Gardener: The Roots Of Ancient Evil by Jacob Mesmer Read Free Book Online Page A

obligated to watch out for him. Check in on him. He’d been hoping to get a job somewhere far away, where he wouldn’t really have a choice. Horrible as it sounded, even to himself, Tommy would rather pay for a service to take care of his dad as he slowly slipped into alcoholic old age than deal with it himself. There were still far too many unresolved issues.
                  “But she is coming, so do you want to meet her?” Viviana asked, a little unsure.
                  “Sure. But when you say ‘crazy,’ does that mean she’s going to be like carrying an ax around and swinging it indiscriminately at people?” Tommy asked as seriously as he could.
    She poked him in the side despite her laughter. “No axes, but she just has, shall we say, an interesting way to finance her education. Our parents think she’s got a grant,” she said, sitting up.
                  “Does she sell cocaine or something?” Tommy said, trying to bring back her smile.
                  “No, but she uses one of those sugar-daddy sites,” Viviana said. “Older guys who sponsor girls through college.”
    Tommy could tell it wasn’t something that was easy for her to talk about. “I tried one of those. No takers. I had to borrow a shit ton instead,” he said.
                  “You were probably targeting the wrong market,” she teased. “But just so you know, whenever we talk about that we get into a big fight. So if it comes up, maybe you should hide somewhere.”
                  “She doesn’t want to let you pay?” Tommy asked. He imagined a PhD at a cutting-edge biotech company likely did pretty well.
                  “Like I said, issues,” Viviana said. “Sorry about that.” She slipped back under the covers, nose to nose with Tommy.
     
                  Tommy walked into his house at a little after nine. He could hear his dad in the kitchen. He desperately needed coffee, as he hadn’t stopped anywhere on the way home. He decided to go straight to his bedroom and wait until his dad left, which he usually did around ten. That would give him about forty-five minutes to grab some coffee and something to eat. He plugged in his laptop, not having checked any of his emails since yesterday afternoon.
    One was particularly interesting. A medium-sized furniture company he’d had a phone interview with a few weeks ago was asking for him to call them. Before making the call, he quickly reviewed his notes, looking for their folder on his hard drive. Twenty-seven employees. Slowly growing market share. Mostly a family business, but they needed a general manager. They were starting to get orders from small showrooms across the country, and a few of their dining room sets were being sold in department stores. The position started at $60K a year, but would increase as the business increased.
    Based on the information he’d gathered from the interview and the research he’d done on the company, he was certain he would be able to increase their sales by at least twenty or thirty percent. Most of their sales came from referrals and word of mouth. They’d grown very slowly over the past twenty-five years. With the right advertising and marketing strategy, maybe hiring a few more builders to increase throughput, Tommy could easily see this company growing in size in the next five to ten years.
    Doubling the size of a medium-sized business during a down economy would certainly be good for his career. If this email had come in two days ago, he would’ve jumped at the chance. After last night, he wasn’t so sure. But was it wise to make a career decision because of a relationship, one that hadn’t even started yet? He’d call them to see what they had to say. If they did offer him the job, which was likely since they wanted him to call back, could he delay the decision for a week or longer? He would like to see if Santiago had anything to say