Page 69 of A Me and Him Thing
“Ren fills in wherever he’s needed at the restaurant. Saves a lot of money that way.”
“Truth,” Ren says. “Guess you could say I’m a jack-of-all-trades. I’m the owner, the accountant, and the manager. I mop floors, set tables, do dishes, and I even chop vegetables to help with dinner prep. Don’t forget cleaning the toilets. It’s a glamorous job, let me tell you.”
“I thought Exodus was doing well financially.”
“It is. Restaurants have a huge failure rate. But Exodus is thriving, making double what it made last year.”
“That’s amazing. Why don’t you hire people to do all of those jobs?” He lives and breathes at the restaurant. As the owner, I would assume he wouldn’t need to be there so often. A well-oiled machine should run on its own.
Jack answers for Ren. “Tranquility House is very expensive. Ren cuts corners wherever he can.”
Of course. I wondered about the cost of keeping Allison in such a nice place. It must be astronomical. No wonder Ren is always working, always trying to save on expenses. “I understand.”
I do. I understand perfectly. He’d do anything for his wife. I have major respect for him, but it still hurts like crazy.
“Things okay with the Rothmans next door?” Ren steals a forkful of Kate’s green beans, then winks at her.
“Yep. The Hatfields and the McCoys are now friends. It’s all good. Don’t worry about it.” Jack waves off Ren’s question.
“Except Grandpa says Rhoda’s name should have been Karen.” Kate squishes her features. “I like the name Rhoda. It’s pretty.”
The adults in the room suppress laughter as Susan says, “Ever since Allie’s accident, they’ve been so sweet and helpful. It’s been wonderful.”
“Good to hear it.” Ren polishes off Kate’s green beans. “One less thing to worry about.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “I thought you said this was a great neighborhood?”
“It is now. When we first moved in, we had a few disagreements with Todd and Rhoda Rothman, Curtis’s parents.”
“Disagreements?” Jack releases a bark of laughter.
“What else would you call it?” Then Ren mumbles, “Besides living next door to a couple of Karens.”
“They aren’t named Karen. They’re Todd and Rhoda. Why does everyone keep calling them Karen?” Kate demands, frustrated.
“Hey, Kate, why don’t you go hunt down a few games for us to play?” Ren cleverly distracts her with an assignment.
“Okay!” Kate skips off, excited for family game time.
“Ethan, do you still have some homework to finish?” Ren asks.
“Just a book to finish reading.” Ethan sounds like he’d rather sit here and eat all the green beans than read.
“Why don’t you get your reading done while we clean up? Then you’ll have all afternoon to relax.” Ren’s a smart dad. He knows Ethan would rather read than do dishes.
Ethan exchanges a fist-bump with Ren. “Yeah, okay. Just wish there was a third choice.”
Now that it’s only the adults at the table, Ren says to me, “When we first moved in, Todd and Rhoda didn’t like our mailbox. All the mailboxes for this area are placed together on the main road. They hated our red mailbox, said it didn’t go with all the other silver mailboxes.”
“Who cares?” I say bluntly. “Seriously, is that their only problem in the world?”
“Evidently. When I refused to change it, they poured yellow paint all over it. They didn’t paint it, they poured paint over it, ruining it.”
“Isn’t it a crime to tamper with someone’s mailbox?” I’m feeling worked up, and it didn’t even happen to me.
“Exactly,” Jack says. “I was ready to pour yellow paint over one of their cars. Hey, they drew first blood.” He splays his hands.
“Now, Jack,” Susan says in her motherly way.
