All About Us (LT One shot books)

Despite everything

Larry was sitting on the couch in the living room of his small apartment, his hair curled into a fist and biting his bottom lip. Confusion, and disbelief, r seethed in him, bubbling at the very throat. Melissa was sitting in an armchair, near the sofa, nervously squeezing the armrests, the girl apologized again afraid to utter a word, it seemed Larry was one step away from starting to destroy everything around.

Larry could not calm himself down, and could not concentrate on solving the problem. In Larry's head, all the troubles that had fallen on him over the past couple of days flashed like a stuck movie, and they seemed not to end ...

Two years ago, he and his friend Reggie opened a small but cozy bar. To open a bar they needed money in a large enough amount, Larry did not want to rent a place, he wanted to buy out an old, almost abandoned bar, which, by some miracle, was still working. They needed almost half a million dollars to buy a bar, renovate it, and so on. Larry had some savings, but not enough. And one morning, when they were almost desperate, Reggie called him and said that he had found half the money. Larry then asked where, Reggie replied that he took them from a friend of the entrepreneur, at a small percentage, and that it was up to Larry. And Larry had to step on his own throat and call one person who had long offered him to take a much larger amount than 250 thousand dollars, and he could not even return them. And until last night, things were going well. For half a year now, the bar has been bringing in a fairly large and regular profit, they even managed to save up more than half of the amount that Reggie has to pay. Larry never asked who gave Reggie the money. When Reggie called him, Larry was writing a letter to his brother. He was engaged in big business, which he inherited from his father. The brother also did small loans for small businesses, for people who were turned down by the banks.

Last morning began with the fact that they came to open a bar, but saw a destroyed room. Two hours later, the guys arrived in huge black and very expensive cars and demanded that Reggie return the money in full, including accrued interest for two years, by the end of this week. That is, in three days. But it didn't end there, while the guys cleaned up the mess, took out the trash, and cleaned up the broken glass, Larry chastised Reggie for borrowing money from the racketeer and signed that if he didn't return the debt, then the bar would become his property. Larry was really angry because he could take money from his brother and there were no such problems! But it didn't end there. As soon as Larry crossed the threshold of the house and helped his daughter take off the twist, Melissa came out of the bedroom to him in a chic, and new dress, holding something in her hands.

- What is this? - Larry asked, not kindly screwing up his eyes.

- Tickets for the Golden Charity Ball. - the girl answered with a wide smile and barely restraining her joy.

- Melissa, where did you get them from and what kind of dress are you wearing? - Larry asked with a tired breath as he passed the girl into the kitchen, hoping that Melissa had bought at least something else besides the dress. After all, in the morning he gave her money to replenish the refrigerator. - And why didn't you buy groceries? What should I cook dinner with? - Larry slammed the refrigerator door hard. Melissa walked over to him, hugging his shoulders and kissing his cheek.

- I did not have time to. I went for tickets and a dress! Isn't that great? We'll go somewhere and have some fun! - Larry pushed her hands off his shoulders.

- My bar got trashed, and Reggie owes a huge amount of money, so it's in your best interest to keep the damn money stash where I've been saving money for two years intact! And if you now say that you spent money on a dress instead of food, then this will not end well for you!

- But Larry! - Melissa tried to change the man's mood and rubbed her body against him, but Larry just brushed it off and went to Lilo's room to check on what his daughter was doing and warned that dinner would be in 40 minutes.