Page 15 of Hate You Later
Jesus. Is he drunk? It may be the weekend, but it’s not even noon there.
“Since when do you have a cat?” Walker asks.
“I’m watching him for a friend,” I say.
Bryce snorts.
“I never pegged you for a cat person,” Walker muses.
“Right?” Bryce sneers. “He takes pictures of that cat all day long.”
“We’ve had this conversation, Bryce,” I say. “The challenge is providing me with vital market insights. Despite your prejudices, pet influencers are critical for driving sales. We need to understand our customers and their problems if we want to sell products that solve those problems.” I swat a gnat away.
“Shouldn’t you just focus on being Real Estate Jesus?” Bryce asks.
“There’s nothing wrong with Hudson taking an interest in all aspects of the business,” Walker interjects.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be sure not to run up any marketing or production bills and derail your projects, bro. You just enjoy your big-boy Slurpee there.” I check my watch. This conversation is getting tedious, and I can feel the resentment seeping in again, darkening my day. I know it’s not good for me—or the business—to let Bryce get under my skin like this.
“Uh-oh, Huds. What’s that? I think you’re breaking up.” Bryce slurps his drink loudly as he taps the screen.
“Okay.” I stand up. “Just email me your itinerary. Have fun, guys.”
“Wait …wait …” Walker stops me before I end the ridiculous call. “Can you give your sister a call? I know she is anxious to see you.”
“Already did,” I say. “I’m seeing her soon.”
“Oh good. Some of her friends are giving her a hard time about the shelter closure and the whole stupid Twitter thing. She was saying she wanted to do something to raise awareness for homeless animals. I don’t know. Maybe you can help her think of something?”
“Explain to me again why we aren’t just paying to relocate the shelter?” I sigh. It’s been bothering me since I heard about the eviction notice. Not that I think we owe them anything, or that we have so much excess cash to throw at this, but the solution to the PR problem seems rather obvious.
“Because we don’t have to,” Walker says, puffing his cigar. “They already have a benefactor, Celestial Pets. They’ve been covering the shelter’s operating expenses for years.”
“But what about their physical location? Haven’t we been donating the space to them forever?”
“Yes, we have, and it’s been a sweet write-off. But I don’t want to open a whole other can of worms when we’ve already got so much going on. Fact is, we’ve done plenty for that little shelter, and it’s not part of our mission statement to make sure they stay open,” Walker says.
“Right? Who cares about a few lousy strays.” Bryce nods.
Walker turns to stare at Bryce, incredulous, and looks for a moment as if he might smack him upside the head.
“Are you a moron, Bryce? That is NOT what I said. I said it’s not OUR problem to solve right now. We can send them some complimentary supplies or something when they get back on their feet.”
“Celestial Pets is the little pet boutique in the Feed Co. building, no?” I ask.
“Correct.” Walker nods. “Interesting inventory. Lots of local artists. I’d love for us to carry more of that of inventory online, but you know that folksy stuff doesn’t scale.”
“Just wait till my new pet clothing line gets some traction, Dad!” Bryce looks smug. Walker looks doubtful. We both ignore his non sequitur.
“Interesting about Celestial Pets. I’ll make a plan to stop by and see how they’re doing,” I say.
I have to wonder how a tiny shop like that generates enough money to support a pet shelter. Even a small one. I feel a momentary ping of guilt about the rent hike notices that just went out. That couldn’t have been a happy surprise for them. But just like everything else, the rent hike was necessary. Rates haven’t increased for years, and as a result, the building is starting to fall into disrepair.
“Okay, keep me posted. Tell Lilly to text me if you speak to her first,” Walker says, and then we really do sign off.
“I’m back!” I call out as I come into the loft. “Come out, come out wherever you are!”
* * *
