Page 17 of The Overtime Persuasive

Eva chuckles.

I look at her. “Why are you laughing at me?”

“I’m not.” She reaches for the cinnamon graham crackers. “I agree with you about the cinnamon graham crackers. They’re a must.”

For a second, we smile at each other across the tray. Who knew cinnamon could be the common denominator?

“Why thank you, Eva.” I point at Lucy. “See? She understands the glory of autumn.”

Lucy holds up both hands in faux surrender. “My deepest apologies for bringing only the marshmallows, chocolate, and regular graham crackers. Clearly, I’ve contributed nothing.”

“Apology accepted.” I drop into the empty chair and spear a marshmallow onto one of the roasting sticks. Then I lean forward, resting my forearms on my knees as I hold it over the flames.

“Okay.” I glance at Eva. “What happened?”

She opens her mouth but shuts it a second later, her eyes rocking back to Lucy. “And he’s capable of helping me with this how?”

“Well,” Lucy starts, pointedly looking me up and down. “I know he presents as a mess, but underneath it all he’s pretty smart. He’s invested in two businesses…”

Eva’s eyebrows closely resemble a famous golden-arched “M” as they almost fly off her forehead. “Two? What two?”

“A gym, it’s not far from here,” I say, staring at my marshmallow as I turn it in the fire. “It’s small, caters to a niche crowd. And I also invested in a local non-alcoholic mocktail brand. I’m currently in discussions with a supplement line, too.”

Eva’s jaw drops so far it pretty much skims my lawn, all while Lucy cackles.

“I told you he’d be able to weigh in,” she sings triumphantly, only to have Eva toss a crumpled napkin at her head.

“If I can’t help, I can always ask my accountant.” I look at Eva, nodding my head encouragingly. “Come on. What’s going on?”

She sighs, then launches into her tale of woe, which has the same cadence and rhythm of the Wizard of Oz: City officials, and paperwork, and fines.

Oh my.

When she’s done she sits back and tilts her head to the sky, sighing. “And I know I could solve this by calling my dad, but I’m not going to do that, so, please. Do. Not. Suggest. It.”

She closes her eyes, and Lucy’s gaze finds mine. She points to the folder on the ground next to Eva.

“That’s got all the official paperwork in it.” Lucy snaps her fingers. “Hey, Eva, hand Liam your folder.”

Impressively, Eva doesn’t even open her eyes. Her hand drops to the ground, finds the folder on the pass, then hands it to me by holding it out in my general direction.

I lean over and take it from her, flipping through all the pages. The first document is official enough to make my eyes glaze over, followed by several more pages of calculations, dates, and tables designed by someone who has no desire for white space. I skim through everything once, then go back to the first page.

“Have you called them?”

Eva opens her eyes. “Who?”

“Discovery and Collections.” I tap the number at the bottom of the letter.

“Not yet.” She shakes her head. “Why?”

“Because this doesn’t say you have to pay the entire amount within ten days. It says you have to pay in full or contact them.”

She leans forward. “I read that.”

“You read it while imagining your life collapsing. The word ‘or’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this letter.”

“Huh.” Lucy eyes the document in my hands, skimming it. “He’s right.”