Page 36 of Don't Go Bakin' My Heart
“Don’t you think it’s a little too late for that, Ben? Haven’t you done enough damage already?”
I rested my head in my hands and leaned back on his couch. “I never wanted to hurt him. He is all I’ve wanted for a very long time. I wanted to be that person who would… make everything better for him.”
“Dude. You were here to talk him into selling his business.”
“We never talked about it once. As soon as I knew he was here – he was all that mattered, Tim. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I didn’t.” I felt like I was unraveling from my very core. What could I do to fix this – to fix us?
“But you did, bro. You just don’t… You have never understood how much you can really hurt people. It’s like this chasm in your psyche that you can’t see past. You act or react, and there’s a wake left that drowns everyone else.”
I sighed. “Am I still an asshole?” I wiped my sleeve across my eyes.
“No, man. You just were fucking stupid.” He sighed and bent forward to put his hand on my shoulder.
“I want to fix this, Tim. There has to be a way to fix this.”
“Well…”
“What?”
“You know what Percy wants. What is it you want?”
“I came here hoping for a promotion to partner if I could help with the project. But the moment I saw him, it was only about him.” Even the thought of him – mad at me or not –filled me with a warmth I had forgotten.
“You mean that?”
“More than I have ever meant anything in my entire life.” I stood up and started pacing behind his couch. “I can’t just quit, right? There has to be a way to…”
“Then you have to do something about it. Fight for him.”
“I don’t think he wants to hear from me at all. But… maybe I could… Am I fucking stupid?” I ran my hands through my hair as a plan, maybe one of the stupidest plans in the history of plans, started to form in my mind.
“Fighting for whathewants is fighting forhim. Stop your bosses from trying to buy those businesses. I’ve heard from a friend who works at city hall that the mayor is going to force us to sign by declaring eminent domain at the meeting tomorrow night. If he does that, it’s over. He really thinks this town needs a tourism boost.”
I stopped and stared at him. I did have a plan, but for it to happen, I would need a lot of help. “And BHB will have won,and everyone else will have lost. Most small towns thrive and do well with the resort. But there have been others, a lot like Foggy Basin, that didn’t. It killed the town’s businesses for the most part.”
“Dude, really? You were gonna let that happen?”
I thought it best to ignore his question. I was on a roll. “I’m not. We’re gonna keep Foggy Basin as weird as fuck.”
“What can you do?”
I pulled out my phone and started scrolling. “I’ll lose my job, but I have copies of all those studies in my email. That might help with… The town does need a boost of tourism. It would help everyone. What it doesn’t need is a big resort like BHB to come in and take over everything. It should belong to the town. The jobs should belong to the town.”
“I can get behind that. What can you do?”
I ran over to his table, where he had a notebook, and opened it. “Can I?” He nodded. “I have the stupidest idea I’ve ever had. Do you have the mayor’s number?”
“No, bro. I donothave the stupid mayor on speed dial.”
“Mom does.” I broke out my phone again and started typing a text to Mom, telling her what I needed her to do. It was late, but if anyone could do it – she could.
“Go, Nancy. She’s always been a badass as long as she didn’t cook for you.”
“Mom said they were friends. What if the town can still have a resort… to help bring in tourism, but it doesn’t have to… destroy anything else to be built.”
“You could make that happen.” He sounded impressed.
“It’s a hail Mary, bro. But I’m gonna do my best.” I had to. I would move a fucking mountain if it meant I could have another chance with Percy.
