Envious

by Cheryl Douglas

  “Yeah, thanks man.”

  Chris watched his friend make his way up the stairs. The life-altering impact of his decision to leave his marriage must not have hit Lee yet. It would as soon as he tried to explain to Hannah that her daddy wouldn’t be there to tuck her in anymore. Then he may rethink his plan. Part of Chris hoped he would. He loved Lee like a brother, and Hannah and her mama were angels. The other part of him wanted a chance to step into Lee’s shoes, and that made him feel like the worst kind of traitor.

  Chapter Four

  Chris drove by the small plaza at the top of the street the following morning. Checking the dashboard clock on his pick-up, he knew he had an hour before his first meeting, so he eased into a parking spot in front of the empty unit and cut the engine. He hopped out and crossed the lot, stepping onto the sidewalk just as an elderly man in a suit walked past. Peering inside the door, Chris noted the painter’s tools and drop cloths littering the ground. It appeared to be a large, wide-open space that could easily be sub-divided. There was a small kitchenette and narrow hallway at the back that probably led to washrooms and possibly an office. Chris had never scoped out space for a pre-school before, but it seemed ideal.

  “You interested in this unit?” the man in the suit asked.

  Chris glanced at the sign in the window. The unit was for sale or lease, and the sign had a number, website, and email address. Interesting. Chris had an impressive real estate portfolio, and the thought of owning the property instead of wasting money on rent appealed to him.

  “I might be,” he said, trying to play it cool. He’d had enough experience with negotiations to know that he couldn’t show his interest too soon.

  The man reached into his pocket and extracted his business card, handing it to Chris. “Name’s Barry Stayner. I own the place, but my son runs the show now.” He grimaced. “More or less. At least, that’s what I let him think.”

  Chris guessed the man was in his mid-seventies. He had thick white hair, silver-framed glasses, and a tan that made it seem as if he spent more time in a lounge chair than behind a desk. Chris offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Stayner.” Reaching into the pocket of his jeans, he handed him one of his business cards.

  After shaking his hand, Barry turned the card over. “You’re the president of New Generation Transport? That’s a pretty big operation.”

  Ten years ago, they’d started out with the truck Chris’s father had been hauling across the country for years and two others that they’d bought with the last cent they could collectively scrape together. Chris had a business degree, and his father knew what it took to own and operate a single truck. Together, they grew it into a business that handled shipments for three thousand customers coast to coast and employed more than five hundred people.

  Chris ignored the comment. He wasn’t there to talk about his transport business. He was there to talk about the business Katie hoped to start. “Tell me about this space.” He hooked his thumb toward the window.

  The older man looked confused, seeming almost perturbed that Chris was wasting his time. “I drove by your head office just the other day. Looked to me like it was about forty thousand square feet, maybe more. What would you need with a little storefront location like this?”

  “I’m interested in it for a friend. She’d like to start a pre-school. Would that work? I mean, are there zoning laws prohibiting that kind of business in this space?”

  “No, we had a daycare here about seven years ago.”

  “What happened to that business?” Chris knew that if that business owner hadn’t been able to make it work, Katie may have a tough time of it as well.

  “She passed away. Breast cancer.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Chris’s cell phone buzzed, but he ignored it. He’d have the next ten plus hours to put fires out at the office. He needed to figure out whether the location would be everything Katie needed to make her dream come true. “You mind if I have a look inside?”

  Barry looked down at Chris’s black steel-toed boots. “There’s a bit of construction debris spread around. They had to remove shelving units the last tenant had installed and re-paint, but it looks like you’re well-equipped.”

  Chris dressed like any one of his drivers. He often visited his yards to check on shipments and check in with the drivers, and wearing a suit to work wasn’t his style. He preferred to be himself, and most days that meant faded jeans, steel-toed boots, T-shirts, and sometimes baseball caps. He followed the landlord and listened to him rattle off the dimensions. It was spacious and bright, which would be an important consideration for the kind of business Katie had in mind. “Washrooms and an office in the back?” He gestured down the narrow hallway.

  “Yeah,” Barry said. “Go on back and have a look.”

  Chris wandered down the hall, giving the kitchenette a cursory glance before poking his head into the two bathrooms and small office. Everything seemed to be fairly new, which meant their work would involve cosmetic changes to turn the unit into a kid-friendly space.

  “So, what do you think?” Barry asked when Chris returned from his short tour.

  “I like what I see. Can you email me the details? I’d be interested in buying, not leasing.”

  Barry scoffed. “Why doesn’t that surprised me?”

  Because they both knew he could afford to make an offer on the whole damn plaza if he chose. “I’d like to pass by after work to show my friend the place. Do you think you could have someone meet us here?”

  “We live around the corner. If I can’t make it, I’m sure my wife can.”

  “Great. When you email me the details, I’ll have a look and get back to you with a time.”

  “Sounds good.”

  If Chris didn’t miss his guess, Katie would fall in love with the place, which would seal the deal for him.

  ***

  When Chris passed the main reception desk in his building less than an hour later, he stopped. “Have you seen my dad this morning?”

