Page 2 of The Deals We Make

“I’m gonna buy my own bike and start my own clubhouse where boys aren’t allowed and only girls make the rules.”

Her answer makes me chuckle. “You’re gonna need a bit more than this.”

She turns and points secretively to my brother Niro. “Do you think Uncle Colton is gonna stop swearing anytime soon?”

“Definitely not.”

She claps with glee. “I know.”

“Oh, you’re gonna be a troublemaker when you’re older.”

I glance up at the mirror that frames the bottles behind the bar and see club life playing out behind me.

Couples kiss, voices rise, women hug.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

If my life were a movie, this would be a montage: Beer spilling in slow motion. Happy faces. A room full of hope and potential for the next three hundred and sixty-five days.

Another three hundred and sixty-five days of…

I draw a blank.

I’ve got no New Year’s resolutions. Don’t even know what I’m going to do tomorrow. My life plays out no more than a few hours in front of me. I’ll turn and hug my best friend, Switch, I’ll message my mom, I’ll drink a few more beers, then I’ll find a club girl to take back to my room for some…

What? Fun?

I glance back down at the growing piles of notes as we straighten and unfurl them. This is more fun.

“You know, if I invest this for you, it means you’ll have to give all these notes over to me. And we’ll have to get you a little book called a ledger, where we write down how much you gave me, and I write down where it’s all invested.”

Avery bites on her lip for a second. “It won’t be in your office?”

I shake my head. “It will be in a safe place, though.” I’m not gonna explain to a kid how internet banking or trading platforms work. Not when I’ve already got too much whiskey sloshing through my system.

“I trust you, Uncle Vex.”

Okay, so maybe thereisa girl in the world who could break my heart.

When it’s all unfolded, we put them into piles of twenty notes. “So, if each pile is one hundred dollars, how many piles do you have?”

Avery taps the top of them. “Nineteen.”

“So, what’s nineteen times one hundred?”

Avery laughs. “I can’t count that big, silly.”

“It’s nineteen hundred dollars, which is a lot of money. Bet I can double it for you.”

Her jaw drops wide open. “You can do that?”

The way she looks at me like I’m a superhero says I’ll do even better or pay her the difference myself. “Sure thing, kid. Whatkinds of things do you like so I can decide on good investments for you?”

Avery drums her fingers on the top of the bar. “I like Daddy’s motorcycle. And princess movies, but only if the princess fights. I like Uncle Colton’s pancakes. And Mommy’s face when she wears make-up, and sometimes she lets me wear lipstick. And Mac, Auntie Iris’s service dog that I’m not allowed to touch. And I liked when we went on an airplane to Mexico for Uncle Colton’s wedding, and I got all this money that had different coins. Oh, and I want my ears pierced, but Daddy said no, then even Uncle Colton said no. And if Uncle Colton says no, it must be a really bad idea, because usually he says we can do anything.”

I smile at the innocence of her answers. “Okay, I got a plan then. Let’s invest in jewels for princess sparkle and possible future earrings. We could invest in currency, because that’s what all the coins and notes are called. And I’ll see where airlines and bikes and cosmetic manufacturers sit on a price-to-earnings ratio and see if we can find one of each.”

She climbs up onto her knees, cups her hand to my ear, and whispers, “I only understood the jewels.”