I saw Michelle come out of the house with a smile. She’d seen the car and assumed Kitten was with me. Then she saw it was just me. Then she saw the look on my face. The smile vanished.
“I guess you’re not happy about the job offer,” she said.
“What on Earth are you thinking of offering her that job? You want her to quit school?” I said, walking towards her.
There was probably a tactic to take when trying to discuss something with Michelle. Confrontational wasn’t it.
“You’re pissed with me? You’re getting everything you could ever want. She’s going to drop out of school, go to work with us, make money, and stay home with you. She’ll probably be married and knocked up inside a year. You should be fucking thanking me!” she yelled back.
“I don’t want her to be married and knocked up inside a year. I want her to go to school and get her degree. And you’re now fucking that up with this bullshit job offer,” I yelled back.
Ahmed had heard the yelling and came out of the house. He saw the two of us closing in on each other, had a deeply alarmed look on his face, and came running out between the two of us.
“Michelle! Ben! Both of you, enough!” he said. It was as angry as I’d ever heard him sound.
“You think because you have a cane I won’t kick your ass?” she fired back.
I took another step closer. I didn’t yell, but they could both hear me.
“You know what I’ve been through,” I said. “Do you think I’m even a tiny bit scared of you?”
“Ben, please. We’re friends here. Please,” he said to me.
I paused and shook my head. For ages, Meg was worried I was going to go to town on someone with my cane because I had temper issues after the accident. I thought she was exaggerating things. Then I realized just how hard I was clutching the cane and how volatile the situation was. I took a deep breath and deliberately relaxed my grip on the cane. I took a step back and leaned against my car.
“Why on Earth did you offer her that job?” I said, in a calmer voice. “You know she’s been stressed and upset about having to leave me and go back to Montreal. And then you throw this thing at her. And in the short term, it looks great. But it costs her something she’s dreamed about for years. She will grow to resent giving up chasing that dream in the coming years. So that’s awesome. Well done. Thanks for throwing a metric tonne of unnecessary drama into our lives.”
Michelle looked like she was about to go off again when Ahmed continued to be a peacemaker.
“Ben, it’s a sincere offer. She’s great at her job. The costumes she makes get a huge response. With planning we think we can grow that side of our business and she’ll be a huge part of that,” he said.
Now that the anger was easing up a bit, I began thinking more clearly and certain things began clicking into place. Little things that Kitten had told me about what it was like working for them. Bit and pieces of knowledge from my previous life working for the government. You meet just about every kind of human in government, good or bad. Suddenly, I had an idea what was going on here. And my anger that they were randomly messing up our lives became something colder.
Kitten had called them hustlers at the beginning of the summer. Maybe she’d forgotten about that. She had started to look at them as friends who paid her, instead of employers that treated her well. But employers almost always looked after themselves first.
Hell, who was I to judge Kitten? I’d been so grateful they’d given her the job that I hadn’t looked twice or complained.
“Ok,” I said. “So she’s still going to make the same amount of money after she quits school and comes to work for you, right? No pay cut at all?”
Both of them looked a bit startled by the shift. I’d gone from rage about her quitting school to negotiating about salary. But they were using good cop/bad cop on me so some turnabout seemed fair.
“Well, there may have to be some small reduction in her pay,” he said.
“Of course,” I said. “Because the federal student grant money you’ve been using to top up her salary comes to an end when the summer is over. Also, if she’s not a student, it’s hard to tap into that fund. Naturally, you told her about that when you made the offer, right Michelle?”
“I… may not have told her yet,” she said. At least she had the decency to look a little embarrassed.
“Ah. And naturally, you have an extensive plan on how to break into the cosplay market, because it’s a crowded field. I assume it goes beyond ‘stick it on Etsy and hope for the best.’ I used to work with the provincial government. I’ve seen lots of business plans over the years. You don’t mind if I take a look at your plans, right? I might be able to think of a few things to add.”
Again, sheepish looks. God damn it.
“Ben, we’re excited about the prospects. Her work gets a huge response when people see it or when we sell it online. We did well at the last con. We think this could work,” he said.
“But you have no plan on how to make it work,” I said. Fact, not question.
“Ben…”
“No, we don’t have one of your ‘plans’,” Michelle said. “But I like to think after all these years building what we have, we might have fucking clue what we’re doing.”
