Chapter 21

Scott

Driving for Uber on a Wednesday wasn’t very profitable, but after getting fired from my main job, I knew it was important to make as much money as possible. If I could pull in living expenses from this job, I wouldn’t have to touch my savings, and I could do that until I found something better and started my savings again. Things weren’t as bad as I thought they were initially. I had let my emotions get a hold of me, and from there it had been a downward spiral. That morning though, I picked up the pieces and pushed forward, knowing I didn’t have any other option.

Around noon I stopped and grabbed some lunch before pulling over at one of the parks. I sat there looking out the window, wondering what it would be like to do this for the rest of my life. It almost seemed worse than construction, and I would definitely put on some pounds. I looked down at my console, hearing my phone buzzing. It was Landon, and I was more than happy to take his call.

“Hey, brother,” I said.

“Hey, man. What ya up to?”

“Taking a break from Ubering and eating some lunch,” I said. “You?”

“Not much, man. Are we still on for drinks tonight?”

“Always,” I said and laughed. “I could definitely use some drinks after the past few days, and we made a pact to never miss Wednesday nights.”

“I know. I just wasn’t sure since you were Ubering today,” he said.

“I’m taking the day shift. There’s more on a Wednesday during the day than there is at night,” I said. “Nighttime pretty much ends around six when everyone goes home from work. All I ask for tonight is that you don’t bring that asshole Carl with you.”

“First of all—it just rang in my head—what are you doing Ubering when you should be at the site? And why not Carl? Not that I was going to ask him. I haven’t spoken to him since that night,” he said.

“I got fired,” I said.

“What! What the hell happened?”

“Well, your buddy Carl also happens to be the biggest cocksucker on the site. He gave Cassie a hard time all the time,” I said. “And when you said I was dating Cassie, he took that and ran with it. He told the boss, who happens to be Cassie’s father, and it was all downhill from there.”

“Dude, you were dating the boss’s daughter? Why didn’t you tell me that?” he said. “Now I feel like a complete asshole.”

“Nah, man. It’s not your fault. Neither she nor I were telling anyone,” I said. “You didn’t know. Besides, I think I’ve realized it’s better this way. I didn’t really know her until shit hit the fan. It turns out she is a real stuck-up bitch who cared more about making a point to her dad than how it would affect me and my life. She hasn’t even talked to me since I was fired.”

“Shitty, dude,” he said. “It sucks you lost your job, but at least you’re not stuck with the bitch. Things could be worse. You have to always look at it that way.”

“I’m trying,” I said. “Fuck her and fuck her dad, too. The whole reason I was fired was because he thought I wasn’t good enough for her, and when I asked her the same question, I got nothin’ but silence.”

“Yo, that is total shit, man,” Landon said. “She should have thanked her lucky stars she didn’t end up with one of those uptight asshole frat boys instead.”

“I know, right?” I said. “She will anyway, and I don’t care anymore. When I have a successful chain of hardware stores and I’m rollin’ in the dough, they will look back and eat their words.”

“That’s right, man. She will be on your doorstep begging you to take her back,” Landon said.

“And I’ll shut it in her face,” I said half-heartedly. “I don’t want someone who wants me for my money. I want someone who wants me for me. But I’m happy being by myself.”

“You should be happy,” Landon said. “Chicks are nothing but trouble, and they bring hell wherever they go. You’re the only one who matters when it comes to how you think about yourself.”

“Exactly,” I said. “I don’t give a fuck what they think.”

I said the words like I really meant them, like my resolve was strong, but deep down, I knew it was bullshit. Deep down, I really cared what Cassie thought about me. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much shit talk I slung, I still missed her.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Landon asked.

“Well, I’m out of a job, so that sucks,” I said. “I still have the Ubering, which I’m getting better at figuring out, and I’m looking for something else. When my head cleared, I started thinking, and I haven’t done a business plan yet, but I think there’s a possibility that I have enough money to go ahead and open one of my stores. It would just have to be a bit smaller than what I was first thinking.”

“Sometimes starting out small is what’s best,” Landon said. “You can test the waters, see what is working and what isn’t. You wouldn’t have all that overhead to worry about if you started smaller. So if something happened, you wouldn’t be completely screwed.”

“You’re right,” I said. “And I can grow from there, whether it’s size or inventory, and I can offer to order things for people if I can’t afford to carry it in stock. Most of the places have overnight shipping now.”

