Everything was planned.
The rain started on Thursday and kept going for days. This happened every Autumn in New Zealand. But that didn’t make it any less of a pain in the hole. On Saturday, I’d just finished unclogging the drain in the Levitate courtyard which was struggling to cope with so much rain, when Hodges called me.
Reluctantly, I answered.
“Gloating is unprofessional, Brent.”
“Don’t be a smart ass. I’m calling to offer you fifty thousand dollars.”
I had to sit down.
“The Association took another vote?”
Hodges cleared his throat. “Not exactly.”
I waited.
“Mike’s Place is a great idea. Your pitch was good, the numbers track, and I agree that it will be good for Woodville. I’m going to fund you.”
The silence was thick. I blew breath out through loose lips.
“The Shailor-Chapmans were offside,” he continued. “They don’t speak for us, and I’m sorry. Oz is … Oz. We should have been a unanimous yes, and I’m prepared to correct our mistake myself.”
I stared at the jumping second hand on the wall clock as I thought. I thought about my dad, pouring his heart and soul into this place and making it a Woodville institution. For about twenty years he’d been the first one in the door and the last one to leave. He knew every customer, every supplier. This place was his pride and joy, and the reason it was still going so well now, even in these tough times, was because the place had as much heart as my dad did—well, that and an angel investor who appreciated the heart in this place as much as the town did. I thought of Lyssa, how she seemed to be always on her phone, always messing around or wasting time, but she was actually one of the hardest workers I knew. Her methods were unconventional, her patterns chaotic, but that girl loved what she did and was bound for success.
I could be like that too.
I’d thought that Lyssa’s sharing so much of her life with strangers meant that she was trying to get their approval, like she was living for their esteem. But she wasn’t. She did her outfits and her content for her, then invited others to enjoy. I was the one who had been performing for strangers and letting their opinions dictate my life.
I’d heard myself reduced to a ready cock and swinging fists so many times I’d started to believe it. I thought I needed other people involved in my business to give it legitimacy, because I was weak when it came to women and weaker still when it came to self-control.
But what was the point of being controlled all the time if you didn’t feel?
Lyssa knew that. She’d known it the whole time and had believed in me without hesitation.
I’d put so much stock in the opinions of people I didn’t even hold in high esteem. Monica? Oz? They were pizzles. It didn’t matter if the whole town thought I was a cheap slut who didn’t have a lick of business sense. They weren’t the ones I cared about impressing. My family thought I had what it took to do this, and Dean and Lyssa did too.
So I would. I’d scale back the plans for Mike’s Place a bit, stretch out the timeline. I had enough saved to make a decent start if I started slow and thought things through.
I could do anything I put my fucking mind to.
“Thanks for the offer, Hodges, mate. But you missed your chance to bottle my lightning. Mike’s Place is going to be awesome, and I don’t want to grovel to bigots or dickheads. I’m a good businessman, and I’m responsible and great with kids.”
“I know that,” Hodges said.
I stayed calm and measured. “Then you shouldn’t have let your friends’ scaremongering tip the vote. You should have shut it down, just like you should have shut down your wife every time she made me feel like a piece of meat. I know you think you’re a good guy, Hodges, and you’re all right. But you could be better. Honestly, mate, you could be better.”
Hodges was quiet. I started to worry he’d had a stroke or something and was about to call 111 when he spoke.
“I hear you, Mike. I’m, uh—” He wasn’t going to say it. He’d never said it. Old-timers like him never said it.
But then he did.
“I’m sorry. My offer stands—actually, hang on. I’ll keep the investment but drop to 10 percent.”
That was insanely good. I’d have to be out of my mind to turn that down.
Or just a man with new priorities.
