Chapter #5Family Business by: Carl   I had a pretty decent life. I had a wife that loved me, I owned a business, and I had a nice little property in the country. I should probably introduce myself, my name is Alan, I am about 5 foot 8, brown hair, a little on the pudgy side, a year shy from 30. My wife is 5 foot 4, has short blond hair, is around the same weight as myself. Together we own a small café. About three years ago I quit my job as an accountant, she quit hers as a waitress. We decided to tap our savings, get a loan and do the American dream thing, open up a business, run it ourselves and have fun doing it.
It didn’t go well. To make a long story short, we racked up credit card bills, lost money every year, and worked 12 hours a day just to stay afloat. My wife Becky was determined to do anything to get the business to work. It made it worse that Becky’s cousins constantly teased her with how slow business was. My wife is 26, she has two cousins and they are sisters. One is 25, she is about 5 foot 6, has long brown hair, brilliant blue eyes and to make an objective comparison, was hotter then my wife. Of course when they were younger she constantly took my wife’s boyfriends and belittled her. The little cousin always got the guy. I suppose I should have been thankful since a lost boyfriend made room for me! Her name is Tanya. Her other cousin was… well no other way to put it, a snob. Her name is Linda, and she is 5 foot 11, very thin, has long blonde hair and the stereotypical snobbish roman nose. The two sisters occasionally visited the café, often they would make snide remarks at our expense. We put up with it for the sake of family.
And to be perfectly honest, I found both of the sisters attractive. Tanya would wear tank tops, cut off jeans and flip flops. Linda would typically wear a short dress and wear open toed heels. Usually, only two or three inches high. As attractive as they were I still despised them, they were royal bitches. I remember one time they were there. They had ordered coffee and a pastry. Linda was being her usual bitch self. When I came with their orders she said, “No wonder your not doing well, that is some slow service. I gritted my teeth and said, “My apologies, I will try to be quicker next time.” Tanya spoke up and said, “Hey aren’t you suppose to smile, your driving the few customers you have away with your attitude.” I smiled I said sorry again. Both of them laughed. Linda then deliberately “accidentally” knocked her sweet roll down. She then pushed it toward me with he foot, and said “Clean that up and get me another one.” Tanya also said, “you have some on your shoe Linda.” She responded, “Oh so I do, be a dear for me and clean that up Alan, and do remember, service with a smile.” I knelt down and picked up the roll, took a napkin and cleaned her shoe. She looked down her arrogant nose at me as if me kneeling before was entirely proper.
Needless to say family gatherings were not my cup of tea. We somehow found time to leave the shop and attend a birthday gathering. And one of Tanya’s friends had given her a scratch off lottery ticket. The grand prize was 20 million dollars! What a lame gift I thought… until she won. She shrieked and dance around. I couldn’t believe how unfair the world was! Me and Becky were at the end of our rope and that bitch gets it! It wasn’t fair! We drove home and Becky broke down and cried. Becky said, “We need money we have to ask her, we will be out of business in three months, our home is going to be taken by the bank.” I knew the truth, I didn’t like dwelling on it so I had ignored it. We were completely tapped out and our payments were coming in late. We needed money, and our credit stunk to high heaven.
I said, “Honey do you think she would let us borrow money from her? You know how she and Linda treat us.” Becky cried again, “I don’t know, I just don’t know. But we have to try or we lose everything.” We talked and we agreed we needed to do something. I put the call in to Tanya on the next day. Over the phone we talked and I stumbled and mumbled, I asked her “Uh Tanya, me and uh, Becky wanted to congratulate you on your winnings, and we would uh, how can I say this, could we come over and talk with you?” She pointedly asked me about what. I told her about how me and Becky could really use a loan and would like to talk with her in person. She laughed. She LAUGHED. I was turning beet red as I talked on the phone. This was so humiliating asking for money from a person you didn’t like and who you know thought you were trash and you just confirmed it! She agreed that we could come over and “beg”, she actually used the word beg!
I told Becky that Tanya would let us come over and plead our case. Becky looked me in the eye and said, “I know she is mean, she always was, but please keep your temper we need this money, whatever she does don’t react. Please.” I swallowed my pride and said yes, of course, we needed the money. We drove in silence, thinking about what we were going to say, and dreading her reaction. We arrived at a nice house, and saw another car parked there. It was Linda’s, I groaned, she was here too. Becky and me held hands as we knocked on the door. “Come in” we heard Tanya shout.
We opened the door and came in. Tanya was wearing some short shorts and a loose t-shirt. She was bare foot. Linda was dressed up as usual, she had a black dress on and 4 inch open toe heels. We closed the door and Becky said, “Thank you for letting us come over.” Tanya looked at her like she was some kind of bug and said, “So tell me what is going on and me and Linda will decide if we should help.” They hadn’t offered us a chair so we just stood there, Becky started to explain the situation when Linda cut her off. “You are begging for help aren’t you? Isn’t it proper to beg on your knees?”  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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