2: 2
2
I was livid.
But facing that mob in the group chat, all I could do was swallow the anger and explain, one more time:
"I opened those showrooms to help the manufacturer expand its market. That was written into the contract the moment I got the dealership rights. Otherwise, why would they even let me be their dealer?"
"That's how the market works. It's not that I'm eating losses just to keep the stores running."
"Still spouting nonsense?" my cousin trilled sweetly.
"Do you really take us for fools? Or are you saying every uncle in this group chat is blind too?"
"I've seen those stores of yours. High-rises, every one of them, all that floor space. Any single one would be more than we could earn in ten lifetimes."
"You just don't want to sell to us. You can't stand to see us do well. You look down on your poor relatives!"
She'd worked me up so much I actually laughed.
My male cousin piled on underneath:
"Tracey's right. You struck it rich and now you can't stand to see the rest of us get ahead."
I answered:
"That's not it."
He shot back:
"Still making excuses?"
"I happen to know electric cars are the thing now. They've already grabbed more than half the market. Those gas cars sitting in your showroom won't sell at all."
"You'd rather let them collect dust than sell them to us. That's you not being able to stand to see us do well! Are you going to keep denying it?"
Tracey chimed in right after:
"Exactly. Our cousin's a college man, an educated person, he knows so much more than the rest of us. Everyone see that? If you won't believe me, at least believe the only college graduate this family's got."
The group chat flared up in outrage again:
"Clementine, this is really beyond the pale."
"Ungrateful little brat. How did we never see what a white-eyed wolf you'd turn out to be?"
"When she was little I even fed her wild boar. Never thought she'd be this ungrateful."
"I sent watermelons over to her family in the summer. Might as well have thrown them to the dogs."
I finally hit my limit and blew up:
"Have you people lost your minds, or has something possessed you?"
"A thousand dollars a car, you tell me where to buy them. Bring me ten thousand of them and I'll wire the money this second!"
"You can't even get a used car at that price!"
Tracey jumped in at once:
"Clementine, that's way out of line. We saw your business was struggling and we wanted to throw you some support, spend our own money to help you out."
"Not only are you not grateful, you say things like this in the group chat. Do you have a shred of conscience left?"
She wanted to drive me into bankruptcy, and she wanted me grateful for it too?
I was so furious I nearly ascended to heaven on the spot.
My hands shaking, I typed back:
"I don't need your support. Go buy from someone else."
I thought for a moment, then said it in the group chat one more time:
"Everyone, family and friends, I'll say it again, one more time. There is no such thing as a thousand-dollar car. This is all a rumor Tracey made up. I am not accepting these orders."
The chat exploded all over again.
But before long Tracey's husband, Jesse Gilbert, sent a message:
"Everyone quiet down for a second. I'm sure Clementine's just feeling emotional. Let me talk to him."
He called me privately soon after:
"Clementine, what is wrong with you?"
"That group chat is full of your relatives and elders. How can you talk like that?"
"Don't you even know the basics of respecting your elders?"
"And your cousin Tracey, she knew business has been slow for you lately, that's the only reason she's been running around trying to drum up sales for you."
"She just placed over three hundred orders for you all at once. That's more than three hundred thousand dollars in one go. Instead of thanking her, you turn around and viciously attack her. Is that something a decent person does?"
"Get in that group chat right now and tell everyone you were wrong, that you're willing to sell the cars at a thousand each."
"And apologize to your cousin on top of that. You'll give her a car for free as amends. Then I'll grudgingly forgive your overreaction and we'll call it even. Don't let it happen again!"
For a second I almost thought I was still dreaming.
Was three hundred thousand supposed to be a lot?
A single car in my showroom might run more than three hundred thousand on its own.
And he was actually claiming this was for my own good?
I was the one who had to apologize?
Was he insane, or was I?
I gave myself a hard pinch.
Confirmed this wasn't a nightmare, then said coldly to Jesse:
"You're a joke. I am not apologizing, and I don't need your forgiveness."
