Page 35 of For the Record

“But I’m not saying yes.”

Who was he kidding? Of course he was saying yes. And why wouldn’t he? Art knew I adored this place, and I refused to let it go.

I stood up and clasped my hands. “Thank you, thank you. You’re going to love it, old fart.”

“I’ve told you a hundred times to stop calling me that.”

Ignoring him, I squealed with excitement and reached for my keys. We’d closed down about an hour before, when Arthur had sat me down and said he was prepared to list the place by the end of the year. That timeline meant I had almost ten months to get to work on convincing him, and I knew exactly how I could do it.

Running out of the back door and through the gravel parking lot, I reached for my phone and immediately texted Calla, considering she was the marketing guru of the Wells family.

On a scale of one to ten, how difficult would it be to have you help me rebrand the record store?

Her response came in a moment later.

Calla: ARE WE WORKING ON SIP ’N’ SPIN??

Calla: A 3. Possibly a 2 if we can get Philly cheesesteaks on the job.

A smile broke out on my face as I tapped my feet in excitement. I knew she would be excited, since she was in the middle of getting her marketing degree. Calla was known to sign up for any projects involving branding or social media.

I climbed into my car, getting out of the light drizzle tapping against the door. Settling into the driver’s seat, I began to reply, but I was interrupted when my phone rang.

Adam.

Crap. I forgot to tell him I was running late.

We’d begun a sort of tradition. Well, I had, mostly. It consisted of me calling him every time I worked nights. He’d gone on some rant weeks ago about how many women go missing every year and the number of unsolved cases involving people who work late at night in big cities. My solution was to call him as I walked to my car and drove home. He refused to hang up until I got into my apartment. But that being said, it usually led to us talking for far longer than we meant to. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night on my couch, clutching and drooling on my phone.

“Hey,” I answered.

“You didn’t call,” Adam rasped out with panting breaths, like he was running.

“Sorry, my boss and I were talking for a while and, well, it’s kind of a long story.”

I couldn’t see him, of course, but I could feel him nodding across the line.

“Is he going to sell?”

That question was hard to answer. Convincing Arthur not to sell wasn’t going to be easy. It was borderline impossible, but it would be worth it. It wasn’t that I wanted the poor guy to work forever. I really wanted to show him the possibilities this place had. If he kept me as manager and truly let me take charge of rebranding and setting up this place so it practically ran itself by just implementing a few new systems, he wouldn’t have to work another day in his life. And he would keep his wife’s most valued treasure.

“I…don’t know.” A tiny piece of hope flickered at the thought of a yes. That hope was tiny but mighty, like I was. It was enough to push me through and inspire me to do the next right thing. That was all there was to do.

I lifted my shoulders. “But it’s possible. I’m going to work on an entire new branding shift. Calla is going to help, and between the two of us, I feel like we could convince him.”

The silence from Adam didn’t feel like his usual quiet nature. It felt daunting, like he was holding back. Each beat of stillness made me more uneasy about my plan until I broke the tension.

“Is that not a good idea?”

“No,” he supplied without hesitation. “It’s a great idea.”

“But?” I added, knowing there had to be a contradiction in there somewhere.

“But what happens if you spend all this time and energy, and he still says no?”

Truthfully, I hadn’t let myself get that far. It was more of a coping mechanism. A we’ll cross that bridge when we get there mindset to save me from dying out like a flickering flame. Right now, that was what I was in control of. That was all I could process, so that was what I was sticking to.

“Then…I’ll have done my best. But I can’t do that if I don’t try my all.”