Page 17 of My Totally Unfair Deal

“A few lessons in ‘people skills’ won’t kill you,” she says, exhaling. “It’d be nice not to worry about you biting a vendor’s head off every time someone asks a question.”

“Oh, please.” I let out a breath. “I’ve never been rude to a vendor.”

Janey stares at me. Blank. Silent.

“Notintentionallyrude…”

She pulls out her phone and taps on a video. It’s me—at the front desk, glaring at some guy.

“Get your ass off my property,”I snap.“You’re trying to rip us off.”

“It’s just business, Miss Eliza.”

“Business with a random thirty percent increase in the price?”

“Harvest season was rough this year.”

“It wasn’t that damn rough,”Ihiss, my hands on hips.“Everyone’s got overstock, including us—you’re just trying to squeeze extra profit.”

“Can I talk to an adult, please?”

"What the hell are you trying to say, you cheating-ass mother-fu--"

The video ends, and I blink at her.

“In all fairness,” I say, “he really was trying to rip us off, and I don’t regret losing his business.”

She taps another video. It’s me yelling at the lawn guy.

“He mowed downtwoof my favorite hydrangea bushes,” I protest,not needingto relive themoment. “It took me two years to grow those.”

Then a third video plays—me running after our disaster of a mail carrier for what was probably the millionth time.

“I can do this all day,” Janey says, not looking up from the screen. “Do you see the problem?”

“The only problem I see is my so-called best friend recording me without permission. Let’s talk aboutthat,shall we?”

“Eliza…” Her tone softens. “Do you really not see a problem?”

“…Maybe.” I lift my hands in half-surrender. “Okay. I could stand to brush up on my confrontation skills. I’ll take an online course or something.”

“That’s not going to be enough.”

“What else am I missing?”

She hesitates, then lowers her voice. “When we go to events, everyone looks like they just stepped off a magazine cover. And you show up in… jeans and sarcasm.”

“Fine,” I mutter. “I’ll order a rack of business suits from Amazon and you can pick your favorites.”

She sighs. “Your brother wouldn’t have brought that guy here if he didn’t think it was in your best interest. This resort is everything to him—besides you. He wouldn’t risk screwing it up just to get a rise out of you.”

“I can’t believe you’re taking his side.”

“I’m taking the side of what’s best.” She squeezes my hand. “Can you just sleep on it before shutting the idea down completely?”

I don’t answer. Can’t.

It hurts in a way I didn’t expect—to hear the two people closest to me hint that maybe I’m the problem.

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