Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 86158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
I laughed. “Why? I have to pay someone to work, might as well be you.”
“You still should have told me! What the hell is it with you and keeping secrets? We tell each other everything, you jerk.”
“It’s different now,” I said easily. “You and Draco are a unit.”
“You’re still my best friend.”
“I know that,” I replied, taking my phone back. “I just wanted to fix it before I told you how bad it was. Like, hey guess what happened, but don’t worry, I figured it out.”
“If I didn’t want to know who the hell is spreading this shit so bad, we’d be having a much longer conversation,” she said angrily as I tried to get into the community page again.
I shook my head. “I thought I’d gotten it all figured out,” I said, glancing at her. “I talked to Tommy today and he’s going to rent me the spot on that store property near the club.”
“That’s awesome!”
“Yeah, he’s putting in a health food store and it would’ve been a great place—but not if everyone thinks my shop is a fucking health hazard,” I said, my stomach sinking. “I thought it was just a traffic issue because I couldn’t figure out why the sales were so bad. You know all those hippies are on the community app—it doesn’t matter if my drinks are organic and vegan if they think we—”
“We’ll fix it,” she said, gesturing to my phone. “Hurry up and sign in.”
It took me two more tries before I finally figured out my password, and when I put Coffee Now—yeah, Mal wasn’t real original—into the search bar, more than ten posts popped up.
“Has anyone been to Coffee Now lately?” I read out loud. “I went to another place today and one of the girls who used to work there said it’s really bad. Like, disgusting, since it was sold to the new owner.” I looked at Kara. “One of the girls that used to work there?”
“Mary fucking Jones,” Kara hissed, leaning closer to my phone.
“Or Tabitha,” I replied, rage boiling just under the surface. I set my phone down on the couch and walked completely away from it. I couldn’t afford to buy a new one if I threw it across the room.
“Because you fired them?” Kara asked in disbelief. “These people must know its sour grapes!”
“Clearly not,” I replied, pulling my fingers through my hair. “Did you see how many comments there are on those posts? Jesus Christ.”
Kara picked up my phone and started scrolling. “The girl says she quit because her conscience wouldn’t let her serve people anymore. Oh, that cunt.”
“Not that I fired her because she was never on fucking time,” I yelled at the ceiling. “I wonder which one it is.”
“I bet it’s Mary,” Kara said, scrolling through the posts.
“I’d be surprised if Tabitha isn’t the one doing the heavy lifting,” I muttered. “She’s the one who never has anything nice to say about anyone.”
“Yeah,” Kara said, her eyes still on the phone. “But she does it behind people’s backs. This is just blatant out in the open lying. This says you switched the cups because rats had eaten through all the old ones and they were unusable.”
“We ran out of the old cups and the new ones were cheaper and biodegradable!”
“Well, I know that!”
“This is un-fucking-believable,” I said, laughing darkly. “I mean, it makes so much sense now—but holy shit. I cannot believe this.”
“It’s pretty fucking brave,” Kara said angrily. “Does she think we’ll just let her keep—”
“They’ve been doing this for months,” I said, cutting her off. “And we had no fucking clue. Whoever it is probably thought I was too chickenshit to do anything about it.”
“Well, what are you going to do now?” Kara asked. “You should comment on every single one of these posts.”
“No,” I replied, taking the phone back. “Don’t say anything.”
“Well, you have to tell people that none of this is true!”
“I’m not getting into a pissing match on the internet,” I replied, shaking my head. “Then I look as bad or worse than they do. How unprofessional. I can’t play into it.”
“You have to do something,” Kara argued. “Someone just posted about you again, yesterday.”
“I know,” I replied, tossing my phone onto the couch. “I’m just not sure what.”
“This is libel,” Kara said stubbornly. “You should sue.”
“Neither of them have any money,” I replied, laughing. God, what a nightmare. “What coffee shop did your friends say they heard someone talking about us?”
“That little place off the highway by the gas station,” Kara replied. “I don’t remember what it’s called.”
“Morning, Joe?” I asked, trying to picture the place.
“Yeah, actually,” Kara replied. “How the hell did you remember that?”
“Mal knew all the owners of the shops around town. I think I have that guy’s number.”
“Oh, man,” Kara said gleefully. “Call him.”
“I think I will,” I replied. I jogged upstairs to my room and pulled out the small notebook that Mal had given me when she turned over the business. Inside were names and numbers that she’d thought I might need. Everyone from other small business owners to suppliers and two different garbage companies, just so I’d have options.