Chapter 25
With only a few weeks until the end of the year and the end of the clinic, Juliet had a lot of work to do. She spent an entire weekend printing out the records of every patient in the clinic so that the owners could have them to take to another veterinarian.
Her hope was that she could get some sort of grant funding to reopen the clinic, but that would be months away. Until then, her old patients would have to find help elsewhere.
It broke Juliet’s heart.
She hadn’t known about the other potential grants until James emailed her about them. She knew that he would eventually contact her, but she was surprised when she read his email. He didn’t say anything about trying to make it up to her. He didn’t even hint at it. He apologized for messing things up and said that he knew that sorry was not enough.
He also said that he spoke to Gracie who told him about several other grants, and he attached information in the email. The last line of his email said something cryptic about him being sure that the clinic would be saved.
That annoyed her. How did he know? He seemed to think that money would just come out of thin air. Typical James.
Part of the transition in closing the clinic included Juliet moving back in with her parents. This was a special sort of failure – it really rubbed salt in the wound.
Her mom was thrilled, of course, to have her back, and her dad didn’t miss a chance to crack jokes about her returning to the nest. As much as Juliet felt like a failure, she knew it would be harder for her to get funding for the clinic if she was also looking for a new job at the same time.
She figured it’d be better if she moonlighted at another clinic for a few hours a week so she could focus most of her time on grant proposals. Unfortunately, making that decision meant facing the fact she was not going to be able to make rent and pay her student loans at the same time.
Her landlord was relieved to hear that she was moving out. “Finally,” he said when she told him.
She wanted to respond in a pithy way, but she didn’t have a leg to stand on. She still owed the man two month’s rent. One month would be covered by her security deposit, but she needed to come up with the money for the other.
So instead of saying something sassy, she said, “Aw come on, you’re going to miss me when I’m gone.”
“No,” he said flatly. “I will have paying tenants.”
“At least I didn’t break anything.”
He smiled, wagging a finger at her. “Don’t get any ideas.”
One nice thing was that she had the rest of the month to slowly move back to her parents’ house. She decided to make the most of her last Christmas in the apartment. She put up her three foot tall plastic tree and dressed it with a six foot tree’s worth of decorations.
She put lights around her bedroom window and strung garland around the kitchen and bathroom. It made her feel better – like there would be hope in the future.
The weekend before Christmas, she took some time to move a few larger items to her parents’ house. She thought she could do this unnoticed, but her mom was very excited for her arrival and had a bunch of evergreen branches stacked in the kitchen.
“I thought we could make some wreathes!” she said.
The fresh smell of the branches was inviting. “Are these pine branches? Where did you get all of these, Mom?”
She smiled. “No, cypress. And wouldn’t you like to know!”
Juliet laughed. She decided that it was better not to ask too many questions and instead just join in and make a wreath. Her brother was visiting with his family for Christmas, so that would be nice. She didn’t have much money to get gifts for her niece and nephew, but luckily the toys that they asked for weren’t terribly expensive. She also got some tools to build an igloo and snowmen outside. That could keep them occupied for the entirety of Christmas day.
Juliet rolled up her sleeves and got to work in making a wreath. “Seriously Mom, where’d you get these? Why is there so much sap?”
“That’s how you know they’re good branches.”
“Oh my goodness,” said Juliet. Her fingers were sticking together. “Listen Mom, I want you to know that I’m going to be a really good roommate. Did you and Dad decide on what rent you’re going to charge me?”
“Yes we did,” her mom answered. “One dollar a month.”
“No Mom, I’m serious. I don’t want to be an old, loser daughter living in the house. Let me contribute.”
Her mom pursed her lips. “Honey, you know that I would pay you to get you to live in this house again, so there’s no way in the world that your father and I are going to take money from you. We just want you to get back on your feet.”
“I was going to say that your friend could get you a job,” her dad yelled from the living room. “But it looks like he’s out of a job, too!”
Juliet scrunched her eyebrows. “What friend?”
He walked into the kitchen holding a newspaper. “Your friend. James. This article said that he left his dad’s company.”
“What?” Juliet reached to grab the paper, her fingers instantly bonding to the thin pages. “Since when do you read the investment stuff?”
He shrugged. “I’m a mysterious man.”
Her mom scoffed. Juliet focused on reading the headline that read “Billionaire Heir Sells Stock and Says Sayonara to Family Business.”
She quickly read the first two paragraphs, but when she tried to turn the page, she ripped the thin paper in her hand.
“Hey!” her dad said. “I’m not done with that! Don’t go destroying it with your sticky fingers.”
“I can’t help it. These branches mom got are so sappy.”
“Probably because she cut them at the park.”
Juliet shot her mother a look. “Mom, you didn’t!”
“You should never listen to your father,” her mom said, continuing her work.
“What does it say, Dad? Did James get fired?”
