Kiss Me if You Can Novel Completed - Chapter 123

The time it takes to overcome loss varies from person to person. Mother needed the longest time among the family. I think that’s natural. The sense of loss Emma and I felt was for our father, but she had lost the companion she had sworn to be with for life. Therefore, all we could do was wait. And one day, Mother finally decided to live. A life without Father.

Those who remain must somehow live on.

“You take your father’s car.”

In the morning they decided to have a garage sale, Mother handed Josh the keys and advised him.

“Drive carefully, and don’t rush.”

“Of course, Mom. Thank you.”

Josh couldn’t contain his joy and kissed her cheek. Mother gave Emma her cherished earrings. They were a gift Father had given her during his lifetime.

Afterward, they began to take out various odds and ends that had accumulated, including Father’s belongings. As they arranged the items in front of the house, neighbors started to emerge one by one, peeking around. Mother’s old sewing machine and jewelry box seemed quite usable even to Josh, so he deliberately displayed them at the front.

“Josh, Mom says to put this out too.”

When Emma called out, he went inside to find her referring to the barbecue grill they kept in the backyard. Occasionally, when Father grilled barbecue, the family would gather around and eat dinner there, with Father endlessly grilling meat, a beer in one hand and tongs in the other. After Father passed away, they had never used it once.

Josh, who had been momentarily dazed, quickly collected himself and casually inspected the grill. Thanks to Father’s habit of always cleaning it thoroughly after use, it was in good enough condition to grill meat immediately. After checking that the electricity was working properly, he carried the grill back to the front of the garage.

Meanwhile, a few people were seen looking around the displayed items. But that was all. Soon they left, and Emma, who had been tense and eagerly awaiting an opportunity, also drooped her shoulders with a face full of disappointment.

“Don’t work too hard.”

It was meant to ease her burden, but Emma thought differently. His sister soon glared at him with a fierce look.

“We’re going to sell all of this to pay this month’s electricity and water bills. Do you know how tight our budget is right now? You just play around all the time!”

“Play around? That’s too harsh, isn’t it?”

Josh raised his hands and then lowered them, but Emma’s reaction didn’t change much. In truth, he couldn’t deny that he had indeed lingered late with useless friends because he disliked the gloomy atmosphere at home. After that, he focused on taking out items and arranging them according to Emma’s instructions for a while, in silence.

“Where are you going again?”

He thought the tidying was more or less done and was about to leave, but Emma, with ghostly intuition, stopped him again with a sharp voice.

“To test drive it.”

Josh smiled, holding up the car keys he had received from his mother.

“It hasn’t been used in a while, so I need to check if it’s running well. Want a ride?”

Until now, there had been no one who wouldn’t give in when he smiled and said such things. But his sister was the exception. Instead, she glared at him fiercely, grinding her teeth.

“Where are you running off to? Shut up and come here.”

“Oh, Emma.”

“Can’t you come here right now?”

Pointing to where she stood with her finger, his sister repeated “Right now!” Her face was more menacing than ever. In the end, Josh had no choice but to shrug and turn around as she commanded.

“Stand here, guests will be arriving soon.”

“Arriving? From where?”

After glancing around the desolate neighborhood where not a single person was visible, Emma picked up her phone instead of answering and made a call somewhere. After a few rings, she raised her voice and spoke sweetly.

“Yes, Alisa. What are you doing right now? No, we’re having a garage sale right now. You saw what I posted on my account, right? Yeah, want to come take a look? Oh, no. I’m in charge of organizing the items, and Josh is handling the sales. Yeah, if you have any questions, you can ask Josh. Okay, bye.”

Emma brightly hung up the phone, then turned and stood in front of Josh.

“Did you post it? I told you to advertise on your account.”

He had heard that for several days. Of course, Josh ignored it. But there was no longer any escaping.

“Why bother…”

Seeing her brother trail off and avoid eye contact, Emma immediately commanded, “Of course!”

“Do it right now. No, if you don’t promote it, how are we going to sell all of this?”

Seeing his sister’s wide-eyed command, it seemed she was determined. Since his mother was showing enthusiasm for a change, it would be even better to get results. Josh silently posted on his account as Emma instructed. He just casually took a picture of the haphazardly arranged items and wrote “For Sale.”

“Give it to me.”

Emma didn’t even bother to be friends with Josh’s account, let alone ask for his ID. Of course, she detested it when Josh asked for her account. Because of that, Emma, who had no way to check how he had posted, unhesitatingly snatched Josh’s phone. She quickly scanned the post, then, with a rather unpleased expression, muttered “Can’t be helped,” and handed the phone back. She didn’t forget to eagle-eye the countless comments and the number of silently shared posts just before.

“When else would I use him if not now?”

Emma muttered, glancing at Josh once, then turned her head away. No matter how much he was called “Prince” at school and was the most popular quarterback, from his sister’s perspective, he was just a good-for-nothing with a decent appearance. Fortunately, Josh was busy replying to a friend’s mention who had just called him, so he didn’t hear Emma’s muttering.

While Josh was distracted for a moment, Emma pulled off the cap of a magic marker. And then she began to revise the haphazardly written prices of the items. Seeing the amounts doubled for small items and quintupled for large ones, Josh’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Emma, what are you doing? Don’t you want to sell anything?”

But Emma boldly wrote $300 on the last barbecue grill. To Josh, who opened his mouth wide as if asking what she was doing, and held out a hand pointing at the price, she rather defiantly lifted her chin.

“It’s the grill Dad meticulously maintained every week. It’s as clean as new, and it has Dad’s touch on it.”

