Which brought up a new question. Did his bedroom door lock? He’d better figure it out, otherwise he wouldn’t put it past Caroline to try something.
Monopoly was definitely not Will’s favorite game to play in a group. But everybody voted, and Monopoly won.
Will sighed as he stared at the board. He was awful at Monopoly. He always felt like either he made a deal to trade for the property he wanted, and he ended up coming out the worse for it as the other person always put hotels on their new property, or he refused all trades and never got any houses at all while his opponents still ended up with hotels.
He was still feeling somewhat put out when Caroline decided to take yet another opportunity to nettle Elizabeth when Elizabeth mortgaged North Carolina Avenue.
“I suppose that brings up painful memories,” Caroline said, after a sly look towards Lisa. “Mortgaging your property and all.”
“If you’re referring to the bookstore, it was never my property,” Elizabeth said, sharing an amused look with Jane. “I only managed it.”
“Well, yes, but good management is crucial for keeping a business running.” Caroline smiled at Will in what he thought was probably an attempt to appear charming. “I’m sure you tried your best, but some people just weren’t cut out to be managers.”
“It’s not a great economy for bookstores,” Will said. “With the competition from online booksellers, they really have to offer something that gets people in the store, something people can’t get elsewhere.”
Elizabeth nodded. “You can’t just offer books—you have to offer an experience. I had a lot of plans.”
Will frowned. “Then why—”
“Dad didn’t really care much about the bookstore,” Jane chimed in. She winced as Charlie landed on Caroline’s Oriental Place and paid her rent. “He inherited it a couple of years ago and agreed to let Elizabeth manage it. She ran the whole store. But he had no interest in putting any money or effort into it.”
“Adding a coffee bar or bakery would cost money,” Elizabeth said. She gasped in mock indignation when Jane neatly leaped over her green properties without landing on any, then spoke again. “The shelves would have to be rearranged, furniture and supplies purchased, a barista hired, licenses from the city . . . It could be worth the investment, but all that costs money. So do marketing campaigns, selling online, and everything else that might have saved it. And Dad had no interest in spending more than he had to. He was sure the place wouldn’t last more than a couple of years. And in the end, he was right,” Elizabeth said bitterly.
“It was a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Jane insisted. She gave Elizabeth a one-armed hug. “He wouldn’t put the money into the place, so of course it failed. You have to spend money to make a business work.”
“Well, that is how free markets work. If you can’t deliver a product that people want, the business fails,” Will said. At Charlie’s startled look, he realized that he’d perhaps sounded harsher than he meant. “There’s a lot of competition with bookstores,” he repeated lamely.
“I thought about selling used books online, but even that requires capital,” Elizabeth said. “To buy the books and so on. Dad used some sort of automated system for buying, so I didn’t have any say in what books were purchased. I couldn’t even look at store trends and buy accordingly. I did put some of my own money into some marketing schemes, hoping to make it back, but it wasn’t enough.”
“Yet you’re such a great reader,” Caroline said. “I’m surprised that you couldn’t simply think of something free that would make you want to go to a bookstore. It seems like it would be obvious.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Well, I’ll admit to a preference for reading hour, especially for children, but not everybody would agree. I did schedule a number of readings and signings. But I think my favorite was storytime for the children.”
“Libraries have storytime,” Will said. “Why would parents go to a bookstore for it?”
“You’re right, there’s a lot of competition for storytime. I think the answer is that you have to provide something special. I love to read aloud and try to make it amazing. I read over the books in advance and planned out voices and how I would get the kids excited. I tried to get the kids involved, asking them questions as we went along or inviting them to sing along with the characters. Sometimes we’d do special activities, like I’d stop before the end of the book and the kids and I would write our own ending, then we’d finish it and compare endings and decide which one we liked better.”
Richard laughed at that. “And did the kids’ ending ever win?”
“Very rarely,” Elizabeth admitted. “Most of the time, the authors thought of something clever or catchy that we didn’t. But I remember the kids liked our version of the ending for The Giving Tree better.”
“That’s such a depressing book.” Charlie rolled the dice. “What did the kids do?”
“I think they had the man find a seed from the tree, and he planted it next to the tree so the stump had its baby for company as it aged.”
“Aww!” Jane’s exclamation was so in character that everyone laughed. She turned bright red. “No, really, that’s so sweet!”
“Did you have other employees at the bookstore?” Will asked.
Elizabeth nodded. “When I was in school, yes. Charlotte worked part-time while she was going to graduate school in the evenings. That left me free to take classes during the day. She had a job lined up after she graduated, though, and that worked out well as I’m not sure how long we could have kept her on, anyway.”
Caroline made a soft tsking sound that everyone ignored.
“Where is she working now?” Richard asked.
“She works at Talbot Credit Union. She’s a loan manager.”
Richard snorted. “That must be why she nearly bit my head off when I asked her to spot me a couple of dollars at the coffee shop the other day. Would you believe they only take credit card if your purchase is over $10? Seriously, in this day and age?”
“You don’t carry any money with you?” Jane sounded horrified. “Richard, what if there’s an emergency?”
Richard shrugged. “I’d call Will.”
