I Said Yes to My Bully

"I heard from Tina Gresham that the leasing manager at your mall is a relative of yours?

"I want to open a shop. A coffee shop.

"There's a unit for lease on the third floor, right next to the movie theater. Could you put in a word with your relative and get the rent down a bit?"

Chelsea Ruddock said it as though it were a given, like I owed her something.

For three years of high school, she had thrown my gym clothes into the boys' bathroom, dumped chalk dust into my backpack and doused me with cold water in the middle of winter.

Now she sat across from me, grinning and ordering me around without the slightest hint of embarrassment.

I looked at her and said flatly, "Mall units are hard to make work."

"How? The foot traffic is huge."

"The management is a pain, the rent is high and have you done the math on all the fees they take out?"

She opened her mouth but had nothing to say.

"You'd be better off with a street-front space." I narrowed my eyes slightly.

She blinked. "Street-front?"

"Yeah. The rent's cheaper, you set your own hours and there are plenty of good spots."

Her eyes lit up. "You know of one?"

"I do."

I pulled up a photo on my phone and slid it across the table. "The corner of Halbrook Avenue and Linley Street. It used to be a breakfast diner, but they just moved out."

She picked it up, and her whole expression changed. "This place? It gets crazy foot traffic! The last time I walked by, I was literally thinking it'd be perfect for a coffee shop!"

She looked up at me, her voice climbing a couple of notches. "Kara, you're a true friend."

I said nothing and took a sip of my coffee.

A true friend? Of course I was a true friend! I would never forget those three years for as long as I lived!

The next day, I went with her to see the space. She stood in the doorway, gesturing with both hands as she planned where the prep counter would go, where the register would go, and where she would put up a neon selfie wall.

"What do you think?" She turned to me, her eyes shining.

"Good location."

I had grown up on the street right behind it and had walked past this corner for over 20 years. Ever since I was six and old enough to remember, the sign over this unit had never stopped changing.

A barber shop lasted seven months. A hardware store lasted five, a small grocery store ten, a fruit stand four, a deli eight and a hot wings place six.

The dry cleaner had lasted 11 months, the longest of them all. On the day the owner moved out, he stood outside for half an hour cursing the landlord as a heartless bastard.

Chelsea knew none of this. Her head was full of coffee, viral shops, lines out the door and more money than she could count.

"Kara, how much is the rent?" she asked, tugging at my sleeve.

"It's 8,000 dollars a month. Two months' deposit and three months' rent upfront."

She frowned slightly. "Huh, 8,000. That's less than half of what the mall wanted, but it's not exactly cheap either."

"The location's worth it."

She nodded, took out her phone, and called the landlord. The voice on the other end belonged to a middle-aged man who sounded perfectly polite. Chelsea called him "honey" right off the bat, her voice so sweet it could rot teeth.

After she hung up, she said the landlord had told her several people were already asking about the space, so she needed to lock it in fast.

"Then lock it in," I said.

She hesitated and bit her lip. "Kara, do you really think I can make this work?"

I looked at her. If she had asked me that ten years earlier, I would have given her an honest answer. Now, I only wanted to tell her what she wanted to hear.

"Weren't you full of ideas back in high school?" I said. "If you were that creative about picking on people, running a shop should be a breeze."

A moment of silence followed. She stared at me, her expression a little stiff. I stared back without smiling or explaining.

Then she laughed first, a little awkwardly. "Oh my gosh, you still remember all that? I was so immature back then. Don't take it to heart."

I smiled and said nothing.