“No, nothing like that. Doesn’t really say why he left. It’s making people nervous, though. It’s not a good sign when your own son flees the company.”
“So he really wasn’t kidding about being fired…” Juliet mumbled to herself.
“What was that?” her mom asked.
“Nothing,” she added quickly, handing the newspaper back to her dad.
It was no business of hers what James was up to. Good for him, if leaving was what he wanted. If not – well, at least he saw it coming.
Her dad turned to leave but her mom flagged him down. “Go up to Juliet’s room and give her the mail that’s been arriving here.”
Juliet turned to her mom. “What kind of mail? How am I getting mail here already?”
“Because your mom started forwarding it from your old address,” responded her dad. “And she was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”
Juliet turned back to her mom, who was expertly avoiding eye contact.
“Mom,” she said, “is this true? I was wondering why I wasn’t getting any mail at my apartment.”
“It can take some time for mail to start forwarding. I’m just trying to be helpful, so sue me!”
Juliet went to the sink to wash her hands. “Don’t worry Dad, I’ll go look myself.”
She managed to get a fair amount of the sap off before she went to her room. There was a stack of letters sitting on her bed. She groaned – she should have known something like this was going on when she didn’t get a single Christmas card in the mail.
Juliet took a seat and started sorting through the mail. Most of it was junk, which made it easy. There was one letter about her student loans – they were sold again and the interest rate was raised, again.
There was a handwritten thank you from one of her clients at the clinic. She couldn’t finish reading it because she wanted to cry, so she set it aside for later.
The last was a letter from a place called Animal Agency, Inc. Juliet frowned. She never heard of this place before. She ripped open the letter and read the
first few lines:
Dear Dr. McCarron,
We would like to congratulate you for your clinic’s nomination for our Underserved Care Award. We became aware of your phenomenal efforts to keep your veterinary clinic running through an anonymous nomination. Our panel made the decision to grant your clinic a $3 million grant to be dispersed over the next six years at your discretion.
Her jaw dropped. Was this some kind of joke? She rushed back downstairs.
“Mom! Where’s your computer?”
“I don’t want you putting any viruses on there,” she said.
“I’m not going to put any viruses on it,” Juliet responded, trying to control her tone. “Where is it?”
“It’s by my bed. But I’m serious – don’t download anything!”
Juliet ran to her parents’ bedroom, grabbing the laptop from the nightstand. She Googled the name of the company and quickly found a website.
It seemed like it was a legitimate place! They had several grants that they awarded every year. It looked like the last winner of this grant was from five years ago. Did funding run out for a while?
It didn’t matter – it seemed like this might be real. She ran back into the kitchen yelling her head off. “We got funding! We actually got funding!”
“That’s great honey! See, I knew you could do it!” Her mom paused. “Does this mean you’re not moving back home?”
Juliet cringed. “Actually – my landlord kicked me out. So…I still need somewhere to crash for a bit.”
A smile spread across her mom’s face. “I’m so happy for you!”
“Thank you,” Juliet said breathlessly. “I can’t believe this is real.”
Where did this come from? Who nominated her? And more importantly…where did the money come from? Juliet felt uneasy about it all. She didn’t want to bring up her concerns to her parents, though. Instead, she decided to get back to her apartment for some more investigation.
Chapter 26
“I’m sorry man, I was told you weren’t allowed back inside.”
James stood, arms outstretched. “C’mon Tony! You know me. I’m not going to cause a trouble. I just want to grab a few of my things.”
Tony shook his head. “I just can’t, man.”
“What if you went on break for 15 minutes and I happened to slip by?”
“You know,” Tony said with a smile, “I am due for a break. Overdue, actually.”
“Well I’m going to head outside then,” said James. “I don’t want to get in the way of your work.”
Tony laughed before turning to walk into the break room.
James waited until he was out of sight to call the elevator. Tony was the head doorman in his building for the last four years. They always got along well – sometimes James even brought home an extra take-out meal for Tony when he knew he was working long shifts.
That was one of the things that James’ dad couldn’t anticipate – he was able to freeze the bank accounts, take cars, and essentially kick him out of the condo. But James still had a few tricks up his sleeve.
He got onto the elevator and went straight up. Luckily, there were only a few more things to pack. His dad would never know – in a week, there would be a new senior manager of sales living in this condo.
James’ dad seemed to think that he was punishing him by taking everything away. It was embarrassing – like what a parent would do to their misbehaving ten year old, taking away all of their toys.
He thought it would convince James to come back to the company, to come to his senses. But it was having the opposite effect. James had never felt more free in his life. His duties to the company were over and he made as quiet of an exit as could be expected.
As agreed, he’d only sold off a quarter of his stock. The rest would come later – or never. He didn’t care. He didn’t want the money.
He had enough money for what he planned to do next. He put a deposit down on an apartment in Michigan. It wasn’t that he was trying to be close to Juliet – that was sadly something he had to give up on. She never answered his email, and she apparently didn’t figure out that he was the one who funded the charity that ultimately gave her clinic a grant.
