“So, you know what we have to do,” Damon said. “We have to get out there and show them how likable we are too. Win people over now before she can start trying to turn them against us.”
“He’s right,” Ben agreed with a tip of his beer. “She’ll have a much harder time convincing them that we’re the bad guys if they all already know us as good guys.”
“This place is weird,” Joey stated finally, after having been so quiet. Though that was how he usually was in our talks and meetings.
But I knew exactly what he meant. In a big city, everyone seemed so separated. Every sale, purchase, project, deal...it all felt so faceless and nameless. Even if you did piss off a small group of people, there were tons more behind them who either disagreed or didn’t care. Suddenly, something about this small pool of people felt harder to conquer than where we came from. We would have to strategize and plan and play the game. For the first time since coming, I felt a rush of excitement similar to ones I had known back home. It was new, different, and refreshing, and finally, I felt into it.
“That’s what we’ll do then,” I replied to Damon. “We’ll charm our way right into the hearts of everyone in Cherry Falls. In fact, let's have some gifts put together to be sent to all the tenants. And also...now that we’ve made it here, let's open some champagne! We’ve been here a week and we haven’t celebrated yet!”
I could tell Ben wanted to be excited that I was finally acting like I was all in. But he hesitated. “Wait...You want to send them gifts...on the same day they’ll receive their notices about us raising their rent?”
“Trust me. They’ll think, ‘our last landlord never raised the rent. Oh but our last landlord never sent flowers and expensive chocolates’. Maybe throw in some gift cards too. It’s a new world!”
He didn’t look totally convinced. But we popped the champagne and raised our glasses anyway.
3
Delilah
Seeing Angel and Lizzy come strolling into my shop was just the thing I needed to distract me from my spiraling thoughts about what these Ransom Realty assholes meant for my store and my community. I sighed with relief at the sight of them and tossed my stack of unopened mail back down to the counter. Bills could wait.
“Hey, girl, did you get your gift basket yet?” Angel asked as she leaned over the register with Lizzy smiling over her shoulder.
“Gift basket? What? No.” I waved dismissively and headed for the back of the shop. “But I got some new things in that are perfect for you two. I’ve been dying to show them to you.”
They followed me with excitement and waited. I liked to think I carried a little something for everyone, but the benefit of getting to know me was that I was one hell of a personal shopper. I could handpick the perfect clothes and accessories once I had anyone’s style and personality down. Angel and Lizzy knew that better than anyone as my two best friends, so they knew they were in for a treat.
“All the local business owners are getting them,” Lizzy remarked as I rifled through my boxes of unshelved clothes.
“Getting what?”
“The gift baskets! We just came from the diner. The owners and all the managers got them.”
I didn’t know what they were talking about and didn’t really care. I was more concerned with the floral sheer robe I was pulling out for her, and the big sun hat and earrings I had found for Angel. They stood in front of the dressing room mirrors and let me start draping everything on.
“And for you...I have this sundress that would be perfect with this,” I said before darting off into the back to pull out more.
I heard the shop door chime as I rifled through storage, but Lizzy and Angel knew the shop well enough to greet customers and help them here and there. But when I came back out, I realized it wasn’t a customer at all. A delivery man was on his way out, having left behind an enormous basket.
“What’s that?”
“Haven’t you been listening to us!?” Angel shrieked. “Girl, your head must be in the clouds today. This is what we were trying to tell you about.”
“Sorry, I’ve been a little distracted lately with…”
Before I could begin venting to them about the looming nightmare of Ben and Nick, I was cut off by noticing the words embossed on the card that hung from the ridiculously oversized package of goods. It weighed at least twenty pounds and was from none other than the associates of Ransom Realty.
“Speak of the devils,” I murmured.
“Have you met them yet?” Lizzy asked. “I heard they were making the rounds yesterday.”
“Oh, I met them,” I scoffed. “Typical big city guys coming in to take over our little town. And they don’t give a damn about how it affects all of us who have lived here our whole lives. Now it seems they’re trying to win us over with gifts. I have half a mind to send this right back to them.”
Angel slumped and narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re crazy. Don’t send it back. I’ll take it if you don’t want it.”
“They have to know I won’t be bought,” I insisted. “And I have to set an example for the other owners. They’re all too nice and...well, a little naïve at times. I don’t want them becoming susceptible to a snake in the grass like Nick Ransom.”
But as I said it, we dug into the basket anyway. It was filled to the brim with a bottle of fine wine, breads and cheeses shipped in from New York, luxury bath products, and even a few gift cards for expensive places we didn’t even have around here.
“I’m keeping these though,” I said as I snatched them up. “I’ll use them to order some things online and resell them here in the shop. That’ll show them.”
“I hear they’re hot,” Lizzy noted as she and Angel started staking their claim over the assorted goods I left behind.
“Devils usually are,” I sighed, making my way back around to sorting the stack of mail waiting for me. “That’s how they get you. You’re so distracted by their good looks and expensive gifts that you don’t…”
Once again, I was cut off into speechlessness. Only this time it was from an envelope I had just opened, also embossed with that sickening Ransom Realties logo that I was already inclined to hate.
“Those bastards!”
Lizzy and Angel leaned in with concern, trying to read the letter from the other side of the counter.
“They’re raising my rent!”
They were quiet for a moment, but soon started in with a flurry of questions. “When?” “How much?” “Is that legal?” “Can you afford it?” And on and on. I barely heard any of it, and if I had, I wouldn’t have had the answers to at least half of it. Instead, I focused on snatching up everything scattered around from the gift basket. I shoved each and every last thing back inside and stormed out front to toss the whole damn thing into the garbage can on the street corner. It was a display to Nick Ransom and all of my neighbors to let them know that I wasn’t falling for it.
“The nerve,” I fumed as I marched back inside, picking up the letter again to study it more closely. “They think we’re just a bunch of dumb small town yokels who are stupid enough to fall for this! Oh, here’s a big basket of expensive stuff you don’t need...and by the way! We’re putting you out of business!”