5. We can’t take a vacation
Five
WE CAN’T TAKE A VACATION
Liv
“Yeah, I know, Pop, everything happens for a reason.” I haul open the doors of Bean & Brew.
My gaze instantly flies to the armchairs in the corner.
Empty. Viv had been on coffee duty since the Coffee Shop Hottie Incident a few weeks back.
She didn’t think she’d seen him, much to her disappointment, but it didn’t stop me from checking.
“Maybe you need to take some time off. Take a vacation,” Pop says.
“Vacation? Are you kidding? We can’t take a vacation. There’s too much to do.” The direction of this conversation is not what I need to hear right now.
“Livie, you haven’t taken a vacation since you and Viv started this company four years ago. You need time to rest. I’m worried about you,” he says.
“Why do you make it sound like I’m going through a terrible divorce and need to lie low for a while?” I ask, rolling my eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me.” I pull the phone from my ear and stare at it, then glance around the shop. He can’t see me, right?
“I can hear the eye roll in your voice. Let’s not forget who raised you.”
I haven’t forgotten. I think about it all the time.
“All I’m saying is there’s such a thing as working too much. You just spent the last however many weeks burning the candle at both ends, and you were shorthanded. It’s too much! You've got to take a break from time to time.”
I sigh into the phone. He gives me this speech sometimes, but I just don’t think he gets what it’s like to run your own business. There is no walking away—how would the work get done?
“Okay, Pop, I’ll think about it, alright?”
“That’s all I’m asking for, kiddo.” We say our goodbyes, and I make my way to where Viv sits by the window.
With a long bohemian skirt hemmed short enough to show off strappy sandals, and a lacy off the shoulder shirt, she looks better suited for the streets of Saint-Tropez than a New York City coffee shop.
Viv sees me and looks up from her phone, offering a small smile.
“You look pretty,” I say, slipping my bag from my shoulder and draping it over the back of my chair.
“Look good, feel good, am I right?” she says with a tilt of her head. “I ordered our usual. Claire is working on them.”
“You’re the best. What’s happening on your phone there that’s got you so focused?”
“My mother. She thinks we need a vacation.” Viv sighs, placing her phone face down on the table. Claire brings our coffees along with a flaky, buttery croissant for me, and a chocolate-filled croissant for Viv.
“Weird. I just talked to Pop about the same thing.” I pull up my shoulders and try to do my best impression of Pop’s raspy old voice.
“You've gotta take a break from time to time. Walk away and let your mind just be for a bit.” I let out a breath when I’m done, pick up my coffee, and blow the steam away.
“Shut the front door! Are you serious?” Viv furrows her eyebrows. She scoffs, picking up her phone and facing it toward me so her mother’s texts are visible. Right there, in front of my eyes, is almost precisely what Pop just said to me on the phone minutes ago.
“That sneaky son of a… They planned this assault, didn’t they?”
Viv stares at nothing, nodding her head, lost in thought. A brief contemplative silence falls between us as we peel off flakes of our croissants.
“Do you think they’re right? We haven’t been on any kind of vacation in years.
” Viv says, eyes bouncing between the people on the street outside the window.
Abruptly, she turns her attention to me, a wide and beautiful smile stretching across her face.
“Remember the last time we went to the Bahamas together before we started Liv + Viv? We got absolutely toasted and went to the resort’s nightclub to dance the night away, and then you disappeared with some guy from…
Where was he from?” She snaps her fingers, trying to remember.
“Nashville.”
“Nashville! Yes, yes. Anyway, I vaguely recall—in my drunken stupor—stumbling around looking for you, only to find you and Nashville getting frisky in the sand together! Ugh! That was a fun trip.”
“I don’t have any recollection of this.” I earn myself an incredulous glare.
“Fine. You know what I do remember? I remember feeling like I had sand in my lady bits for days. It was not comfortable. Ten out of ten, would not recommend. Beach sex is not worth that level of hassle. Also, can we please leave my sex life out of this? I don’t need any reminders of this current dry spell. ”
“How long has it been again?” She raises one eyebrow at me. “Maybe we need a vacation so you can get laid.” Viv points a piece of buttery croissant in my direction, then plops it in her mouth.
Unbelievable.
