Page 79 of Just Like Starting Over
“But Luke was your son.”
His eyes flash. “You’re getting soft and you’re making a mistake. You need to get back to work, Michael, and you need to forget this girl. If you want to bed her, do it and get it out of your system. Don’t tell me the sordid details. You and I should be allied together in closing down that restaurant. Sending those two women out of town along with Luke would be the best thing for all of us.”
“What about Sierra?”
“Is that the girl’s name? That’s a ridiculous name, but then, it tells you a lot about her mother and her class of people.”
“Dad!”
“You can’t save people from their destiny, Michael. You’re too soft, that’s what your problem is. You’re gullible. No wonder people take advantage of you.”
“I think maybe you’re right,” I say, but he doesn’t hear the change of my tone.
“Of course, I’m right. That’s why you got sick. You went and talked to those workers, didn’t you? All this work is on my desk because you’re making foolish choices. I never thought you were lazy, but the result of your bad decisions is before my very eyes…”
“I’m head grower.” I gesture to the pile of paperwork. “None of this is my responsibility.”
“Of course, it is!”
“We should have hired an operations manager when you retired.”
Dad shakes a finger under my nose. “You see how it is. That slu–” he starts to say the word but my expression must change because he checks himself “– that woman is trying to influence you. She wants to you to demand a raise so there’s more money for her to spend. She wants to marry you, then undoubtedly divorce you to get half your money and not have to live with you. I won’t let her do it. I won’t give you a raise. I won’t fall in with her plans.”
“Then you’ll have to hire that operations manager. I can’t do more.”
“Youaregetting lazy, Michael! You were out most of last week and everything has fallen behind.”
“I was sick!”
“The workers are slacking off and we’re losing revenue.”
“The doctor said I probably caught the virus because I’m burned out. She says I’ve been working too many hours. She asked when I last had a vacation, and was shocked when I said I’d never taken one.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You went to that conference in Amsterdam three years ago.”
“A work conference, Dad, not a vacation.”
He scoffs. “I should be so lucky as to go to Amsterdam for a week, all expenses paid.”
“You might not feel so lucky when you’re inside a convention center all day and every evening. It wasn’t a vacation.” I carry on before he can interrupt. “I had Dierdre look it up for me. My contract says three weeks of vacation a year. Ten years. Thirty weeks. That’s a hundred and fifty days. I’m goingto take Friday off each week, starting next week.” This week, I have too much work to make up.
There is no argument, but then even Dad recognizes that this is a better solution than my being out for five straight months.
His eyes light. “But you’ll be at that awards ceremony in Toronto.”
I had forgotten about that. I probably just pushed it out of my mind because I didn’t want to go. Fancy parties, with frilly drinks and polite chit-chat are not my thing. Neither is a four-hour drive to Toronto, then a similar one back here a few hours later. I was supposed to attend, but with the greenhouse being delivered that day, I need to be here, in Empire.
I want to be here, in Empire.
I’ve chosen my priorities and they are Sylvia and Sierra. I’ll show them both that I can be trusted if it’s the last thing I do. I will convince Sylvia that happily-ever-after is possible.
Even if she doesn’t choose to have that with me.
So, I’ll have to call Jake and ask a favour. Who knows what that’s going to cost me, but I don’t care.
I let Dad believe what he needs to, at least until I get Jake on board.
I brace myself for another tirade about something but, hallelujah, Lisa from Sales comes charging into the office, her expression revealing that she has big news. Her account is the biggest chain of grocery stores in Canada and I remember now that she fell on the first harvest of that new hybrid like it was a gift from the gods.
