?” She cocks her head at me, a skeptical expression on her face. “Do you want to stay in town? It’s a lot to ask, him wanting you to uproot your whole life and come here.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is,” I mumble. But Jessie’s wordsuproot your whole lifehit me differently than she probably thinks.
Because to be honest, uprooting my life wasn’t really that big of a sacrifice. I barely had any roots to pull up. My whole adult life has been a series of failures and false starts. A string of meaningless jobs. The totality of my worldly possessions — everything that I didn’t bring with me to Ironwood — fits into one small, cramped room at my mother’s house. I don’t even have my own place. Sure, I moved in with her originally to help care for her during her cancer scare, but she’s been in remission for a while now. She doesn’t need my dubious cooking and nursing skills anymore, that’s for sure.
Mom has never once suggested I move out now that she’s cancer-free and can take care of herself. But I’m sure she wouldn’t mind reclaiming my bedroom as the craft room it was before I moved in.
“Well, look,” Jessie says, flashing me a smile. “I have this technique I use for making hard decisions. Do you want to hear what it is?”
“Sure.” I lift my glass and drain the last of the chardonnay. “I can use all the help I can get.”
“Okay. What I do is, I ask myself, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen if I do this?’ And then, I ask, ‘What’s thebestthing that could happen if I do this?’”
I consider her words. “That’s a pretty good technique, to be honest.”
She leans forward, elbows on the bar. “So, let’s do you: What’s the worst thing that could happen if you take this job at your dad’s company and stick around in Ironwood for a while?”
I bite my lip, considering. “I could be a colossal failure at the job, and get fired.”
“And then what?”
I shrug. “My dad would be super disappointed in me, I guess. And I’d have to leave town.”
“Okay. Right.” She nods. “But in the meantime, you would be spending time with your dad before he dies. And since it’s a job in a field you’ve never worked in before, getting fired wouldn’t be that much of a setback, would it?”
“No,” I admit.
“So, that’s not so bad.” She looks at me expectantly. “Am I right?”
“Not so bad, no…” I drawl.
“Okay, so now what’s the best thing that could happen if you do this?”
I pull in a deep breath.” I could, uh, end up loving my job and be amazing at it, I guess?” My tone is light and flippant at first, but then I start to let myself daydream a little more. “My dad and I would get along, and he’d be happy I was here. And I’d admit to my mom I was here, and she wouldn’t be mad that I was doing it. And then I’d…”
But then, the words that are forming in my head die in my throat.
Because in the mental image I’m creating of the best thing that could happen here in Ironwood, suddenly Brody’s face appears.
I reach up and finger my necklace, then ask Jessie for another chardonnay.
“Hey, Jess, you tryin’ to grow roots over here?” Vinnie approaches, an irritated look on his face. “We got other customers, too, you know.” He glances at me. “No offense, Rory.”
“None taken,” I say automatically.
“I was just engaging in the time-honored tradition of giving bartenderly advice,” Jessie replies to him, then takes note of a couple of women standing down at the other end. They’re about my age or a little younger, and one of them looks to be about four or five months pregnant. Jessie gives them a wave, and they wave back and smile. “Be right there!” she calls. Clearly, they know each other.
