Just Business

Chapter Two: David

David screwed up the letter, throwing it and missing the bin. His loan proposal had been rejected, no surprise. He had yet to make a dent in the debt he was already in from opening The Raven on Tap, and had nobody else he could borrow from. He'd be lucky to get a fiver at this point, let alone fifty grand. But if he didn't, Mrs Chally would give the Raven On Tap to someone else. Both situations seemed impossible, and yet here he was.

"Bad news?" David's Ma asked as he did the walk of shame to properly dispose of the letter.

"Nothing I can't handle."

David had not told his parents about the notice he had received a week ago about his rent rising, the money he needed. He couldn't. They would insist on selling the house, or at least remortgaging it. They had threatened David with it enough times, but he had managed to do all his work while leaving the house intact. They had helped enough, contributing physically, emotionally and financially throughout the process. His mum even ran the bar when one of David's staff had gotten sick and he had nearly driven himself to burn out trying to do it all himself. After already taking so much, David couldn't ask for more. He couldn't take the last significant thing they had to their name, especially not when his brothers still hadn't gotten a penny from their parents. By the time his parents had the disposable income to do anything, his brothers had jumped ship and helped themselves.

With their wives and kids, Steven and Jake both made steady livings in offices with job titles David always struggled to remember and only pretended to understand. The two of them had been born in Japan, their Mother's home country, and remembered well the struggle David had avoided due to his much later birth. Their father, an ambitious half Vietnamese half unknown-white-but-probably-Dutch man, had been absent for the childhood of his older sons. His various jobs had taken him away from the family home for weeks at a time. David had been born after the originally temporary move to the UK, and after their Father had found the miracle job that allowed him a manageable workload in a steady location. Thus, David had eaten well, had new clothes and had had his father at the forefront of his life.

Perhaps then, it made sense that his brothers took after their pragmatic, level headed Mother while he chased the rainbows with his Father, always looking for a new route to the gold. When he had first proposed the Raven on Tap, his brothers had scoffed, trusting their Mother to put a swift end to what they saw as lunacy. What Steven and Jake always forgot was that, despite her cool exterior, their Mother had fallen for their father and his dreams. Through every new business, new idea and new fantasy, she had been there. And she was there now, with her husband, supporting David.

"I made you dinner," Ma said.

"Ma, you didn't have to."

"It's just fried rice! Nothing fancy. But no son of mine can come to my house hungry and not eat."

David sighed, but smiled as he followed his Mother into the kitchen. It was late, well past midnight. He had been on a closing shift, a job he usually enjoyed. He liked it when it was just him, king of his little country. He found it almost therapeutic to clean it all, putting everything back in its place. Not tonight. Tonight he had done a rushed, sloppy job after getting news of a letter for him at home. He really hadn't wanted to come over, but his mail was still sent to this house. The small living space above the Raven on Tap had been the last thing finished, and even now it was fairly bare and unhomely. Changing his postal address was part of the long, long list of things he still needed to do since moving in.

"Do you want me to set up the spare room for you, dear?" Ma asked.

"No," he replied, possibly too quickly. "I'm opening tomorrow. Really, I only stopped by to get my post."