Page 14 of On the Rocks

Maggie harumphed.

I walked past the entrance, spotting Maggie and Dad, their heads bent close over the bar top as they looked at his phone. “What looks like a limp?—”

“Oh, Jesus,” Dad said, looking up at me. “Not you too.”

Maggie shot me a sly grin.

“To be fair, I don’t even know what we’re talking about.”

“Tony here is trying to order the world’s most hideous light fixture,” Maggie explained. “Looks like a barnacle scraped off a whale’s backside.”

Dad rolled his eyes. “You just don’t like the price.”

“Of course I don’t like the price. Nobody should be charging that much for something that hangs up there and gets dusty. As ugly as that is, they should be paying us to take it off their hands.”

“Let me see,” I said, leaning up against the counter.

Maggie flipped the phone around. “He just likes it because it’s the priciest brand. But that’s proof that it’s the most pretentious—not that it’s the best. I told him to stop being an idiot. There’re other fixtures out there, half as ugly for half the price.”

“It’s my money,” Dad said. “I can spend it however I like.”

“Then spend it paying me more,” Maggie said, taking her hammer to some nails at the end of the bar top.

Dad harumphed. “I pay you more than enough.”

“You know you can be an idiot for free,” Maggie added. “You don’t have to waste your money to do it.”

“I’m gonna have to start paying her to keep her quiet,” Dad muttered to me.

“There’s not enough money on earth,” Maggie cut in.

I snorted, shaking my head. That sounded awfully familiar.

“What’s so funny?” Dad asked.

“Nothing.”

“No really,” Maggie said. “Tell us. I could use something other than Tony’s horrible taste in furnishings to laugh at.”

“Just something this girl—woman—said to me.” I glanced at Dad. “You remember Cora?”

A surprised smile crossed his face. “High school Cora?”

“That’s the one. I, uh, ran into her last night at an event and again today at lunch.”

“Oh, how’s she doing?”

“She’s actually sort of working in the drink industry now. She’s a mixologist—has a good following online. Anyway, I was trying to get her on board with Elixir. I offered her a boatload of money, and she pretty much threw it back in my face, accusing me of trying to buy her off or something.”

“Sounds like she has the right idea,” Maggie said.

“Come on,” I complained. “Don’t tell me you’re on her side?”

“You can’t just throw money at things and believe it’ll sort them out,” Maggie said. “Or that it’ll make light fixtures less ugly.”

I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t trying to sort her out, I was trying to pay her.”

“Were you offering what she’s worth?” Maggie said. “Or were you throwing money around to convince her to jump at the snap of your fingers? Because you may not think so, but there’s a difference.”

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