Archive of Our Own

“David, the mail came,” Patrick told him, as if nothing in it was of any importance.  He was sweaty, just coming in from a run, and he laid the mail on the table.  “I’m going to shower.”

“Mmm-kay.  I’ll be ready to go soon.”  David was in the kitchen, fussing over their lunches.  It was his turn, so lunch was a selection of meats and cheeses, crackers, and fruit.  It was one of the days they were both spending the afternoon at other stores, instead of the original store in Schitt’s Creek, so they took part of the morning off before Patrick dropped David off in Elmdale on his way to Elm Glen.  That was the only reason they were still home when the mail came.  The only reason David was bouncing on his toes when Patrick came downstairs twenty minutes later.

Patrick laughed.  “What’s gotten into you?”  He asked as he dropped a quick kiss to David’s cheek as he reached past him to grab the travel mug of tea his husband had prepared for him.

“It came,” David told him, grinning.

“What came?”  He asked, before realization dawned in his eyes.  “Oh my god!  Let’s see it.”

“We have to go to work,” David said in a teasing tone.

“Work can wait.  We trust our teams, and no one will care if we’re fifteen minutes late.”

“Okay,” David said.  He reached for the large manilla envelope.  Patrick had seen it, but hadn’t really thought about what might be in it.

He carefully slit the top of the envelope before sliding out the glossy magazine hidden inside.  There, on the cover, underneath the words Vanity Fair, was a picture of David, confident smile on his face, leaning against the front window of Rose Apothecary’s flagship store in Schitt’s Creek, the name of the store clearly visible over his shoulder.  Next to the picture were the words:  David Rose:  The True Story.

Leaning shoulder to shoulder over the kitchen island, they flipped to the story inside.

[Photo of the main intersection of Schitt’s Creek, showing Twyla’s Café Tropical and Rose Apothecary, as well as other businesses]

Nearly a year ago, a name popped up on our radar, one we hadn’t heard in a while:  David Rose.  It came up during a story on acclaimed photographer Sebastien Raine.  After a series of disappointing shows, during which some critics openly wondered if Mr. Raine had lost his seemingly magic touch, he opened a new show, one focused on his former lover, David Rose.  The show, which immediately sold out, with every piece being sold on opening night, consisted of never-before-seen photographs of Mr. Rose, once the darling of the club scene and frequent tabloid fodder.  Mr. Raine’s comments about Mr. Rose were consistent with the haunting black and white images in the photographs.  “David was my muse; he was so broken, shattered, flawed, and there was a tragic beauty in that, and I was able to capture it.  David was so very, very fragile, and he was unable to accept my needs, what had to happen to keep my creativity flowing.  If I’d known how hard it would be for him after we parted ways, I would have worked harder to keep him with me.  I found him, a few years after we broke up, barely a shell of himself, virtually homeless in a backwater town.  He was hostile, clearly still not over our breakup, struggling.  I don’t know where he is now or what’s become of him.  I wish I knew, but honestly, I’m afraid to find out.  It sounds strange, but I truly fear he no longer exists.”

Unlike Mr. Raine, we weren’t afraid to dig into what happened to Mr. Rose, and based on what we found, we’d guess Mr. Raine would be surprised.  The true story of David Rose is a far cry from the bleak picture painted by Mr. Raine, and the man we discovered is virtually unrecognizable when compared to the images from Mr. Raine’s show.  However, Mr. Raine was right about one thing:  David Rose no longer exists.  The man the world knew from his days splashed across the tabloids, hounded by the paparazzi, is gone.  His days (and nights) of jet-setting, bouncing from one famous partner to the next, drinking and indulging in drugs, and club hopping are over.  In his place is David Brewer-Rose, happily married entrepreneur.  The financial ruin that forced him, along with the rest of his family, from prominence and society and left him stranded in a tiny town with no prospects turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Mr. Brewer-Rose.  We were fortunate enough to convince him to take an afternoon off to sit and talk to us about where he is now, how he got there, and what’s in his future.

VF:   Let’s start out with the elephant in the room.  We’re here because Sebastien Raine’s last show was an exhibition of photographs of you.  Sitting across from you today, I’d guess they aren’t recent.

DBR:   Well, the last time he photographed me with my permission we were still in a relationship, so that’s, let’s see, about fifteen years ago.  He took pictures of me before, during, and after our relationship without permission, and there were a few shoots when he had permission before we were together.  As far as I know, he hasn’t shot any pictures of me at all since I moved here with my family.  I haven’t seen the exhibition so I don’t know if they were taken with or without permission, or when or where they were taken, but they would have to be at least twelve years old, since we’ve been here twelve years.

