“Don’t discredit the efforts you’ve put in,” Rupert inte

“Don’t discredit the efforts you’ve put in,” Rupert interrupted their conversation sharply, a frustrated scowl aimed at Maurice.
“Well, I-I mean…” Maurice stammered awkwardly, blinking in surprise.
“You barely take a day off, if ever, and you don’t hire extra staff so you can. You work every holiday. You do not pay yourself a fair wage—do not let him tell you he does,” he added as an aside to his father. “You walk to and from work so you don’t have the expenses of a car. You do all the accounting and paperwork yourself. You track most of the inventory yourself rather than delegating it to someone else. You’ve done everything you can to make the place a success; it’s not just dumb luck.”
Maurice felt the prickle of a blush creeping into his cheeks as James looked questioningly between them, eyebrows raised. “It’s even less of a wonder you would be bitter about such a slacker for a business partner, then,” James added eventually.
“Uh, y-yeah,” Maurice mumbled with a feeble smile, eyes flickering away meekly from all the faces on him. “Guess so.”
“That’s a drive to succeed you don’t see in many others. Especially not at your age. Which sort of leads me into my next question; why a bar?”
“Uhhhh…?”
“Even half the funds needed to buy the bar must have been a substantial amount. An amount that could have been invested elsewhere, and probably have made you a much more profitable enterprise. Many bars fail in their first year alone. So, why a bar?”
Maurice shifted uncomfortably. “Not sure I could explain that too well…” Yeeeeah, that wasn’t a topic he wanted to broach with the father of his boyfriend…
James regarded him in silence for a few moments, and Maurice willed himself not to break eye contact. A moment of suspicion seemed to pass over James’ face, but Maurice may have simply imagined it. “Fair enough,” James said eventually, and Maurice let out a breath he hadn’t even realised he’d been holding.