3: 3

3

"Clementine Henson!"

My refusal had lit a fuse in Jesse. His voice came shouting down the line:

"Don't act like I don't know why you're going after Tracey. It's because I chose her instead of you, isn't it?"

"You've had a thing for me all along, and you can't stand that she got to be my wife, so now you're deliberately making her life hard!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I asked,

"Jesse, don't you think a little too highly of yourself?"

"Am I wrong?" Jesse said. "You won't admit it unless I put the proof right in front of you?"

I asked,

"Then go ahead, show everyone your proof!"

Jesse said, unhappy,

"Every time you look at me, there's longing in your eyes. If that's not proof, what is?"

I was stunned.

When had I ever looked at him with longing?

Was there something wrong with him?

Jesse's voice came again:

"You're too shy to say it out loud, but I see all of it. I just don't call you out on it."

I shook my head.

"You're imagining things. There's nothing to it."

Jesse gave a little laugh.

"Be good, stop making a scene. Worst case, once this is over I'll agree to have dinner with you."

"And if that's not enough, I can even stay the night at your place."

"So it's settled."

That was the end of my patience.

"Jesse, you narcissistic freak. Who do you think you are!"

With that, I hung up on him.

I figured that after a mouthful like that, even Jesse would be too embarrassed to say another word.

But not a minute later, he posted in the group chat:

"All you aunts and uncles, family and friends, I've worked it out with Clementine Henson. End of the month, bring your money and we'll all go pick up the cars together."

The group broke into cheers at once:

"That's our Jesse. One move and it's handled."

"Jesse and Tracey, you two are the good ones. Come to my place for the holidays and you'll sit at the head of the table. When Clementine shows up, she can sit at the kids' table."

"That's exactly how it should be. A few years in the city, a couple of stores, and she thinks she's something. One word from Jesse and she's selling to us like a good girl after all."

"Hmph, if she'd just agreed this easily to begin with, she wouldn't have had to drag it out and be such a pain."

"If you ask me, she's got a little money now and looks down on us. Has to put on airs, like we're the ones begging her."

"Jesse and Tracey are still the best."

"It just hit me, we need money at the end of the year to replace the fridge. That thousand for the car, let me owe it for now and I'll pay it back in a while."

"Same here, my family's short on cash too. I'll bring an IOU then."

Reading their shameless little messages, I finally snapped and typed back:

"I'll say this one last time. There is no thousand-dollar car, and I never agreed to any of this with anyone."

"Whoever said yes, go buy your cars from them!"

The second I sent it, I left the 'One Big Happy Family' group.

But less than half an hour later, Grandpa Henson called, cursing the moment I picked up:

"Clementine Henson, what is wrong with you, girl? They tell me they want to come to your store and give you their business, and you're not even willing?"

"You get a little money and suddenly your uncles aren't good enough for you?"

"You've disappointed me. How did our Henson family end up with an ungrateful little snake like you?"

"You go apologize to them right now, this instant, or don't blame me when I strike you from the family records!"

He tore into me the moment he opened his mouth, never gave me a chance to explain, and the line was already dead.

I held down the rage in my chest.

Family?

Family records?

What a joke.

Since you're all so set on driving me into bankruptcy.

Then let's find out who the lamb led to slaughter really is!

4: 4

4

I put down my phone, got in the car, and drove to the dealership.

The manager came into my office.

"Ms. Henson, sales have been a little slow lately. But don't worry, I've already been working on some ideas."

I looked at him calmly.

"Technology keeps advancing. Electric cars have taken half the market, and gas car sales are sliding across the board. What ideas could you possibly have?"

The manager lowered his head.

I shook my head.

"Right now, I need you to do four things."

"Which four?" he asked.

I said,

"First, at the end of the month, close our other locations for a day. Every salesperson and staff member reports to this store."

"Second, call in the loan officers from the major national banks."

"Third, by the end of the month, have no fewer than ten security guards on hand. No, at least a hundred."

"Fourth, call the manufacturer and have some cars sent over to this store. Five hundred of them, and every one a model over two hundred thousand dollars."

The manager stared at me.

"Huh?"

"Huh, what?" I said, displeased. "Why aren't you on it already?"

He looked at me, stunned.

"You really want that many cars? Right now everyone's scrambling just to unload inventory, and you want to bring in that many at once, all high-end models? We'll never sell them!"

I didn't feel like explaining. "Don't ask. Just go do it."

Seeing I wasn't joking, the manager had no choice but to agree and go make the arrangements.

The last day of the month.

Sure enough, Tracey and Jesse showed up leading a whole crowd of relatives, along with relatives of relatives, and relatives of relatives of relatives.

Hundreds of them, pouring in like a tide.

The sight was so overwhelming it left every salesperson in the store wide-eyed.

"Excuse me, are you all here to buy cars?"

Tracey pushed to the front.

"Obviously. What, you think we came to gawk at you, you little tramp?"

Jesse chimed in.

"See all these people behind me?"

"One car each, and they'd better be good ones. Don't try to fob us off with your cheap models!"

When the store manager saw all this, he seemed to understand something.

He set the sales staff to attending them and came up to my office.

I was sitting in the upstairs office, watching the security feed.

The manager came in and said,

"Ms. Henson, there are a few hundred people out there. They say each of them wants to buy a car."

I smiled calmly.

"If they want to buy cars, of course we'll sell to them."

"But no discounts. Everyone goes through the normal process."

The manager seemed to get it.

"Now I understand those four things you had me set up. I'll go take care of it right away!"

Downstairs was in an uproar.

Hundreds of people, like a crowd at a county fair.

"This one's not bad."

"Yeah, I'll take this one."

"I want an SUV."

"I want something bigger, good for hauling."

"I need two cars, one for me and one for my wife."

"Don't be stingy. I'll just take five. My parents, my son, everyone in the family gets one."

They picked out cars, all smiles.

The salespeople kept busy handling them.

It went on until evening, and when everyone had finished the paperwork and reached the last step of paying,

every door of the dealership suddenly closed, and over a hundred security guards appeared on all sides.

The manager stepped forward, raised a megaphone, and called out,

"Thank you all for your business. Together you've bought four hundred and five cars, for a total of one hundred twenty-eight million, two hundred sixty-three thousand dollars."

"Please line up and come pay by card right here."

"If you didn't bring enough, step over to the counter beside me and set up an installment plan."

"The bank loan officers are standing by for you as well."