VF:  We have copies of some of the photos with us today.

DBR:  I don’t want to look at them in detail, but a quick glance through them tells me it was during our relationship.  I don’t remember them being taken, so they were probably shot without permission, but honestly, I look high, so I might have told him it was okay.  I really don’t know.  That was a different time, and I often didn’t feel in control, or able to say no.  Some of them are, as you know since you have them, explicit, and I never gave permission for any nude or otherwise explicit photographs to be displayed.  On occasion I did allow him to take nude or explicit pictures, but always with the understanding that they were private, between us, and would remain so.  I do know he’s in violation of the restraining order I took out against him after he showed up here just over ten years ago and the settlement agreement regarding photographs of me that we reached after we parted ways.  We’ve already started legal proceedings.  Beyond that I can’t comment.

VF:  Are you willing to discuss how you ended up here, in Schitt’s Creek, Ontario, of all places?

DBR:   Sure.  That’s a much easier story with fewer current legal entanglements.  My family’s primary source of income was the Rose Video empire.  Even though video rental was on the way out, my father [Johnny Rose] had invested in a few other businesses, although he didn’t own or run them.  He was really in semi-retirement since the video business started winding down.  My mom [Moira Rose] and sister [Alexis Rose] and I never thought the money would run out, and my dad never believed it would either, because of the investments.  Unfortunately, everything was being handled by my dad’s business manager.  He was like family to us, and my dad trusted him implicitly.  It was a mistake.  Some of the investments my dad told him to make he never made, just pocketed the money.  On top of that, he’d been embezzling from us for years, and hadn’t made any of the tax payments.  Both the state and federal governments in the US audited us, and then began seizing property.  The only real property they left us was this town [Schitt’s Creek], which my dad bought for me as a gag gift when I was about eleven.  We didn’t have anywhere else to go, so we came here.  The property we owned was a few buildings and the so-called public property, mostly undeveloped land, overall about 4,500 acres, but no houses, so we actually lived in the Schitt’s Creek Motel when we came here.  Really, until the rest of my family left and I moved into the home I bought with my husband. 

[Photograph of the Rosebud Motel]

VF:   Why didn’t you, and by that I mean your family, buy a house when you came?

DBR:  With what?  We didn’t have any liquid assets.  My parents at least understood how bad things were.  My sister and I didn’t, not really.  One of my credit cards still worked, so I kept using it.  I’d never paid a bill in my life.  The credit cards had my name on them, but they were actually my parents’ accounts, and the staff paid the bills when they were due.  I didn’t really get that at the end of the day, I needed money to pay for the things I bought with them.  I got my first real job after my dad insisted I stop using my card, stop spending money at all, unless I got a job.

VF:  You’d never held a job before?

DBR:   Yes and no.  I’d been a gallerist, but at my own galleries.  I’d open a gallery, and use my connections, my celebrity status, my, well, my family’s, money, to get artists to exhibit there.  Some were up and coming artists, some were the latest hot thing in the art world, some were artists whose work I genuinely admired.  Some were just people I wanted to get to know.  Others were favors for people I wanted to be near, be liked by, or wanted something from.

VF:   Sebastien Raine did his first major show at one of your galleries, before your personal relationship began.  Which category did he fall into?

DBR:  No comment.

VF:   Fair enough.  Even though you owned several successful galleries, you didn’t consider that a job?

DBR:   No.  I did work, and work hard, trying to do my best.  What I didn’t know at the time was that my galleries were guaranteed to be successful.

VF:   How can you guarantee something like that?

DBR:   My parents got friends and contacts to invest in the galleries and buy the art.  Sometimes it was done as a favor to my parents, sometimes they directly reimbursed people for the money they put in.  To this day I have no idea how much of my galleries’ success was due to my efforts and how much was due to my parents’ influence and wealth.  Because of that, I don’t count them when I consider my employment history.

VF:   So what was your first real job?

DBR:   I’m not sure if this one counts, but I got a job as a bag boy at a grocery store.  I lasted less than one training shift.  My dad was so excited about me getting a job that he kept calling over and over.  The person training me was getting more and more irritated.  I finally handed over my smock before she could fire me.  [Smiling, shaking his head]  We still shop at that grocery store.  The next job I got was in a women’s clothing store.  It had been around for years, selling cheap, kind of gaudy clothes.  I really felt that if I could just get in there, I could fix the store.  What I didn’t appreciate was that it was catering to a large percentage of the population of the county, and they wouldn’t really get the designer vibe I had in mind.  Also, I didn’t really understand that the owner didn’t have the financial ability to make the changes I envisioned.  In the long run, while I might have elevated the style a bit, it wasn’t really practical for the area, and probably hurt the store financially.  The owner finally told me she was letting me go and closing, but then she got an offer from an Australian company that wanted to use the name.  They low-balled her, but my sister did some research and discovered the offer was unfair.  We went in with the owner and negotiated a much higher price for the name.  The owner still closed, but she gave me a chunk of the payment she got.

