Page 66 of Accidental Blind Date
“You’re kidding right? It looks like something out of a bad nineties movie. Plus, I am very invested in this coffee shop idea. Why do you think people go to Hemingway anyways?”
“For books?” I ask but it comes out more like an obvious statement.
“Fuck no. People don’t read paper books anymore. They pay an app to read it for them. Or they wait for the movie to come out.”
Another pop to the jaw. He’s really not on his game today. Or I’m a little heated.
“Isn’t it odd to you that you don’t care about your family’s business,your sister’s business,at all?” I ask.
Kai stops moving and lowers his gloves. So, I stop too, a gentleman’s rule.
“You’re backing out?” he asks, nodding his chin up at me.
“Not backing out. Just wondering if maybe I should buy out smaller shops, keep them more or less the way they are but own them while letting lower management, in this scenario yoursister, run them. I still make money, and the shops don’t go under.”
“But why? You’d make more if you made it Hemingway,” he says, shoving his guard back in his mouth and moving again.
“I have enough money. And my kids love that shop. The way it is.”
“They’ll grow out of it,” he talks around the guard and takes a hit. I fall back into step two. Round two, I guess.
For a minute, we are quiet as we spare, him jabbing and hitting. Me jabbing and missing. Him jabbing and hitting again.
Kai grins. “You’re getting slow, old man. You getting laid enough?”
“I’m getting laid plenty,” I snap.
“Are you now?”
I smack him in the side of the head, and he almost hits the ground. But then he just laughs. “So, you’re playing the field. Cheers, brother.”
“It’s one girl.” The statement comes out before I can stop it and with more drive than I intend.
“One girl? You going soft on me, old man?”
For that, I clock him, and he hits the floor. Then he spits out a mouthful of blood.
“Areyougetting soft?” I ask.
Kai grins up at me, breathing heavily and stands up again. “I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“Why’s that? And for the sake of your pretty teeth, I think I’d watch what you say next.”
He knows what I’ve been through. He knows that Tess was the real deal. And he knows what it's been like without her. I’vebeen out on dates, but they’ve never ended with anything that mattered. Most of the time I was just humoring the people that didn’t think it was healthy for me to be alone. But it was never the same. Nothing could be the same.
And then Libby pops into my head. Her wavy hair, recently chopped into a cute new look. Bangs suit her, by the way. Her rosy cheeks and smile lines. Her love for life and boho apartment. Her secondhand clothes and clanky old car. She might not be rich, but I know she has enough money to replace those things. But she doesn’t care. She’s too true to care. But she does care about her shop. And that’s got me rethinking a lot of things right now.
“Listen,” Kai goes on and for a moment I forgot where I was. Who I was with. I think it’s obvious who I’d rather be with. “Don’t let my sister get in your head. She’s just wishy washy. She always has been. My old man, after my mom died, he wasn’t right in the head. He was sad and then it seeped into being, I don’t know, delusional. Like he couldn’t let go of any of it. Instead, he just kept everything like it was. Like he wouldn’t face the fact that she was gone. And while it sucks and it’s sad, you have to move on, you know? And that shop isn’t going to be idyllic forever. You know as well as I do how the industry works.”
“I also know there is a niche for small town streets in big town cities. Most of the businesses on Beacon Street are local. Family owned. Even in a world where that’s dying, people still like lazy Sunday afternoons. Brunch spots and shops that only sell cheese and bookstores with hideaways in the kids’ corner.”
“Will you listen to yourself?” he laughs. “Jesus. What’s gotten into you? You’re spending too much time with little girls aren’t you?”
I square my shoulders at that. “Are you talking about my kids?”
Kai holds up his gloves defensively. “Easy tiger. I’m just saying, when you spend more time watching Bluey than you do playing fantasy football with your boys, you get a little fluffy in the head. You feel me?”
But I don’t feel him. The only thing I feel like is knocking him the fuck out. But we don’t box to fuck each other up. We do it to clear our heads. And right now, one thing is very clear–