  “I think he’s in his office.” The receptionist gave him a flirtatious smile. “You want a cup of coffee before you head up? I just made a fresh pot.”

  He groaned inwardly. Every female employee without a ring on her finger had been flirting with him ever since word got out that Courtney left him. He’d never be stupid enough to date one of his employees, but that didn’t stop them from trying. “No, I’m good. Thanks.”

  Nodding to a few employees he passed, he tried to avoid engaging anyone. He wasn’t ready to talk business yet. He wanted to get his old man’s take on his decision to go into business with Katie. His dad hadn’t been around a lot while he was growing up, but since they went into business together, they’d developed a bond.

  He smiled at his father’s receptionist when he stepped off the elevator. “Is he busy, Nadine?”

  Nadine wasn’t much younger than his father. She had an ailing husband at home, two grown kids, and four grandchildren under the age of twelve. She and Chris’s mother had become fast friends almost from the day they’d hired her eight years ago. “He just got in a few minutes ago. Can I get you a cup of coffee?” She gestured to the pot behind her.

  That was an offer he wouldn’t mind accepting. He knew it came without strings attached. “Sure, that’d be great.” He perched on the edge of her desk while she poured coffee into a Styrofoam cup and handed it to him. “Thanks.”

  “How’s that gorgeous little girl of yours?” Nadine asked.

  He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face whenever someone mentioned Bianca. “Getting prettier every day, just like her mama.” He and Courtney may be divorced, but he counted her among his friends. He’d made the effort to let go of his hostility toward her for his daughter’s sake. He didn’t want her to have parents who couldn’t stand to be in the same room together.

  “Do you have any new pictures?” Nadine clasped her hands in front of her.

  “You know I do.” He set his coffee down as he pulled his cell phon
e out of his pocket. He tried to take new pictures every time they were together. He had folders of pictures on his computer, marking every month of Bianca’s life. Sometimes when he needed a pick-me-up, he scrolled the images. They never failed to put a smile on his face. He pulled up his favorite picture from the previous weekend and handed the phone to Nadine. Bianca held a dry paint brush, and she was pretending to paint one of the walls in her bedroom at his house. The room consisted of pink, pink, and more pink. When he’d tried to coax her into choosing a more neutral color, he received an emphatic “No!” complete with her hands fisted on her hips and a head toss that made her curls bounce.

  “Oh my God, isn’t she just the cutest little thing,” Nadine cooed.

  “She sure has her old man wrapped around her finger,” Chris said, chuckling.

  “You spoil her.” Nadine handed the phone back with a smile. She was like a second mother to Chris, so she felt free to scold him.

  “I know. She turns those big blue eyes on me, and I’m a goner.”

  Nadine laughed. “Now you know how women feel when you turn your baby blues on them, young man.”

  Rolling his eyes, he stood and reached for his cup. “I thought we weren’t gonna go there again.” Nadine always teased him about the fact that every time she walked into the lunch room, the single women were talking about how cute his tight butt looked in the jeans du jour.

  “I just thought someone should let you know that when you’re ready to start dating again, there’s a long line of eager volunteers.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Chris wasn’t interested in eager volunteers to fill his empty nights. He wanted a woman who was strong but sweet. A woman who loved his daughter almost as much as she loved her own and had a body that made a grown man weep when she slipped into her favorite pair of jeans. Only one woman fit that description, and since dating her was out of the question, he’d rather kick his feet up with a cold beer and sitcom re-run.

  Chris tapped on the office door and waited until he heard his father’s gruff voice mutter, “Come in.” Fred Rozen was a typical man’s man. He had calloused hands, weathered skin, and nicotine-stained fingers. He was a brute at well over six feet and two hundred pounds. He and his four sons shared similar builds, but Chris preferred the muscles he could only get on a weight bench after spending most of his day behind a desk.

  “Hey, dad. You got a minute?”

  Fred turned away from the computer screen with a scowl. “Sure, what’s up?” His father wore that perma-scowl like a second skin, as though he was either in the middle of a crisis or waiting on the next one so he’d have something else to bitch about. Those who knew Fred well understood he wasn’t as nasty as he seemed. Believing he really was a tyrant kept their employees in line, which was okay by Chris.

  “A business opportunity kind of fell into my lap yesterday, and I wanted to get your take on it.”

  Fred raised bushy gray eyebrows and slipped off his silver-framed glasses, tossing them on the desk. He was wearing his typical uniform: plaid shirt, jeans that sagged in the butt, and scuffed work boots. No one would guess he was a multi-millionaire. “Since when do you need my opinion about a business deal? You’re the whiz kid when it comes to stuff like that.”

  Chris did seem to have a sixth sense about profitable deals. But he couldn’t trust his judgement when it came to Katie, and there was no one whose opinion he valued more than his dad’s. “This is kind of personal. It has to do with Katie.”

  Fred pushed his swivel chair back and reached for his coffee cup. “Go on, I’m listening.” His parents had known Lee as long as Chris had. He hadn’t been their favorite person when they were teens because they assumed he would be a bad influence on their son. Eventually Chris’s parents realized he had a mind of his own, and no one would convince him to do something he didn’t want to do.

