Page 38 of Accidental Blind Date

“That every one of your stores is a carbon copy of the others? There’s no character. No quirk. No uniquity.”

“No. But there’s consistency. And statistics in sales show that consistency is the key to profit.”

“Mm. And let me guess, Mr. Hemingway. Profit is the key to happiness?”

“It’s the key to success, Libby. But you wouldn’t know that, would you?”

My engines are officially gassed up. I open my mouth and raise a finger ready to let this asshole really have it.

“How dare you? You arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic–”

“Wow those are some scary words!” Kai’s voice comes from behind Dax as he appears out of nowhere and stops next to Dax, grinning at me. “What’s going on?”

Dax sighs like I’m annoying him. Like I’m a fly in the room that won’t go away no matter how many times you shoo it. Like he’s bored. “Your sister doesn’t want the construction crew here.”

Kai looks over at me. “Why? What’s up, Lib?”

“What’s up is that no one mentioned to me anything about a remodel.”

“Well, we can’t exactly fit a Hemingway Books in the closet of a store our parents gifted us with.”

With that, I am FUMING.

“This store is a Boston landmark. It is in a historic building, so you can’t just knock down walls without a permit.”

“Actually,” Dax starts in, providing the construction crew’s paperwork that was handed to me earlier (I threw it back in the man’s face after only skimming it). “We have clearance to remodel.”

I look over the papers again a little more slowly this time, then look up at Dax and Kai.

“I should still be involved in the decision-making process.”

“Your involvement, sis, is keeping the store running while we start the renovations. We need people to not panic. So that’s your job.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “So let me get this straight. You want me to lie to my customers. To people who are friends to me, who are like family to me. People who loved our parents and arethe reason the store is still alive. You want me to pretend that the shop they know, and love isn’t about to be ripped away from them all for, what did you call it? Statistical success?”

Kai nods his head back and forth. “Yeah, I think that about covers it.”

I look at Dax, stupidly. It’s stupid because I feel like I am telepathically begging him for a lifeline. Of course, he doesn’t throw me one. He just stands there, eyes hard. Lips tight.

I shake my head. “You two are unbelievable.”

“No,” Kai says. “We are realistic. It’s time to stop being a dreamer, Lib, and see this for what it is. Change is good. You’ll see.”

With that, my brother walks towards the door.

“You know,” I call out. “Dad would be shaking his head right now too.”

It stops him for all of two seconds. Two seconds where his stance goes a little rigid because I hit a nerve. But he squares his shoulders and keeps walking, not looking back.

As soon as the door closes, I can hear him shouting orders to the workers. I turn my attention to Dax who is just staring at me.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“For what, Dax? Hmm? For lying to me? For pretending to care? For ruining my life?”

He waits a moment before his tongue clicks. “I’m sorry that you don’t understand why this is the only way. I suggest you start thinking with your head, and not your heart.”

With that, he walks inside too and I am left alone on the outside. The outside of a shop that is mine. Outside of the decision making for the fate of that shop. And outside of the control of my own fate.