Page 33 of Blackout

The nights my grandfather taught me to bake were my fondest memories. He was old-fashioned and set in his ways, from baking to paperwork and even how he treated Addison and me. He was a kind man, yet a strict one. Times had changed from when my father was a teenager, and my grandfather had no interest in moving with the times as technology changed. I’d had to wade through the changes in technology when I turned twenty and took over managing the bakery. It had taken five years, but the bakery, the shop outlets and me were now up to date with the latest technology.

‘Harley, that’s incredible.’ Zach told me.

If only he knew. ‘Grandpa set it up so that by the time I finished high school, I finished my apprenticeship too, and that’s when I started to work alongside him. Three years later I took over as the manager of James Family Bakery. Grandpa told me when he retired that Addison would come and work at the bakery too. But day after day I would do a double shift. Bake, serve in the shop, then the paperwork needed to be done. Addison was supposed to help ease the pressure, but never once did she come to help. I was by myself the whole time.’

I knew Addison couldn’t wait to finish high school and move out of our grandparents’ house. She was always going to forge her own path and was never going to let anyone dampen her free spirit. What I didn’t know was why she couldn’t help around the bakery. Maybe Addison needed time away from the strictness of our grandparents to do her own thing, whereas I, on the other hand, needed the structure in my life to not fall apart.

‘Until now.’ Zach had remembered that there was a dare between Addison and me.

‘Until now,’ I repeated as I thought about why my sister had all of a sudden started showing her face around the bakery. ‘Maybe Addison finally realised working at the bakery would be worth her while.’ I knew I sounded bitter as I spat out my words. I was hurt that Addison thought she could show up after all these years and undermine everything I had worked hard to achieve with the family business.

‘What do you mean?’ Zach asked, and it was time to fill him in on what had led to this moment.

‘Five years ago, I dared Addison to be my apprentice, and she refused. As a consequence, I stopped paying Addison, something I know she hasn’t forgiven me for. But the money she was getting, I was paying out of my wage.’ I’d never wanted Addison to miss out. She had been a bartender since turning eighteen and never stayed in the one place for too long. Addison was always going to blaze her own trail and do things her own way, and I always knew where she was from her texts. She would send me these to boast about what she had been up to. So, I’d topped up Addison’s wage because she was a member of the James family too. I hadn’t minded giving Addison money; I earned a good wage and had little expenses.

‘But Addison suddenly showing up isn’t the only reason my life is messy.’

‘You found something?’ Zach asked as he glanced at me.

‘My grandpa is old fashioned, and it has taken me from the day I started managing the bakery until now to update the whole business. While there has always been money in the business accounts to grow the bakery and purchase the additional shops, I have never been able to get a loan for new equipment. In my search for a reason why, I found that Grandpa had only kept manual bookkeeping entries for all of the bakery paperwork. There are no digital records.’ But what also bothered me was that I couldn’t find any documents that told me Grandpa was still the owner of the James Family Bakery. Was my grandpa hiding something?

‘But that’s not all you found, is it?’

Zach watched as I shook my head. ‘I found Grandpa’s business terms, and they stated that at least one James family member must either work for or manage the business for it to stay in the family and continue to be handed to the next generation. If there’s not a family member working for the business, then the bakery is to be sold.’ I knew my grandpa wanted to keep the business he’d started in the family and was happy when I showed an interest in managing it, but the business terms I’d found seemed dated just like the rest of the bakery paperwork.

‘And you found out all this three nights ago?’ The man next to me sure knew how to use the power of deduction.

‘Yes.’

‘No wonder you needed to blow off steam.’

I guess how I’d ended up in the hotel room Zach owned wasn’t a mystery anymore.

‘Exactly.’ It was the only word I could think of to say, and that word summed it all up.

‘Harley, how does your sister’s dare fit into all of this?’

I must remember the high level at which he paid attention. ‘Addison needs a stable day job that will pay well.’ The fact that my sister had only just realised the family business was a stable, well-paying job made me angry. Addison could have helped from the start. My sister still had a lot of growing up to do.

‘What does that mean?’ His question let me know he wanted to understand the mess I was in.

‘It means my sister wants what I have. She wants my benefits, to pay herself a managerial wage and live in my house.’ Also, according to the business terms I’d found, once a quarter there should be a payout of bakery profits. But in the last ten years of working at the bakery, I hadn’t received any extra income.

‘But why?’ Zach asked.

‘Because Addison’s pregnant, and she wants more than her bartending wage to raise her baby on,’ I blurted. It hurt that Addison had used her dare to rattle me and try and take what I had been working hard to achieve, keeping the family business running.

‘Your sister’s pregnant! That’s a curveball I didn’t see coming. What’s the time frame for the dare?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said as I turned to look out the passenger side window. I wanted this conversation to be over. But I could tell Zach wasn’t going to let it go. ‘I was meant to meet Addison three nights ago and when I texted to ask where she was, she gave me the address. When I looked up where my sister was, she was at a karaoke bar, one we had not been to before in Brunswick Street.’ Had Addison been trying to get me to sing for her. I didn’t know because I didn’t meet her. ‘It doesn’t matter because instead of meeting with her, I packed a bag with a few days’ worth of clothes and got in my car and wound up at your bar.’

‘What do you mean it doesn’t matter?’

‘The dare, it doesn’t matter, can we please just drop it?’

‘No, Harley,’ Zach snapped back. ‘We can’t just drop it. I want to know why you drove 270 kilometres to drink yourself under the table.’

Does anything ever get past this man?

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