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“Maybe because without that job we have to live on your itty bitty salary, in that dinky apartment, probably eating left over food from the restaurant. Not exactly the way I planned to live my life.”

“So you’re just going to give up?” She asked.

Remy was beginning to feel defensive. He had done his best, maybe he should have been more involved. Probably shouldn’t have gone off helping other people half way around the world, but his father should have told him what was going on.

The more he thought about all he was about to lose, the angrier he got. This was not how his life was supposed to go. He suddenly realized that he would have to give up his car. It wasn’t paid for and there was no way they would be able to make the payment. This last realization was more than he could take. He needed to strike out at someone and Kendra happened to be sitting right next to him.

“You know I suppose living in a crappy apartment, walking to work, and never having anything is fine for you. You grew up that way, you’re used to being poor. In fact you’ll probably be happier.”

“Remy, I….” He didn’t let her finish, but continued to yell nasty things at her.

“I don’t know why you’re taking this out on me but I’m out of here. Call me when you come to your senses, I’ll be at my apartment. I’m going to make room for your clothes in the closet because whether you like it or not that’s your new address. But please be sure to grow up before you come to my house.” With that, she grabbed her purse and was out the door.

*****

Kendra didn’t hear from Remy for almost a week. She knew he was fine, Barbra had called her the day after their fight. She had been upset about Remy having to sell his place and use his trust fund, but knew that they had no choice.

Remy’s place had sold within hours of going on the market and at full price. Everything had been packed and stored at the estate in the hopes that he might eventually get a different place. The note had been paid off, so the pressure was off for a while, but Remy still hadn’t shown up at the apartment.

Finally, he showed up at the restaurant at the end of her shift one night. Kendra was surprised to see that he actually looked good. He was dressed casually but as always, her breath caught when she looked at him.

“You look good.” He said, as they made their way to his car, an unimpressive mid-sized model with no bells and whistles.

“I see you got a new car?” She said, testing to see what his mood was.

“Yeah, it gets me where I want to go.” He said, with little emotion in his voice.

“Where are we going, by the way?” She was curious, he’d hardly said anything to her, nor had he kissed or hugged her.

“We’re meeting with my parents to discuss the future.” He answered.

“So you have a plan then?”

“All in good time, just be patient. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I’d rather tell all of you together.

They arrived at the estate to find that his parents were waiting for him in the family room. It was late but they were also anxious to hear Remy’s plans. Kendra sat on the couch with his parents while Remy took a chair opposite them.

“First, I want to apologize to Kendra for my behavior last week and for not calling you all week. I needed some time to get my head together. You said some things that made sense, but it took some time for me to come to my senses.” He began.

“I knew you were upset, and I knew you were okay, so no harm done.” Kendra said.

“Thank you, love. Hopefully, next time the world goes crazy I’ll handle it better. But I’m learning.” He said, getting up, clearly too nervous to sit.

“Okay, we all know that we have some big financial issues facing us. I’ve managed to keep the bank at bay for now, but that’s only a stop gap. We have to have a permanent solution. I’ve come up with a plan that I think might work for all of us.”

“Son, I’m sorry we’re in this situation, it’s all my fault. Things just got away from me.” His dad said.

“Well, that’s in the past and we still need you at the office, we’re not completely down and out yet. The first thing we need to do is to get someone in there to help you. It’s not going to be me, that’s one decision I think we can all agree upon.” He paused for a minute to check everyone’s reactions. When everyone nodded their heads in agreement he went on.

“Dad, I have three candidates lined up for you to interview next week. I‘ve prescreened them, each is perfect to the job, but since you know better than I what is needed, I want you to make the final decision. I know this is quick and you’ll still be in charge but one thing is clear, we need to modernize. That’s the only way the business can survive.”

“Son, that sounds like a great idea. I’ll be happy to meet with anyone who you feel could help us keep the business going, but what about you?” His father said.

“We’ll get to that in a minute. Mom, Kendra told me that you had a grand vision for the house. Something like a nonprofit to help kids.”

“Well, yes. But that was just a pipe dream, not something we could actually do. Where would we get the money?” She said, surprised at the turn in the conversation.

“It is something we could do though, I’ve spent the last week talking to everyone from the government to private charities. It’s a complicated arrangement, but basically we create our own non-profit and deed the estate to it.”

“The house…” His mother started to interrupt.

“You and dad would be able to live here for the rest of your lives and we can even put in an option for future family to occupy a wing if we want. The details will come later but let me tell you what I had in mind.”

“Okay I’ll listen, but I don’t know about this…” His mother said.

“My vision is to turn this place into a children’s home. A place where all those unwanted and damaged kids could come and find some peace. We could also have day programs, and maybe summer camp. There are so many things we can do with the property.” Remy had clearly thought about this a lot.

“But Remy, what about money. It will cost a fortune to make that happen.” His mother said, again.

“We can get funding, I’ve already applied for the non-profit certification and lined up some donations. Nothing like this has ever been done, with the right people helping us we could do it.”

“Okay so this is the plan for the estate, if we agree, but what about you?” His father asked.

“I will run the place. I have a business degree, I can’t think of a better way to use it. Someone will have to be in charge of the day to day operations and after careful thought I think this could make me happy. We’ll make it a family affair.” He said, pulling a folder for each of them out of his briefcase.

“I’ve put all the details in these folders. You can read them then let me know what you think. Kendra, there’s a place for you as well if you want. Nothing makes a kid happier than a good meal and who better to enjoy your food than kids who’ve never even had much to eat?” Remy said, sitting by her on the couch.

“I know you love your job, but you could really make a difference here. We might even be able to develop some kind of cooking school if you were interested in that.” He told her.