Tempting My Best Friend

5

“Wonderful,” she sang with a bright smile. “Absolutely wonderful.”

Later, after we had finished our tea and I had said goodbye to Keiko, my gaze lingered on a framed photo in my office of me and my mom, taken about twenty years ago. My thumb brushed the frame, and I studied her young, smiling face, full of hope and optimism. This photo was taken by my dad on opening day of her restaurant, before everything went downhill.

That wouldn’t happen to me. I’d make sure of it. No one was going to grab the wheel from me. I’d learned my lesson, watching my parents.

I set the picture back down on my desk, locked up, and headed home to my tiny, crappy apartment. The rain and wind had stopped, and the air smelled saturated and earthy. I lived in the loft apartment of a house a few blocks from the restaurant. The landlord had subdivided a house into five different units and often rented to people who came to work in Queen’s Cove for the tourist season. I opened the door of my place and flicked the lights on. It was nearly one in the morning, and I could hear music from the downstairs neighbours through the floor. This summer’s tenants liked to party.

“Hello, s**t hole,” I murmured as I tossed my bag and keys on the counter of the pokey little kitchen. I had lived in this apartment my entire time in Queen’s Cove, and because of the cheap rent, had no intention of moving. I got what I paid for, though. There were water stains on the ceiling, the carpet was worn and thin, and I could practically hear my downstairs neighbours breathing. I’m sure they could hear every cough and sneeze from me, as well.

My stomach rumbled and I realized I left my dinner on the counter of the bar, back at the restaurant. I pulled my phone out and ordered a pizza.

After my stomach was full and I had showered, I crawled into bed. Keiko’s words replayed in my head, and I wiggled my toes with excitement. I grinned to myself in the dark. Finally, after all these years of hard work, I was going to buy the restaurant. This was my shot, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way.

2

Emmett

The construction site was bustling when I arrived. A couple weeks ago, the crews had been pouring the concrete foundation, but now the structure was up, and men and women in hardhats and steel-toed boots moved through the doorways with tools and drawings in hand. In three months, this site would open as the new Queen’s Cove community center.

“Hey, Emmett,” Sandra, one of our civil engineers, said as she passed. “Holden’s in the atrium.”

“Thanks, Sandra. How about that game last night?” I grinned at her, knowing she was devastated after her beloved hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, lost to the Vancouver Canucks in overtime.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she replied, making a mock sad face.

I laughed and waved goodbye before heading inside. As I passed through the site, I made note of the job progress. I spotted Holden and waved to get his attention before gesturing for him to follow me outside where it was quieter.

My brother Holden ran the construction side, and I was the business guy. Whereas he was on construction sites, managing the crews and working with contractors, I was in the office, taking care of the financials. Occasionally, our tasks would overlap, like when we needed to quote a big job, or when we met with potential clients. Holden wasn’t exactly a personable kind of guy. Out of the four Rhodes boys, he was the grouchiest. Wyatt and Finn were almost as personable at me. Almost. I was the charming one. I always had been. I liked people, liked talking to them and fixing problems and making people happy. Wyatt owned a surf shop and was training to go pro as a surfer and Finn was a firefighter, often spending summers around the province fighting wildfires.

Holden and I had made a name for ourselves in this town with Rhodes Construction. People were skeptical when I returned from university with an MBA and a degree in environmental science and convinced Holden to start a company with me. Two brothers, twenty-three and twenty-two, start a construction company with no clients? Good luck. But Holden had worked in construction for four years and saw how disorganized and low-quality our competitors were. I saw how climate change was affecting our planet and knew we had an opportunity to offer customers solutions that would save them energy and money. Rhodes Construction was born, and we haven’t looked back since. The first years weren’t easy, but we turned those skeptics around.

He had sent me a text this morning with two words: Call me. My brother was a man of few words, so I wasn’t concerned, and the job site was on my way to our office so stopping by was convenient. Also, I liked to walk our job sites, say hello to the crews, and show my face. Our business had grown from the two of us, but I didn’t want to be one of those guys who hid in the office while everyone did the work for them. That wasn’t leadership. Leadership was showing your face, knowing your employees, and knowing the ins and outs of your business.

“Everything okay?” I asked as we pulled the earplugs out of our ears.