Saturday Story

**Please note that Part 15 of Rags to Riches will be posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2018** Thank you!

I’ve been having a wonderful weekend! (I hope that you have, too.)

Thank you for joining me for Part 14 of my Saturday Story: Rags to Riches. If you’re new to my blog, and you’d like to start at the beginning, you can find parts 1-5 here, or last week’s part 13 here.

I look forward to posting Part 15 on Saturday, July 14th, 2018.

Give your life the green light. It’s A Go!

Amber Green

Rags to Riches 

Part 14

To Riches

“Chris! Chris?” Dave called through their spacious foyer. “Chris, we have to go! Where are you?!”

Dave checked his watch for the third time in two minutes. They were running late, and Dave hated being late to any event- especially for an Engines & Fenders gala.

With the help of Franca’s windfall, Chris had invested heavily in Dave’s auto-repair shops, making Engines & Fenders a worldwide brand in a few short years. Chris and Dave were a good couple- including when working as business partners.

Chris had come a long way since working at Luke’s construction company; his instincts for business and investing were sharp. Though a good businessman himself, when he wasn’t fixing cars, Dave was more interested in the marketing side of his brand; he connected with people, and enjoyed coaching managers and employees, alike.

Exasperated, Dave called Chris’s cell phone (it was faster than checking every room of their vast home). Fortunately, he answered on the first ring.

“Hey,” Chris answered.

“Chris- where are you? We should have already left.”

“Really?” Chris sounded surprised and… relaxed.  “Oh. Oh. Oookay, okay. I’ll be right there.”

Dave ended the call. He didn’t need to see Chris to know that he had been drinking.

Damn. Chris had been doing so well, Dave thought, miserably.

……

From Rags 

I caught up on phone calls while waiting in the car for my sister to arrive. When she text to let me know she would be just a few minutes longer, I got our favourite table and ordered our coffees. Within minutes, Priscilla arrived.

“Hey P,” I stood up and gave her a quick hug.

“Hey Frankie. Sorry I’m so late; it’s been crazy,” Priscilla shrugged her shoulders, allowing her head to slump for a second, as if she’d been carrying the weight of the world.

“That’s okay. I know that you’re busy. How could you not be with a husband and three boys?”

Priscilla smiled, but it disappeared and her expression looked momentarily drawn. “Luke and I met with the principal of the boys’ school today.”

“Why? Are they okay?” I asked, genuinely concerned about my nephews.

“Nicholas has been bullied,” Priscilla said.

“Nick?! How?” I exclaimed. “What happened?” Before Priscilla could answer, my phone rang. My sister nodded towards my bag, encouraging me to answer it.

“Sorry,” I said glancing briefly at my sister as I fished through my purse for my phone. “It could be the diner,” I explained. “Hello?” I answered the call from a number I didn’t recognize.

“Hi- hello,” a man answered awkwardly. “This is Dave. Is this Franca?”

“Hi Dave,” I responded, looking at my sister with a quizzical why-is-our-brother’s-boyfriend-calling-me? look. “Yes, this is Franca.”

“Hi, um, I know this is odd for me to call; I got your number from Chris’s cell phone,” Dave said. He was clearly feeling awkward, but his tone was urgent, nonetheless.

“Yeah, okay. Wh-what’s up?”

“Look, Chris would kill me if he knew I was calling you; in fact, he’ll probably break up with me once he learns of this conversation-”

“Dave, you’re freaking me out. What the hell is going on?” I asked, eyes wide.

“Chris is getting his stomach pumped. He’s unconscious. We’re at the hospital.”

“What?!” I asked Dave, then relayed the message to my sister.

With the phone to my ear, I could hear Dave rambling, as he tried to explain quickly. “Chris went to my place after work, and when he got home I guess he started drinking and didn’t stop. He was passed out when I got home, and not the normal had a-few-too-many. I’ve seen people with alcohol poisoning before, so I called 911.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My sister was already standing gathering her things, and she ushered me out of the café.

“Okay, we’re coming. Thanks, Dave,” I said, and disconnected.

“We’ll take my car,” I told Priscilla. She nodded, as we scrambled to get into the car.

I was numb with fear. My hand shook as I put the key into the ignition of my car, and I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself.

Please let my brother be okay.  

………

You can read part 15 here.

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

© 2018 Amber Green