Caroline smiled at Will. “I’m sure you’ve never had to let anybody go for money reasons, have you, Will? Your company just performs so well! You and your father have run it so cleverly!”
Will ignored Elizabeth’s eye roll. “Of course we have. Just because a business is doing well doesn’t mean that it never lets employees go. Sometimes you have a venture that isn’t working right, or you have to trim down a department because their production doesn’t match the cost.”
“And so they just lose their jobs?” Elizabeth asked.
Will shrugged. “Well, sometimes. Since the company overall is doing well, we reassign employees when we can. If they have skills that can be put into use elsewhere and they’re good employees, we’d rather keep them. But we can’t always keep everybody employed. If we have more, say, marketing staff than we need, keeping them on the payroll means cuts elsewhere, which could make everybody’s salaries suffer, or the company as a whole. That hurts all the employees, the owner―or the stockholders, if it’s publicly owned―and even the customers who have to pay more for their product.”
“So what’s healthy for the company might not be healthy for the individual.”
Will nodded. “And I’ll admit that I hate doing it. We try to offer a generous severance package. But no company can possibly keep every person employed forever without ended up bloated and unable to survive the changes to the economy and the industry that naturally happen over time.”
Caroline practically slammed the dice onto the board for her turn. “Oops.” She moved her thimble to Charlie’s Park Place and gasped. “Oh, my,” she said with a false laugh. “I may go bankrupt. But at least it won’t destroy my credit rating for seven years.” She tittered. “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry, Elizabeth, I don’t mean to rub it in.”
There was a short pa
use, then everybody started to laugh. Could Caroline possibly be any more crass? It was as if she saw Mean Girls as an instruction manual and had entirely missed which characters were the villains.
Elizabeth, still chuckling, shook her head. “Don’t be silly, Caroline. Remember I didn’t own the bookstore? Besides, my father didn’t declare bankruptcy, he just sold the building. He took a loss on the books, but he’d inherited everything free and clear, so he didn’t end up any worse off than before.” She lowered her voice. “I suppose that’s the bright side of his refusal to invest anything into it.”
Will nodded. Their conversation died, but he watched her as the game continued. There was something that intrigued him about her sparkling eyes and quick responses, and especially her unwillingness to let Caroline’s needling get her down. He tried to focus on the game, but his eyes kept coming back to her. She kept glancing back at him, no doubt wondering why he was staring. He wondered the same thing.
Wrong-footed
May 2016
Will was exhausted. He’d been up at 5 a.m. to run, then in his office by 6 a.m. Breakfast and lunch had been at his desk, but he’d still been unable to leave until well after 7 p.m. There had been a meeting in the morning and two in the afternoon, and he’d barely squeezed in his appointments between them.
The PowerPoint presentation for the first afternoon meeting had been almost completely useless. He hated yelling at people, but there had been plenty of time to prepare for the meeting without ending up with slides that were riddled with mistakes―and not just typos, but errors in information as well. If he hadn’t insisted on seeing the presentation at the meeting before they went to the conference, it could have been a disaster. How had the supervisor not picked up on any of these problems in advance? He’d have to get to the bottom of that. He sighed. Another meeting.
The new residential ventilation systems were selling well, but the Florida office was having some sort of shipment problems. If that didn’t get solved quickly, they might end up unable to fill orders in time. He’d probably have to send a team down there to figure things out, which would mean valuable time taken away from other projects at the head office.
And then there was the fact that he couldn’t seem to walk down the hall to speak with Richard or one of his managers without somebody else wanting to talk to him. They wanted to “run something by him” or “get his opinion” on something or “just see where we’re at” on this or that. Or ask him about his father.
He loved his job. He did. And he was starting to feel more confident in it in general. But some days were just . . . rough. He didn’t know it how his dad had done it all of these years. And he’d still had so much time for Will and Georgiana.
It was raining, which made his drive home unpleasant and the traffic insane. He was pleased to hear the chime of a text message, though. It was probably Charlie. Charlie always knew just how to cheer him up.
After he pulled into his parking space in front of his building, he pulled out his phone and checked the message. It was from Charlie, but it didn’t bring the smile he’d hoped for.
Hey. Caroline made you dinner. Surprise! Promise not poison. See you at 7!
Will looked up at a tap on his window. He sighed and rolled it down, despite the rain.
Charlie’s bright yellow rain poncho filled the entire window as he leaned in. “Hey, you’re late! Or we’re early. Anyway, Caroline’s in the car with dinner, so if you’ll just let us in . . .”
Will massaged his aching skull. He might have to kill Charles for this.
There was much maneuvering of umbrellas to get Caroline and her multiple packages of hot food in through the door without getting wet. In the end, Charlie and Will were both wet enough to need to towel off their heads, and Will had to loan Charlie a shirt while his dried, but Caroline stayed perfectly dry and put together.
He tried very hard not to laugh as he saw the meal she set out the meal on his dishes. Home-cooked, his foot. She’d ordered takeout from . . . Carrabba’s, maybe?
“Salmon cetriolini,” she said proudly as she unpackaged it. “With shrimp and sea scallop linguine alla vodka and grilled asparagus.”
