Page 2 of Cupid
He clapped my shoulder and gave me a bit of a shake. “I’m sorry for your loss, Jude. But I’m sure you’ll find a way to make something good come of this.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I gripped that envelope to my chest, afraid the wind might carry it away.
I watched in silence as he turned and walked away. “Thanks, Doris. You have no idea how grateful I am for knowing you.”
* * *
“Jude, I’m telling you, it’s a great idea.” Orion, my cousin and purveyor of all great ideas, was insistent as usual.
“I agree that it’s probably a good idea. But I just don’t wanna live with anyone. I’ve spent the last four months fixing up this house, and now it’s really starting to feel like it’s mine. The idea of inviting some stranger into it just feels wrong.”
Orion scoffed. “How does the idea of starving to death sound? Because you’ve used up all the money Doris left you, so unless you plan to commute sixty miles each way to town every day, what are your options?”
“I don’t have any.” I sighed heavily into the phone, staring down at the property tax bill in my hands. As much as I wanted to ignore the situation, that wasn’t going to make it better. “This bill is due in a few months. If I can’t come up with a way to pay it, I’ll lose everything.”
“You’re not gonna lose everything, but you may have to sell the house if you aren’t willing to get creative.”
My stomach turned at the idea. I just couldn’t imagine selling the house Doris left me. “I love it here. And Doris clearly wanted me to keep it.” My level of self-loathing took on a new depth. “She trusted me with the only thing that mattered to her in this world, and I blew it.”
“You didn’t blow it.” Orion was getting frustrated with this conversation. We’d had this same conversation many times over the past week and a half since I got the letter from the tax department. “You did what she asked you to do. Now you have to make something of it. If you don’t want a long-term renter, how about making it a B&B? Oceanfront property is the perfect getaway. You could either rent the whole house for a long weekend and come stay with me whenever it’s rented or just rent the open bedroom when people are looking for some quiet time away. I bet you can make some decent money pretty quick.”
The property tax due was $1200. Which was about $1100 more than I could scrounge up from my savings and checking accounts put together. “Will that be enough?”
“I’m checking.” I could hear Orion typing on his laptop before he whistled through his teeth. “There’s nothing available right near you, but about seventeen miles down the coast, a room in a similar cabin is going for $500 a night. If you rent the whole house, you could probably get that whole tax bill paid in a single weekend.”
I laughed at the absurdity of that. “There’s no way that’s possible.”
Orion took a deep breath, and I could tell he was counting in his head, trying to be patient with me. “Just let me try. I’ll post the listing and see what happens. If you get a renter who’s willing to fork over that much money, will you come stay with me for a couple days while they stay there? You and I could have a boys weekend.”
He was ridiculous, but humoring him was usually the only way I could get him to shut up, so I just went with it. “Fine. If you can get at least $1200 from a couple nights in my house, go for it. You have all the pictures I’ve sent of the upgrades, so just let me know when someone’s ready to show up.” Which would be never.
He laughed. “Oh, ye of little faith. I’m not even gonna charge you a commission on this first one. After that, we’ll discuss my fees.”
“Gladly. But I gotta go. The timer for my brownies is going off, and I don’t like burnt edges.”
“I know, I know. The gooeyer the better. Later, Cuz.”
“Later. “ I planned to worry about my money issues the next day. Tonight was a Netflix and brownies night.
TWO
ARROW
I crumpled up the piece of paper in my hand and tossed it into the wastebasket.
And missed.
Wasn’t that just my damn luck? Not only was I staring at the news I’d heard would be coming, but it was my turn to do what I dreaded doing.
I was being forced to take a vacation.
As part of the sleigh team, I was being subjected to a fun new rule called mandatory vacation. We’d been hearing about the rule going into effect in Santa’s Village for months. Granted, most of us hadn’t taken it seriously. But one by one, we were being assigned vacation dates if we hadn’t already selected one.
And mine was coming up.
Apparently, I had three days to plan a vacation of some sort or face consequences. I didn’t read the whole letter to find out exactly what those consequences were, and they didn’t technically require we leave town, but there was no way I’d sit around the village for a week and not do any work. It just wasn’t possible.
So I knew what I had to do.
