Don’t get me wrong, Paul is professional as all hell on the job, but as soon as he clocks out, he is an entirely different monster. It isn’t unusual for little cuz to be at the club until the wee hours of the morning, even on weekdays. Plus, he brings home a new girl practically every night and that’s not an exaggeration.
By contrast, I’m usually the laid back one out of the two of us. I’m more apt to spend my night at home with a cold drink in front of the T.V. In fact, I never really got into the bar scene with all its broskis, skanks, and endless games of beer pong. But now, the tables have turned. Now I’m the one who’s done something wild. Paul is going to get a kick out of this, and I know it is going to be a long time before he lets me live this down, if he ever does.
After arriving at NYC Repo, I head straight to my back-corner office while trying not to make eye contact with anyone. Fortunately, it works and aside from a few muttered “good mornings,” I get to my office safely. I drop my keys onto my desk and plop down into my swivel chair, letting out a deep sigh as another day begins.
The work never stops because as CEO of this outfit, I’ve been wildly successful and it shows. To be blunt, I’m filthy rich and have all the accoutrements to enjoy the fancier trappings of life. But it wasn’t always this way because I have humble roots. When I was a young man trying to get a start in the world, it was difficult to work a fifteen hour day only to go home and eat rice and beans. Things got so bad, in fact, that I had my car repossessed when I wasn’t much older than Marley. I suppose that added to my sympathetic feelings towards her.
But what choice did I have? Back then, I was working at a construction site, but not as a union employee. No, I was a temp and most of my time on the job site was spent carrying heavy ass stacks of plywood and two-by-fours from the trucks to the building site. It was back breaking labor and barely paid enough to get by.
But the job sparked an idea in my head because I had a piece of shit truck, and after the vehicle was repossessed, I sat on the front steps of my broke-down RV smoking a cigarette. While watching it roll away on the back of a tow truck, I thought to myself, “Now that’s a lucrative business. This guy just got his hands on one of my best assets, and it’s his now.”
I didn’t mean anything by the statement at the time. It was just a fleeting thought, but it planted a seed. Every time I’d hear one of my buddies talking about the debt they got themselves into, or even more, the stupid shit they bought that they couldn’t afford, I would think to myself ‘another dollar for the repo man’. One day I got fed up with scraping by and decided to take a risk. Worst case scenario, I’d fail and lose … well, nothing really, because I didn’t have anything.
But to my surprise, when I opened NYC Repo, it took off. Sure, our business can be rough. There’s a lot of screaming, crying, begging, and pleading on a daily, if not hourly, basis. But I’m firm, and always remember my roots. I wasn’t so different from these folks once upon a time, and for the most part, they’re honest people just trying to get by.
Now, however, I’m the king of the hill, and there’s a ton of busywork to do. There are invoices to be filed, meetings to oversee, not to mention the incessant chatter of my cousin. It hasn’t been ten minutes before Paul is in my office bullshitting, as if there isn’t work he could be getting done. Honestly, the man has been spoiled, thanks to me. He was only twenty-five when I started the business and I brought him in under my wing from day one. He’s a VP at the company now and bringing home a hefty paycheck every week that frankly, he has no idea what to do with. I think this opportunity is partly what’s led to Paul’s confidence in life, not to mention the ladies who are drawn to him like moths to a flame. Don’t even get me started on how he’s cut a swath through the women of NYC. It’s disgusting but also hilarious.
My cousin smirks at me while lounging against a cabinet.
“So how’d it go in the field yesterday old man? I heard you came back empty handed. The game getting too tough for you?”