It was better that way. If she had any idea where the money came from, she would probably refuse it. At least this way the clinic was saved. That was all that mattered. She’d given him a second chance, and he messed it up. That was his own fault. But he still wanted her to be happy.
No – he was moving back to Michigan to go back to school. He was sick of being miserable with his life. He was going back to school to get a degree in zoology. A surprising number of his credits still counted towards the degree, so he only had about two years of coursework left. He never even looked into it until now. How had he allowed his life to be on hold for so long?
He spent the next hour packing up his last few belongings. He just needed to load them into the moving truck and he would be on his way.
There was a knock at the door. James froze. Was Tony coming to kick him out? If that were the case, then he could at least help him carry some of the boxes down.
James swung the door open. “Alright, alright, I’m done packing my – ”
James froze. It was Tony – but he wasn’t alone.
“Hey, this young lady was downstairs looking for you,” said Tony. “Do you know her?”
James couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Was he actually hallucinating? Was his dad right and he’d actually lost his mind?
“Yes. I do. She’s a friend.”
Tony sighed. “Okay man, but I really need you out of here.”
“Right, everything’s packed up, I just need a few minutes?”
“One hour!” Tony said, pointing at him. “Don’t make me call the police. You know I will!”
James laughed. “Got it. One hour.”
Tony walked back to the elevator, leaving James to gape at Juliet.
She smiled. “Hey.”
He reminded himself to shut his mouth. “Hey! It’s so nice to see you. Please come in.”
She looked back at Tony, who was now getting on the elevator. “Are you sure it’s okay? Is he really going to call the police?”
James waved a hand. “Nah. We just like to – you know, joke around about that.”
Juliet peered into the condo. “It looks like all of your stuff is gone.”
“Yeah, I’m moving out.” He cleared his throat. “Please, come in.”
She stepped inside and James closed the door behind her.
“Sorry it’s so desolate in here,” he said. “I think I have some soda in the fridge?”
She put up a hand. “No, I’m fine. Thank you though.”
“I’m surprised that you remembered where I lived.”
“Oh, I didn’t,” she said. “I looked it up online. It wasn’t hard to find.”
“Oh, duh.”
They stood and looked at each other for a moment.
James couldn’t stand the silence. “So what brings you to New York? I think you are literally the last person on earth I expected to come knocking at my door. To be honest, it was much more likely to be the NYPD.”
She laughed. “Yeah, sorry.”
He scratched the back of his head. “No, I didn’t mean – I’m happy to see you.”
“So where are you moving?”
“Back to school.”
“Oh?”
“In Michigan,” he added quickly, “but just because I found out that I only need four more semesters to finish a zoology degree.”
“Oh!” Juliet said. “That’s a big change.”
He nodded. “It is. It’s a long time coming.”
Juliet took a few more steps into the apartment, getting close enough to look out of one of the windows. “I thought you were kidding when you kept saying that you were going to get fired.”
“I wasn’t kidding,” he said. “It was more of a wish, really.”
Juliet bit her lip. “I see that. So your
dad really fired you?”
James crossed his arms. “It’s hard to say what happened. Some words were exchanged. I guess, technically, I quit.”
“So you can’t collect unemployment now,” she said with a smirk.
“Exactly. I kept trying to get fired and couldn’t. But I think he may never speak to me again, so that’s something.”
“Oh,” she said with a frown.
“Don’t feel bad. It’s better this way.” He pulled a large box over to Juliet. “Have a seat. Best box in the house.”
“No, thank you. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I just wanted to thank you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Thank me?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know. I found out about you selling your stock in the company. The same day that I found out my clinic was anonymously nominated for a grant.”
James opened his mouth, trying to appear shocked. “What! That’s amazing, so you can keep the clinic open?”
She crossed her arms. “Don’t play dumb with me!”
“I would never! And I know that you would never accept money from me, so I don’t know why you think that I’m involved.”
“Wait, are you serious?” she said, her cheeks turning slightly pink.
Well that made him feel bad. He couldn’t lie to her. “No, I’m not serious. I was just hoping you wouldn’t figure it out.”
She lightly poked him in the shoulder. “You almost had me.”
“Please don’t tell me you came all this way to try to return the money. Because that is legitimate charity, and if you refuse it, they’ll just have to give it to another clinic.”
“I know,” she said. “I investigated them quite thoroughly. I actually came to the city to meet with someone from their office. It seems that your donation funded fifteen other clinics across the country.”
“You investigated? You don’t joke around, do you?” said James.
She shook her head. “Not when it comes to my clinic. Now, they did try to hide who the donation was from, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. So basically, what I guess I’m trying to say is – thank you.”
James smiled. “You’re welcome. I’m glad that I was able to not mess something up. There’s a first time for everything.”
Veterinarian's Date with a Billionaire Page 16
