Susie stopped by about 8:30 one morning near the end of January. I saw her pulling up in the driveway on a cold gray day. She usually didn't drop by unannounced-not that I minded if she did, it was always a bright spot in my day to see her. I opened the garage door and went out to greet her. She got out of her Tahoe and immediately hugged me, a long close hug that she didn't seem to want to let go of. I kissed the top of her head. She pulled me tighter.
Finally, I spoke. "You OK??"
"We're selling the dealerships here," said Susie without looking up.
I thought for a moment, still holding her. I wondered if this had not been in the works. Toward the end of the previous year, I had noticed their marketing presence had diminished somewhat. I chalked it up to seasonal changes, as there was an ebb and flow to their advertising, picking up at certain times, most notably the end of the model year, but also for certain holidays. Some of it was geared to the local university sports program, of which they were one of several sponsors. I had noticed that some things that had been staples had changed: an ad that ran across the bottom of the sports section of the paper had vanished, and the ubiquitous billboards with Susie's smiling face had become faded and sun bleached. Suddenly it made sense.
"All of them??" There were dealerships for Chevy, GMC, Dodge, Jeep, etc, four in total across the area.
"All of them," said Susie, finally looking up at me. She had tears in her eyes. I kissed her forehead, just above them, and wiped the tear that was rolling down her left cheek.
"Wow. What brought that on??" Before she could answer, I said, "Come on, let's go inside where it's warmer. It's too cold to do this out here."
I took Susie by the hand and led her inside, closing the garage behind us. Once in the house, I made her coffee, and we sat at the dining room table. "This was not an overnight decision," she said looking over at me. I nodded. It couldn't have been. "We got a really good offer from one of the dealerships downstate-really good. Since we've had these operations, we've added a lot of value, and the equity we have in them has grown several times over."
I smiled. "I could tell you've put a lot of effort into them. I've noticed the changes over the several years you've been here. And I've heard good things from customers, which is a good thing. As you're no doubt aware, car salesmen aren't exactly well regarded."
Susie laughed. "No, they're not. And we wanted to change that perception, at least in the places we controlled."
"It worked," I said.
Susie took a drag off her coffee. "Yes it did. Really well. By the time we were here three years, we were getting offers about a half dozen times a year from various places. None of them reflected what we thought the business was worth, and we weren't really interested in selling anyway."
"So what changed?? You seem to have a winning plan here."
Susie sighed and looked across the table at me. "For one thing, the offer we got was really good, a lot more than some of the others that have been made. It wasn't that we were not happy here. As you know, we have dealerships elsewhere in the state, mostly in the capital district, but also we picked one up in north Texas a few years ago. Those are doing OK, but really could use some attention. When we got the offer for the dealerships here, we decided we could use the cash to upgrade the others. It wasn't an easy decision in some ways. We're doing really well, and we really like it here. But the money was just too good. For what it's worth, I've been dragging my feet on the decision, but we finally just ran out of time to fish or cut bait."
"I hope you weren't holding out on this because of me," I said seriously.
Susie smiled weakly. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking of you. The thought of losing you wasn't very appealing. But I was outvoted. I proposed that I could stay to manage the dealerships here, while other members of our team went to the places that needed help. We could use the profits from these dealerships to help the others, though none of them are losing money. The money is there."
I looked at Susie, reaching across the table and taking her hand. "Don't let me affect a business decision. I don't like the idea of losing you, either, but you can't let something that should not be happening in the first place affect your livelihood. We'll find a way to make it work, even if it means we see a lot less of each other. Or perhaps we should just take the hint that the universe let us have our time, and move on, much as it hurts to say that."
Susie looked at me. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm really going to miss the time we had together." She smiled sadly. "All those photo shoots, fooling around in the car, fooling around outside, the times we got to spend the night together. I'm going to miss falling asleep next to you..." her voice trailed off.
I chuckled at the thought of us doing all those things together. "Yeah, we had a lot of fun. I'll miss all that. I'll miss the other things, too, how we could watch an old movie, or just ride around and talk, just enjoying each other. Those things made the sex all that much better. I was really falling for you."
Susie squeezed my hands tightly. "I'm afraid I did fall for you. Now I have to figure out how to move on. I knew in my head that this couldn't go on forever, and that I shouldn't even be doing this, but my heart is having a hard time with that realization." Susie looked at me. "I love you. I don't want to give you up, but I don't think I have a choice. But don't ever doubt that I love you."