I stopped leaning against the car and started walking towards them again. Calmer, this time.
“Do you know how many people make cosplay online? I literally can’t count. There’s so much competition. You need every edge you can get. Like maybe a degree from a respected fashion school with a reputation of having its students work in movie and tv productions.
“Her dream is to walk through a comic con one day and see a little girl run past her in a costume she designed. Not made and sold to her. That she created for a movie, and this kid spent hours doing what she did as a kid… studying it, sketching it, and fumbling around trying to recreate it. All because she saw something on the screen she fell in love with.
“That’s what you’re taking from her. In your scenario, she works for you and in five years she’s made you some money and she’s getting ready to make her 300th Harley Quinn costume. Maybe she has a couple of kids at home to deal with afterwards. It’s an ok life.
“Or your plan doesn’t work and in six months she gets laid off. Or has to go back to doing wedding photos and feels like an idiot for dropping out of school because now she’s stuck with a job she hates,” I said.
Ahmed had the grace to look a little sheepish. Michelle did not.
“I had to make my choices. It’s part of growing up. We’re helping her out. She should feel grateful. You could be a little fucking grateful too. After another two years at school, she might find a guy her age and dump your ass.
“But no, she’ll probably graduate, be in debt, and still end up coming back here to work for us. She’ll get married and have babies because she’s that nuts for you. That Hollywood dream of hers is already dead.”
The anger-fueled energy I had for this confrontation was all but gone at this point. I wasn’t going to convince them that what they did was a bad idea. On the other hand, I think I knew how to convince her to go back to school. So the trip here wasn’t a complete waste of time.
I sighed and looked at my watch. If she woke up at her usual time, I had maybe 45 minutes. That should be enough time for a run into town to get bagels before she woke up. If I hurried. Warm bagels were always a good peace offering.
“Are we done now?” Michelle said. I’d found her brashness and general cutting humour to be amusing since we met her. Being on the receiving end of it made me appreciate that she could also be extraordinarily unpleasant.
“Does she still have the job?” I asked.
That seemed to throw them. “Yes,” Ahmed said. “Of course.”
“If she decides this is what she wants to do, I have her back 100%. You will make this work. If you do anything to mess this up, I will be unpleasant to deal with. Fair?” I said.
Michelle looked like she wanted to tell me to go fuck myself, but Ahmed nodded his head. “Ok,” he said. She had a look on her face that indicated the two of them were going to have an unpleasant conversation after I left.
Good. I was having a shitty morning. I couldn’t whack something with my cane, I could at least spread the emotional misery around. I got in my car without saying another word. I half expected a final parting shot from Michelle, but we’d both said our piece.
Now I just hoped I could get bagels in time.
***
I came home, quietly opened the door, and made my way towards the kitchen in what I thought was stealth mode so I didn’t wake up Kitten. When I turned the corner, there was a very cranky-looking little girl in a Batgirl nightshirt waiting for me.
So much for that plan.
“Please tell me that you didn’t go and yell at Michelle and Ahmed and you’re now trying to buy me off with bagels,” she said.
Busted. Kitten had picked up a little trick from Meg over the last few months. Meg explained to her that in court she rarely asked a question if she didn’t already know the answer. It was always much worse when you caught someone lying.
So clearly she already knew, because Michelle probably sent a text. I placed the bagels on the island close to her and hoped the smell might distract her. I pulled out a couple and went to get some cream cheese for me and strawberry jam for her. I didn’t fancy another fight, but I was hungry and there was no way I was doing it on an empty stomach.
“I may, on the way to get some of these bagels, stopped in to have a chat with them,” I said.
“I am so mad with you right now, Daddy,” she said. The bagel was not wooing her yet. “I am prepared to come and live with you, take things to the next step, and you blow it off. Then you go and pick a fight with my boss, and maybe cost me this job. What is wrong with you?”
“Your job is safe,” I said, taking a bite. Christ these were good bagels.
“Michelle is furious with you right now. She used the word ‘asshole’ about a half dozen times when she called.”
“Yes, but she didn’t take back the job offer, did she?”
“No, she said it was still there if I wanted it. But I should consider myself lucky to still have it. Are you trying to fuck this up, Daddy? Don’t you want me to stay here?” Kitten asked, fuming.