  “Katie has been working on getting her teaching certificate. She’s almost completed the program, and she wants to start a little pre-school of her own in our neighborhood.”

  “I’ve seen her with Bianca and her own daughter. Seems to me she’d be real good at something like that. So what’s the problem?”

  Chris didn’t know why, but he was nervous about telling his father the whole story. “Things aren’t going too well for Lee and Katie. He told her last night that he wants a divorce.”

  Fred’s blue eyes hardened. “I’d suggest you steer clear of that mess, son.” His father was a straight-shooter. In his mind, it was either black or white. Gray was a non-option.

  “They’re my friends. They helped me out when Courtney left. The least I can do is be there for them.”

  Fred folded his arms over his barrelled chest and stared at his son long enough to make him squirm. “If you’d already made up your mind, why the hell did you come talk to me about it?”

  Chris had half-expected that reaction. “The business… I offered to lend her fifty thousand dollars for forty percent. That was before I learned Lee was going to ask her for a divorce.”

  “So you’re thinking now might not be the right time for her to start something like that?”

  “Exactly.” Chris took a sip of his coffee before setting it on his father’s desk. “Lee thinks a healthy diversion may be exactly what she needs to get her mind off things. What do you think?”

  Fred ran a hand over his mouth. “I don’t know, that’s a tough one.”

  “The unit she’s interested in is actually for sale, so I’d probably buy instead of lease it. You know me. I hate lining some landlord’s pocket.” As soon as their business was profitable, they’d moved out of their little rental unit and used some creative financing to buy their own place.

  Fred chuckled. “Don’t I know it.”

  “So what do you think I should do?”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to help her out.”

  “Why?”

  That was the one question he’d been hoping his father wouldn’t ask. He’d learned a long time ago that lying to his old man was an exercise in futility. He always saw right through Chris. “Because I care about her.” That seemed ambivalent enough to satisfy Fred’s curiosity without raising a lot of questions.

  “You care about her? What exactly does that mean?”

  He should have known better. “You know Katie hasn’t had an easy time of it. But she fought her way back, for her sake and her daughter’s. She’s rebuilt her relationship with her mama and her sister, and she’s in a really good place right now. I don’t want to see her get off track because of this divorce, and neither does Lee.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question, and you know it.”

  “She’s a friend. A good friend. She was there for me when Courtney left. Whenever I need someone to watch Bianca, she’s always the first to volunteer. She’s done so much to help me; how can I not want to do the same for her now?”

  “She’s gonna be vulnerable right now.”

  “I know that. I would never take advantage of her.” The fact that he’d jumped to that conclusion probably told his father everything he needed to know, but it was too late to take it back. “I just want to help her make her dream come true. Aside from Drake and Cassidy, who I know she would never ask for help, I’m her only hope of getting this business off the ground.”

  “Sounds to me like you’ve already made up your mind.”

  “I guess I have,” Chris said, standing. He didn’t need his father’s approval. He could do whatever he chose to with his money. He came to his father because he needed a sounding board to help him make sense of what he was thinking and feeling. His dad had provided that, like always.

  “Hey,” Fred said, just before Chris reached the door. “Just don’t cross any lines. Your mama and I raised you better than that.”

  “Right.” Chris didn’t bother to look back. He feared if he did, his distress would be written all over his face.

  ***

  Katie was making Hannah a grilled cheese sa
ndwich for lunch when the phone rang. She saw Chris’s name on the call display and considered letting it go to voice mail. After the generous offer he’d made, she had to tell him her plans had changed before he got too invested in the idea.

  “Hi,” she said, cradling the phone in the crook of her neck as she flipped the sandwich. “How’re you, Chris?”

  “I should be the one asking you that question. You okay?”

  The tenderness in his tone almost pushed her over the edge. She’d vowed she wouldn’t cry in front of Hannah, and she intended to keep that promise. “I’m fine.”

  “Liar.”

  A small smile teased her lips. Only Chris would call her out like that. He was too good at reading her mind. “How do you know?”

  “Because I know you.”

  That should have unnerved her, but it didn’t. Chris was one of the good guys, and she felt fortunate to count him among her friends. She just hoped that wouldn’t change with Lee no longer in the picture. Chris had become someone she counted on, and she needed people like him in her life now more than ever.

  “And I’ve been where you are.”

  “So Lee told you everything?” She’d taken Hannah to the park early that morning, mainly because she didn’t want to face her husband when he came home to get ready for work. She needed a little time to collect herself before she saw him again.

  “Yeah, he did.”

  Part of her was mortified, but she knew if anyone would understand what she was going through, it was Chris. His wife had left him without warning too. “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. We’ve been drifting apart for a while.” She plated her daughter’s sandwich before turning off the burner. If she were honest, she would admit the only thing she and Lee had ever had in common was sibling rivalry and addiction. Without that, they were merely friendly strangers sharing a bed and the occasional meal.

  “Still, it’s not easy. It’s easier when it’s just some abstract idea, but when you’re faced with the reality of telling your child her parents won’t be living under the same roof anymore…”