“So how did things go with Amanda?” he asked. “Did you get in touch with her?”
“I did, but she shut me out,” I said. “I don’t know if things are just different for her now or if she just doesn’t want to deal with it at the moment, but she wouldn’t give me the time of day over it. She practically bought my plane ticket, telling me I needed to come back here, that they have things handled there.”
“Bummer, man,” Tyler said. “Are you okay?”
I was about to respond when Mason came into the room, announcing himself loudly, and wrapping me up in a hug as well.
“How did it go?” he asked. “You profess your undying love for Amanda?” he asked, looking back and forth between me and Tyler. Slowly, his face dropped. “You didn’t?” he asked. I shook my head.
“I didn’t have a chance to,” I said. “She’s in a different place right now, and whatever or wherever that place is, it’s not anywhere near I am. So I just have to deal with it and try to get her to talk to me some other time. But I needed to come take care of this first. How is it going here?”
“It’s going,” Mason said. “Are you sure she won’t talk to you?”
I sighed. “Maybe it was too much for her. Maybe she didn’t like that we crossed that line. Not everything ends up like in movies, Mason.”
Mason nodded, and we went to work on decorating and preparing the building. It would take some time, but our progress was already looking pretty good. I made my way to the kitchen, joining Matt there, to help guide some of the equipment in. I noticed Jordan wasn’t around but didn’t think much of it. He wasn’t going to miss helping out, so wherever he was I was sure he had a reason for it.
I had moved to the bar, beginning to polish it down and start the treatment process when the front door swung open and the handle smeared a bit of the fresh paint Ava had just put on.
“Hey!” she said. “Watch it!”
“Tom,” Jordan said, storming into the room, ignoring Ava. “Where is Tom?”
“I’m right here, Jordan,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?” he asked, seeming indignant. “What is going on?”
“I think we covered that. That was indeed the question,” Matt said.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on. Tom went to Danny’s bar,” Jordan said.
“Oh, alright,” I began, but he cut me off.
“He went to Danny’s bar, not to hit him or to threaten him or anything reasonable. No, he went to Danny’s stupid, hole-in-the-wall dive bar to make him an offer. Didn’t you?”
“Tom?” Mason asked, turning to me. I could tell this wasn’t going to go well. No matter how I explained it, this was going to go poorly for me.
“Look, it’s not like it sounds,” I said, and a groan rose up from each of the brothers.
“Man, how could you?” Mason demanded.
“Hang on, hang on, let him speak,” Tyler said, turning to me and squaring his shoulders. “Come on, Tom. Tell us why you would go down to the bar of the man who most certainly had something to do with our bar burning down, and offer to buy his bar?”
“I thought if I made him an offer, and he said yes, he would leave,” I said. “It might sound stupid, but I just wanted to see if he would get the hell out of town. Maybe take the cash, close down his bar, and go be someone else’s problem for a while.”
“And you thought it would be a good idea to do that without asking any of us?” Tyler asked.
“I didn’t want to rile you guys up. Some of you are particularly riled up already, and I didn’t want to start a rumble,” I said.
“The only person I want to rumble with right now is you, Tom,” Jordan said.
“Enough,” Mason interjected. “Just enough.”
“No one has to worry,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “Danny said no. He said no even when I told him that he would never get another chance. That was it, the answer is no, and I am not going back up there ever again.”
“You had better not,” Jordan said. “Because if you do, I am coming with you, and I will not be held responsible for what I do to him or his place.”
“Not a damn thing, that’s what,” I said. “We need all of us running this bar when it’s up, not behind bars for beating up an old rival.”
“Whatever, Tom,” Jordan said. He stomped off away from me, and I looked around at the other brothers. Most of them had jobs to get to, and they moved accordingly. I kept my head down and went to work painting near Ava, and by the end of the day, I was worn-out. None of the boys seemed to open up to me, and I guessed I couldn’t really be upset about it. They were mad at me. But at least the bar was ours now, and all it needed was our attention and then it could get opened.
The guys stayed away the rest of the day, and I was only able to get the barest of attention to questions or ideas I was throwing out. Finally, I got frustrated and called it a day, leaving the paint and paintbrush where they were and heading for the door. A few of the boys were still there, mostly in the back, and I snuck out of the front.
My patience had worn thin, and between my job, Amanda, the bar, the new changes and the stress of the loan hanging over my head, I felt like I was already stretched too thin. As Amanda had told me, I needed to relax and let the business get handled by them. And yet, that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to be part of every decision, to be the face of our company, and to interact with Amanda, far more than her ignoring me on video calls.
30
Amanda
By the time the weekend came, I was starting to think it wasn’t just nerves that made my favorite diner food flip my stomach. The leftovers were still sitting in my refrigerator, and I hadn’t been able to bring myself to eat any of them. But when I woke up Saturday morning, I was feeling even sicker than I had when I went to the diner.
The first few seconds of consciousness brought waves of nausea through me. I just managed to get out of bed and run into the bathroom before I got sick. After a couple of minutes of pure misery throwing up, I dropped down to sit on the floor and leaned over. Resting my face against the cool side of the tub helped to calm my shaking and ease some of the sick feeling still rippling through me.
Fantastic. Not only had the whirlwind of my time in Astoria and coming back here to try to adjust to my schedule done a number on my emotions, but it was also starting to mess with my physical health as well. I had stressed my immune system into hiding and caught some sort of stomach bug or virus.
And it was the last thing I needed right then. There was so much work to be done, so many meetings that were scheduled and situations I had to handle. I really couldn’t afford to be sick and have to take any time away from work. It was a particularly cruel paradox. Being stressed out was what had made me vulnerable to getting sick, but now being sick was making me even more stressed out.
Another wave of sickness crashed over me, and I spent another few minutes hunched over the toilet. Finally, it ended, and I was able to pry myself up off the floor and brush my teeth. I filled my hands with water and drank it down, hoping to settle my stomach, or at least keep me from getting dehydrated.