Will met Charlie’s eye briefly, and both looked away quickly, hiding grins. It was definitely Carrabba’s. Will even remembered the salmon being on the menu when he’d had a business dinner there a few weeks ago.
“I spent all afternoon on this, so I do hope you like it,” Caroline purred. She took the seat to Will’s right and scooted her chair as close to his corner as she could.
Well, Charlie had promised that it wasn’t poison, at least. And he did like salmon.
“Thanks for dinner, Caroline.” Will dug in. He was enjoying his meal when something brushed his ankle. He started.
“Will?” Charlie asked.
Will scooted a bit farther away from Caroline. “Nothing.”
“Now, Will, tell me all about your day at work!” Caroline said, moving closer again.
He cast an annoyed glance at Charlie, who wouldn’t meet his eye. “It wasn’t really that great a day. I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Oh, no!” she said. This time when her foot brushed against his, he didn’t start, but he did swing his legs as far as he could towards Charlie as possible without touching him. “Oh, but please, Will, confide in me. I’m sure you need somebody to talk to, somebody who isn’t involved as closely as my brother is.”
“No, really, I’m fine. I just want to relax.”
She practically purred. “Relaxing is something I can help you with.” This time, her foot stroked from his ankle to his knee. He jerked away so hard he kicked Charlie in the shin.
“Ouch!” Charlie exclaimed. With his typical lack of subtlety, he leaned down, lifted the tablecloth, and saw Caroline’s bare foot attempting to sneak its way past Will’s defenses again.
“Caroline, seriously!” Charlie said. “Give Will a rest!” Right. Because Charlie couldn’t have thought about that before bringing Caroline over.
She pouted. Really? Were duck lips really that attractive? Because he couldn’t see the appeal. Unless perhaps on Elizabeth . . . He shook his head quickly to dispel the image.
The endless meal was finally over, and they could clear their plates and head towards the living room. Will was wondering how exactly to convince Charlie to take Caroline home, because he only had an hour or two to unwind before getting to bed and then doing everything over again tomorrow, when Caroline slipped her arm through his.
“Now, I know you’re stressed. Come sit down and let me give you a massage.”
“Uh, no thank you,” Will said, trying to pull away. But without being overly harsh, he couldn’t seem to shake her.
“Don’t be silly, Will. You’re so tense. Here.” She pushed him down on the couch, then sat next to him. “Now, let me just sit behind you so I can reach you better.” She nudged him so that he was sitting on the front edge of the couch, then she slid a leg around to his other side so that he was effectively sitting between her legs.
“Caroline...”
“Hush. Just let me do this for you.” She started her massage, and Will couldn’t help but shudder. He had no interest in letting Caroline put her hands all over him. He stood up.
“Will!”
“Knock it off,” he told her firmly. “I’m not interested. Look,” he said, turning to Charlie, “it’s been a long day, and I’m tired. I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.”
Caroline stood up, too, looking affronted. “But I was just trying to be nice! I made you dinner and everything!”
“Thanks for the dinner, Caroline, but you didn’t make it. I recognize it from Carrabba’s. And Charlie . . .” He grabbed Charlie’s arm and dragged him into the hallway.
“Look, I love you like a brother, but bringing Caroline over uninvited after I’ve had a long day at the office is not cool.”
Charlie’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t mean―”
“Just get her out of here. I ca
n’t deal with this right now.”
“Will, you’re a real piece of work sometimes!” Charlie, bright red, grabbed Caroline by the arm and headed for the door. The slam of the door showed that Charlie was a lot angrier than he seemed to be able to express in words, but Will couldn’t care less. It was finally quiet.
He felt a bit better after he’d taken some ibuprofen and a hot shower. Not enough to want Caroline back, but enough to feel a bit guilty.
It wasn’t Charlie’s fault that he’d had an awful day, with people trying to yank him this way and that, and everybody wanting a piece of him. Okay, it was Charlie’s fault for bringing Caroline over, who definitely did want a piece of him, and one he was not willing to give. But she was Charlie’s sister, and Charlie loved her, and she was at least trying to do something nice for him―even if he knew there was another purpose behind it.
Will sighed. He had better call Charlie and apologize. On second thought, maybe it would be better to go see him tomorrow in person to apologize.
“Apology accepted,” Charlie said when Will came down to his office the next day. “And you know, I’m sorry, too. I should have known better than to inflict Caroline on you after a long workday.” Or ever, maybe? Please? “She swore that she’d been cooking all day and that you’d really appreciate a home-cooked meal.”
Will wasn’t sure how to respond.
After a long moment, Charlie laughed. “Well, I guess I should have seen through that. Anyway. You can make it up to me by coming to play volleyball again on Saturday. I’ve got mad skills now!”
“Meaning you can keep the ball on the court most of the time?” Will asked wryly.
“Yeah, that. Anyway. Saturday at two.”
Charlie was, if possible, even more excited about volleyball than before. He confessed on their way that Jane and Elizabeth had been coaching him.
“Jane’s more patient,” he said, “but sometimes I learn more from Elizabeth because she’s not, if you know what I mean.”
A Good Name: A Modern Pride and Prejudice Variation Page 14
