4: 4
4
I hadn't forgotten.
Three years ago, Leila and I both got dumped at the same time, and we holed up in my rented apartment drinking ourselves numb.
Leila cried that no man was worth anything, that from then on it would just be the two of us, saving up, buying a place, leaning on nobody.
After that, I threw myself into every job I could get, cutting corners on everything, saving.
The plan was a place of my own first, then a car.
So if one day Leila got played by some man again, at least she'd have somewhere to fall back on, a home.
But while I was saving, what was Leila doing?
Dating, swapping boyfriends, spending money on her in-laws.
Every time she called it "the last time."
And every time I believed her. Now Leila was bringing up that old pact again.
Suddenly it struck me as funny, and I asked her:
[Save up and buy a place? How much have you saved?]
It was a while before Leila replied.
[I just never managed to put anything aside, you know my expenses are high.]
High expenses?
I remembered the watch she bought Nathaniel last year, over three thousand dollars.
Last month, for her mother-in-law's birthday, she handed over an eighty-eight-hundred-dollar cash gift.
On my birthday, I didn't even get a text.
I opened my banking app and glanced at the balance.
Eight hundred thousand. Four-plus years of saving. I'd meant to go look at places by year's end, but there didn't seem to be much point in that now.
Leila kept hammering me:
[Vinnie~ help me out, please.]
I replied:
[Fine.]
Help, of course I'd help. And I'd do it beautifully, and take back everything I'd swallowed all these years, principal and interest.
Then, in the group chat, I replied to her aunt.
[Come see the space tomorrow.]
Right after that I called my supplier, Don.
[Don, cancel all the holiday orders.]
Don didn't quite get it.
[Cancel everything? The holiday weekend's when you make the most money!]
I answered wearily:
[I'm tired. I want to take a few days off.]
Believe me, I knew a seven-day holiday could pull in as much as a normal month. But against a headache the size of Leila, what was one month's take?
Don didn't push it, just told me to rest up and hung up.
Then I opened the kitchen management system and deleted every purchase order for the holiday weekend, one line at a time.
Then I dug out a number and dialed.
[Building management? This is the owner of Starmoon Diner. We'll need the water and power shut off for maintenance over the holiday weekend, so I'd appreciate your cooperation.]
I hung up and opened the surveillance app.
A hundred and twenty cameras.
Kitchen, dining room, register, entrance, hallways, storeroom, full coverage, no blind spots.
I set every one of them to remote motion-alert mode.
In the Starmoon Diner group chat, I sent each employee a hundred-dollar bonus, marked as vacation.
[Paid time off. Go home and get some real rest.]
A few of the newer hires were thrilled, all tagging me to say they'd finally have time to travel, and they'd bring me back a whole box of local goodies.
See. Spend money on strangers and they'll remember you fondly.
Spend it on Leila, and it's money down the drain.
I also booked a flight across the country to the West Coast. I'd gotten my documents sorted long ago, I'd just been too busy chasing money to ever go.
Now, it was time I gave myself a vacation too.
