Page 18 of Real Forever
Jake: I sent an email to a buddy from Queen’s who knows a lot about consumer law. I’ll let you know when he gets back to me.
Madison: Omg, thank you so much Jake. You are amazing.
If Jake could forceTammy to give Lauren her money back for all the leggings in the garage, it should take a big chunk of the debt down. The good news gave Madison a second wind. She wondered if any of the other women trying to get out of NorAsana had been successful in getting refunds. She typed a quick note in her notes app, took a screenshot and then posted it to Instagram with the #ScrewNorAsana hashtag:
Anyoneout there able to get their
$$$ back from NorAsana for the
shitty leggings they weren’t able to sell?
DM me.
She sether phone down and returned her attention to her bag of chips, but within minutes her phone was buzzing. Reply after reply came in, all saying the same story. NorAsana had refused to provide refunds for any of the damaged leggings. Okay, new plan.
She posted an image of a burning bridge and captioned it “UPDATE. Fuck refunds. Let’s hurt these assholes. DM if you have any dirt on Tammy or NorAsana. #ScrewNorAsana”
Man, if this refund thing turned out to be real, she was really going to owe Jake big time. Actually, she already did. It was pretty incredible of him to take the time to help her and Lauren when he was getting nothing from the deal. Madison refused to allow herself to consider he might be doing all this in an effort to spend more time with her. Because then she’d have to consider she might actually want to spend time with him too.Nope. Definitely not. He’s just a really good guy doing a good thing because he can see someone is in trouble. Some people are just nice.
She clicked the green Spotify logo on the front screen of her phone and started a new playlist, “Jake’s Musical Education - High School Edition.” She flipped back to her message thread with Jake.
Madison:Hey, what year did you graduate high school?
Jake: Why?
Madison: Trying to hack into your bank account.
Jake: ???
Madison: Kidding. Tell me. It’s nothing sinister.
Jake: 2012
Madison began curatinga playlist for Jake of all the music she thought he missed out on in high school. She included all the popular hits of each year along with lesser known Canadian indie stuff she had loved at the time.
“Mads?” Lauren’s voice echoed down the staircase.
“Yeah, I’m here. Come on down.”
“What’s up? How was work?” Lauren sunk down on the couch beside Madison and reached for her chips.
“Work was busy as fuck. It rained last night, so all the goddamn farmers that couldn’t harvest came in, because apparently there’s nothing better to do on a rainy day than gossip and drink cup after cup of shitty coffee.”
“Why do you still work there, Mads?” Lauren crunched a chip in her teeth. “You’re so smart. You could do something so much more interesting.”
Madison flopped her head back and squeezed her eyes closed. “Not again with this shit. Laur, I like it there. I love Agatha, and I know what I’m doing, and it’s easy, okay? It’s not like there are a million jobs to choose from in Snowbrook anyway.”
“Not in Snowbrook, but in Silver Creek, or Robdale, or any of the other many lovely communities around here you would have no problem driving to.”
Madison sighed, “How was your day, Laur?”
“Fine, we won’t talk about it.” Lauren dusted chip crumbs from her fingertips. “My day was okay, I guess. The usual. Dave called. He’s coming home a bit early so he’ll be here tomorrow night.”
“Why’s he coming home early?”
“I don’t know. One of the drills is down I think.”
“Okay. Hey, the Christmas lights look nice.”