“It’s like new, but it’s not new. And Dad’s touch isn’t Marilyn Monroe’s touch either.”

To Josh’s negative reaction, Emma shook the magic marker and glared at him.

“The basic principle of sales is the confidence to make someone happily buy something at an unreasonable price. It’s marketing to make them pull money out of their wallet even when they know in their head it’s trash.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

Josh, unable to bear it any longer, blurted out something close to an insult, but Emma turned away with a “Hmph.” Josh was dumbfounded by her blatant disregard and just stared at his sister’s back, then belatedly shouted with a distorted face, “What?!” Meanwhile, Emma, who had brought out some useless pottery from inside, placed it on the table and added,

“And the biggest influence on sales is decoration. It’s the psychology of making buyers willingly collect pretty trash.”

Spouting absurd, nonsensical philosophy, she boldly wrote $20 on a cheap piece of pottery of unknown origin, then walked past Josh and commanded,

“Stand there.”

Leaving those words behind, her sister, with her long hair sharply tossed behind her shoulder, walked away, leaving Josh dumbfounded once again.

“What on earth is she doing?”

He roughly spat it out towards his sister’s back, but that was all. Josh grumbled and stood next to the cheap pottery as Emma instructed.

Who on earth would buy this trash for $20?

It wouldn’t even be taken if it were priced at $2, he thought, furrowing his brows.

“Excuse me.”

He turned his head at a cautious voice to see a girl he remembered seeing somewhere. Josh pondered for a moment, then realized. It was the child from the red brick house at the entrance of the neighborhood. She was also a student at the junior high school in the adjacent building, the same as Emma.

“Hello.”

As he habitually smiled and greeted her, her face immediately turned red, and she looked flustered. Seeing her clearly shy reaction, Josh decided he had to continue the conversation. He had never experienced his heart pounding so much that he couldn’t speak when dealing with women. This time, too, he skillfully continued the conversation.

“Look around if you need anything, and ask if you have any questions.”

Even so, it was just lip service. Pottery is pottery, a grill is a grill. There was nothing more to be curious about or to explain, was there? Moreover, there was no particular story attached to the items. Josh’s family didn’t have such a grand history; they were just an ordinary household.

But after listening to a few of Josh’s trivial explanations, she unexpectedly bought the $20 pottery without haggling a single cent. And as she turned to leave, she even added a remark.

“I’ll put it away and come back.”

“Okay, thank you.”

When he said it with a smile, her face turned even redder, and she quickly turned and walked away almost running. Feeling a strange sense of having cheated, he looked down at the banknote in his hand when a hand suddenly appeared and snatched it away.

Seeing Josh barely stop his hand from reflexively striking out, Emma spoke.

“See? I told you. Decoration influences sales.”

And this time, she made Josh stand next to a tea table priced at $50. A moment later, it was sold for $100 with its matching chairs.

“Hey, Josh. What is all this?”

Tommy, the team captain and quarterback, who had come after seeing the post Josh uploaded, looked around with surprised eyes. The area in front of the garage where Josh was standing was bustling with as many women as items. Most were girls their age, but occasionally, there were also women who looked quite a bit older.

“Josh, did you use this?”

The glamorous redhead beauty who asked in a sweet voice was last year’s prom queen. She was incredibly popular in school, to the point where everyone knew her, and there were rumors that she and Josh had briefly dated. Of course, only the two of them would know the truth. Tommy, secretly intrigued, saw the two facing each other. What she pointed to was a bench press. It was something Josh used with his father, and he hadn’t used it once since his father passed away. Josh smiled, spread his legs wide, sat on the bench, and looked up at her.

“I wasn’t the only one who used it.”

It wasn’t a lie. With gasps of “Ooh” and “Aah” from here and there behind him, she leaned down and whispered seductively.

“Can you teach me how to use it later? I’d like to know how you used it too…”

She deliberately paused for a breath, then smiled suggestively. Josh laughed silently and whispered lowly.

“I’m not included in the sale, unfortunately.”

“Oh.”

She let out a low gasp of disappointment, but she didn’t give up. She added, paying an additional delivery fee,

“I can’t buy it, but I can rent it, right? I’ll wait.”

Tommy watched her disappear, leaving a note, dumbfounded, but Josh showed no particular reaction.

After that, all sorts of junk sold for ridiculous prices. A xylophone Josh used as a child, a wall hanging whose purpose was utterly unknown. The doormat, at least, was new, but its design was so bizarre that you wouldn’t want it even for free.

Sorry to say, but Josh’s father, and their family, didn’t have very good taste. Tommy, who had been wondering why such things were in the house, widened his eyes when he saw a line marker used to draw lines on a sports field.

“Hey, how do you have something like that at home?”

To Tommy’s surprised question, Josh said, “Huh,” and likewise turned his gaze, tilting his head.

“Well, I just found out now too.”

Considering his father’s habit of buying and accumulating all sorts of things during his lifetime, it was plausible. He hadn’t thought he would buy such a niche piece of equipment, though. And that line marker left the house with Tommy. Tommy, who was the running back on the same football team, got a $5 discount because they were teammates, but Josh secretly thought it wouldn’t be much different from buying a new one online. In fact, considering he just found it rotting in the garage, he thought it was practically new anyway.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just do a date part-time job?”

Josh would earn much more money that way. But Josh shook his head at Tommy’s suggestion.

“No, I’m still a minor.”

It would be troublesome if any unnecessary record remained and caused problems when entering college. When he said that, Tommy readily agreed, “Right.” After seeing Tommy off, Josh focused on selling items again. More and more people were gathering.