“Nice,” Landon said. “Man, I’ll help you in any way I can. It’s the least I can do for being the one to spill the beans and get you canned before you had a chance to save up more.”

“It’s funny that you say that,” I said. “I was thinking about that last night. You should seriously consider going into a partnership with me. We could create the same thing but with half the financial burden, create an LLC so the legal falls on the store and not our personal assets, and we could run the hell out of that thing. With your business knowledge and my knowledge of hardware, we could rock it.”

“I’ll definitely think about it, dude,” he said. “But hey, I’ll see you at the bar tonight. I have to run.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

I hung up the phone, finished my lunch, and went back out to catch some fares throughout the afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people took Uber back and forth to work, so my evening was even better than I had thought it would be. Luckily, town life was small, so the time between drop-off and pick-up for the next customer was short. By six, though, the traffic had died down, so I headed home, calling it a day. When I pulled into my neighborhood, I slowed down and saw a car parked in front of my house. I pulled into the driveway and collected my things, glancing back at the car. I didn’t recognize it, and I couldn’t see who was inside. They were probably parked there waiting for someone because I wasn’t expecting any visitors. I shrugged and got out of the car, pulling my bag over my shoulder and closing the door.

As I moved to the back to grab my thermos, I looked up at the car. Someone was opening the door and stepping out into the evening sun. I froze, staring at Cassie looking over at me sadly. What was she doing here? Why couldn’t she have just picked up the phone? She started to walk toward me, so I met her halfway up the driveway.

“Hey,” she said, looking incredibly sad. “I was wondering if you and I could talk?”

“Talk.” I sighed. “Like I tried to do with you for days, but you wouldn’t answer the phone?”

“Please, Scott,” she said, looking up at me with those big green eyes.

“Fine,” I said. “But we can talk right here in the driveway. I’m not going to invite you in.”

“I understand.”

I knew she actually did come over to talk, not to fight, but I couldn’t help but be angry and bitter. The resentment I was feeling was bubbling over, especially after talking to Landon about altering my plans for the business. If it wasn’t for everything that had happened between us, and her selfish mindset, I would be getting off from my construction job a little closer to my goals. But instead I was getting out of my “taxi” and going inside to try to figure out how to survive.

“So, you got me here,” I said. “What next?”

“Scott, I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t talk my father down, but I did try. I didn’t answer your calls because I felt so bad about what happened. It was my fault that you got fired, and I couldn’t even stand up and face you.”

She was genuinely sorry, but my pride took over before I could stop it.

“No need to apologize,” I said. “I was aware of what I was doing. I did it all just to see what it would be like to fuck the boss’s daughter and get some of that stuck-up ass.”

“You don’t mean that,” she said, looking down.

“You know what’s funny about it?” I said, laughing. “I fucked up big time and let you ruin my life. You ruined my job, my future goals, my aspirations, and you took away a pension I was really close to collecting, and I’m only thirty years old. I let you take all that away from me, and for what? To get some ass I could have had anywhere? Nah, you ruined me, Cassie, and I don’t need your half-ass, guilt-ridden apology.”

“Fuck you, Scott,” she said with sass. “You are the one who couldn’t control your urges. If you had just left me alone in that cab that day, nothing would have ever happened. Maybe I was wrong; maybe none of this is my fault after all. Maybe you are just another piece-of-shit guy who wants to blame your inability to make your life into something better on anyone but yourself. Go ahead and blame me. You’ll still be staring at that blank paycheck every fucking week because you wanted to act like a bigshot and screw your boss’s daughter.”

“Right.” I laughed. “You are such a bitch. Really, you don’t want to take credit for your part in anything because you’ve never had to before. Daddy always did everything for you. What are you doing here anyway? Go back to your privileged life, finish your internship that you didn’t work for, and go back to school. I’m sure there are a bunch of rich fucking dickheads with a real bright future who would want to take you in. You can spend your life running someone else’s company and being some dude’s trophy wife because that is what you people do.”

“You know what?” she said with tears in her eyes. “I came here to tell you something, something really important, but it is very clear I was wrong about you. My father was right: you are no good for me, and you don’t deserve for a second to be in my life.”

“I guess you should go then,” I said.

“I guess so,” she replied, turning around.

I shook my head and made my way inside, slamming the door behind me. I didn’t even watch her leave, I was so pissed off. She had said exactly what I knew she was thinking all along, that I wasn’t good enough for her. Fuck that, and fuck her.