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She nodded. “Yes, this is awesome, thank you. What do we owe you?”
“Literally nothing, you’re doing me a favor by helping me expand my portfolio. I’m already nervous enough about art school this fall with nothing really to show for it except my yearbook designs.”
Jess rolled her eyes. “Fine. But only if you promise to never, ever work for free again. You are an artist now and you deserve to be paid what you are worth.”
Rory’s cheeks went pink. “Well, I don’t know about that.”
“Seriously, promise me.”
Rory glanced up at her and after a beat, agreed. “Okay, Mom, I promise.”
“I hate when you children call me that.”
“But we’re your children,” Rory said, flinging her free arm around Jess’s shoulders.
Jess grumbled a few curses as Rory squeezed tighter. “What’s the bad news?”
Rory stiffened. She released her hold and looked at her screen. “Okay, don’t freak out.”
A few taps later, Rory hesitated, then turned her laptop toward Jess and Kevin. It was a Haverport community group on Facebook, and at the top was a long post from an unrecognizable username followed by paragraphs that had Jess’s head spinning. She sucked in a sharp inhale when she scanned the first line at the top.
Who does she think she is?
“What is this,” Kevin mumbled, his breath ghosting her ear. She didn’t realize how close he’d stepped.
Jess ignored him and read.
Here in Haverport we are proud of our small businesses. We thrive on taking care of one another, of making sure our local business owners succeed. So why would we allow for someone with such limited experience to open a business that would directly compete with Grampy’s, our town’s most precious jewel? At least Seabreeze partners with Grampy’s to sell his baked goods in their café. But Port Wheels’ newest bakery will be in direct competition. Is it her goal to drive him out of business?
Not only is she leaving Scoops high and dry, taking all of her cake customers with her, but her absence at Post Road Market is also telling. She’s stealing business away from our beloved establishments without a care in the world.
Hopefully it won’t last; her father’s business dealings may be telling enough. If the lifeline that is Charlie Sullivan III hadn’t appeared all those years ago, Cap’s Boatyard would’ve ceased to exist. If the saying “like father, like daughter” is true, maybe this won’t be something we’ll have to worry about at all.
Needless to say, Haverport: spend your money wisely on the people who are actually there for you. Not the people with a greedy hand in your pocket.
Callused fingers brushed her shoulders from behind, squeezing them tight. “Jess.”
“How could someone possibly post this?” Rory whispered. The girl had tears in her eyes.
“Because it’s controversial and moronic,” Jess said flatly. She pointed to the hundreds of likes and comments below the post. “This is the kind of shit that gets attention.”
“But it’s awful. Like, truly insane. Yours is a business in town, too. Why would they not support you?”
Jess swept an arm toward the front windows, toward Main Street. “Because we are directly competing, and if you haven’t noticed, we don’t have doubles of the same kind of businesses in town. Capitalism doesn’t exist here.”
“But Grampy’s isn’t just a bakery. He sells sandwiches and deli meats and—”
“Rory, I knew this was coming,” Jess explained, her voice calm despite the crushing sensation in her chest. “There was a reason why my boss at Post Road didn’t want to keep the bakery open. Competition in this town is like this evil sin. We knew we were going against the grain when we decided to open.”
Rory let out a jagged exhale. “Okay. Anything you need me to do?”
“Just send us the files for the logo. You’ve already done so much.”
“You sure?”
Kevin dropped his hands, and she found herself missing their grounding weight. “Rory,” he started, “could I pay you to write Jess’s menu on that chalkboard? Make it look nice and pretty, maybe draw the logo somewhere on it?”
Jess exhaled, thankful that he was taking some initiative.