“What about you? When was the last time you had sex?” I throw an accusing look at her, fully expecting her lady cave to be collecting cobwebs just like mine.
She clears her throat, eyes darting to the window and then back to me. “Last night,” she says with a one-shoulder shrug. Cool as a cucumber.
“WHAT?” I whisper. “With whom?”
“The new guy who moved in on the floor below me.”
I rack my brain trying to remember if I knew about this. Concluding that I don’t, I launch into my investigation.
“When did he move in? What’s his name? How old is he?” I realize I’m hurling rapid fire questions at her, but I don’t care. I can’t believe she withheld this information!
I really look at her now, and sure enough, she’s got that my body was gloriously ravaged last night glow, which prompts my next question: “And was it good?”
She smiles and sighs. “It was very good. He moved downstairs about a month ago. I’m going to guess he’s in his mid-thirties, and I think his name is John. No, Joe. Jim? It’s something with a J.”
“You’ve been hooking up with the guy and you don’t know his name?” I’m being judgy, but mostly it’s because I’m jealous. Viv was off with a man between her legs last night, and I fell asleep spooning my cat.
“First, jealousy isn’t cute on you, so cut that shit out.
” She glares at me, sipping her coffee loudly because she knows I hate it.
“I see him often on the elevator because our schedules must be similar, and my radar has been picking up that there is definitely some chemistry and sexual tension between us. So, last night I went for it. It was the first time, and it wasn’t like I had to twist his arm.
We went back to my place, did wonderfully naughty things, and then I sent him home.
A girl’s got needs, Liv. I can’t even tell you how much better I feel today.
Releasing all that… tension? So needed.” Then she raises one eyebrow and cocks her head to the side.
“You’re doing your vagina a disservice keeping her locked in a cage. ”
“She is not locked in a cage! I just don’t have a hot neighbor I can meet on an elevator!” I whine, sounding like a toddler.
“I never said he was hot,” she says simply.
“Is he not?”
“He’ll do. You need to find yourself a booty call. It’s a game-changer.”
The meeting with the team of temps we hired to help with this project went as expected. While we ate the breakfast pastries Viv brought from Bean & Brew, we all shared in the disappointment of six weeks of hard work, planning, and prepping for a pitch that went down the drain.
Now I just feel… drained. I imagined our future, the possibilities. I allowed myself to plan for that future, only to find it’s still out of reach for Liv + Viv. My body feels heavy and my brain foggy.
I really should get something productive done.
“So, Claire recommended this cute little bed-and-breakfast—” Viv taps on my door frame, stopping in the middle of my office, looking at her open laptop balanced in her hand.
“What?”
“A B&B for a vacation,” she states matter-of-factly.
“You can’t really be considering this, can you?” Turning in my chair to face her, and planting an elbow on my desktop, I rest my chin between my thumb and pointer finger. Too tired to hold my head up on my own.
“I thought it was at least worth investigating. You know, take a little break from it all and regroup.” Viv sits and places her laptop on my desk, turning it to face me.
“We have a business to run. We can’t take a vacation, especially not now,” I say, glancing at her screen. The Huffman House, Maple Cove, New York.
“I don’t know. It might be nice to get away, though. Claire said it was super charming.”
I turn the laptop back toward her. “I don’t think the timing is right, Viv.” I bite the corner of my mouth, shaking my head. We need to build momentum again, not become complacent. Maybe I should check and see when the next networking conference is.
Viv’s voice breaks through the current of thoughts.
“Or—hear me out—it’s perfect timing. We keep the temps on for a little longer.
Cori can lead and totally handle everything.
Without the EdenReed deal, we are kind of on cruise control right now.
And if anything pressing comes up, it’s not like we can’t work remotely.
We will have our phones and laptops. We’re not going across the country—only four hours away or something like that.
” Viv must sense my next objection because before I can even open my mouth, she adds on, “Pop can take care of Sunny.”
I sigh. “You know Pop is allergic.” And I hate the idea of leaving him for any extended period.
“Well, then it’s your lucky day because this bed-and-breakfast allows pets. Sunny can just come with us.” Viv sits in my chair, hands pressed into a prayer in front of her. She’s giving me the ultimate puppy-dog eyes.
I push a breath through my teeth. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
“Good enough for me!” She pops out of the chair and snags her laptop on the way out the door.