VF:   What did you do with it?

DBR:   At first, nothing.  I saved it.  It became apparent pretty quickly that my family thought of it as belonging to all of us, and they used some of it to buy a car, which did benefit all of us at one time or another.  Not the car I would have chosen and they overpaid for it, but it was useful.  To be completely fair, some of it really should have been Alexis’ money since she did the research and a lot of the negotiation, but I’d been burned one too many times.  They spent more than the budget I set for the car, and I was determined not to waste the rest of it.  Shortly after that the general store in town closed.  I commented to my best friend, Stevie Budd –

VF:   Of the Rosebud Motel Group?

DBR:   Yes.  I told her that it was like the store knew what people wanted and then ran in the opposite direction.  It was kind of a convenience store more than anything else, trying to be a mostly inexpensive close source of a little of everything.  The next closest store was in Elmdale, forty-five minutes away.  Anyway, I got the idea that I could open a store.  I’d gone to a few local markets, and met enough of the townspeople that I knew there were artisans, I mean truly talented people, scattered across the area.  I thought if I could bring these amazing things they were making together, in one permanent place, as opposed to weekly, monthly, or seasonal markets, it could increase their sales, as well as making a profit for myself.  At the time I didn’t realize what my parents had been doing for my galleries, so I thought I’d been a successful businessman.  When I told my parents about my idea, they tried to discourage it, because they no longer had the money to make it a success if it couldn’t succeed on its own.  That was when I found out what they’d been doing for my galleries.  It really shook my confidence, and I almost didn’t go through with my idea.  My mom actively pushed for another business to take possession of the space, but it pulled out.  The rest of the town council was willing to take the risk because it was better than having an empty building at the main crossroad in town.  Even so, I was dealing with a lot of insecurity by the time I went to fill out my incorporation papers and file for my business license.

VF:   Obviously you made it past that insecurity.

[Photograph of the inside of Rose Apothecary]

DBR:   Yes, but not without a few bumps in the road.  In Schitt’s Creek, most people who want to open a business use a service run by a former town council member.  He offers business consultation and advice, and keeps the forms you need to file to incorporate or get a business license, and will file them for you.  It saves people here the trouble of multiple trips to Elmdale.  I made an appointment to fill out the paperwork, and met a guy working for the former council member who was at that time taking over the business consultation services.  He was asking me the questions on the forms, and I didn’t know how to answer them, well, not in a way that would work for the forms.  He said he couldn’t use anything I said.  Honestly, he was pretty cocky and it shook my confidence even more.  My interpretation of his comments was that my business would be a failure.  It wasn’t really what he was saying, of course, but given the headspace I was in, that was my take-away.  He gave me the forms to fill out on my own, and gave me his card in case I needed it.  I ended up calling him several times, leaving kind of rambling messages about what I wanted to do.  He was able to use what I said in the messages to fill out my paperwork, which was good because I messed up the set he sent home with me.  He showed them to me when I went to get a new set, and I approved them for him to file.  The next time I saw him he was bringing my business license by the store, which I was getting ready to open.  He and my sister were both kind of, shall we say concerned, by the amount of product I had.  They were worried I’d overextended.

VF:  I take it you disagreed?

DBR:   When I was talking to potential vendors I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t have enough money to really stock the store the way I’d envisioned.  In the gallery business it’s common, typical, really, for a gallery to display pieces on commission.  If they don’t sell within a certain period of time, they go back to the artist.  It allows the artist to gain a wider audience and take advantage of the gallery’s reputation, while also providing financial protection for the gallery in a way that wouldn’t be possible if the gallery purchased the works.  I discussed using the same approach with the artisans I was talking to, and most of them agreed to at least try working with me on a commission basis.  That allowed me to stock a far wider range of products, of a much higher quality, than I would have if I had to pay for things up front.  Even if I’d been able to get credit, which was unlikely given my lack of independent credit history and financial circumstances, I couldn’t have gotten enough to launch the store the way I wanted.  The commission model let me open the store I had in mind, rather than a shadow of that store with the hopes of one day making it what I dreamed.  We still work on a commission basis with the majority of our vendors.

VF:   You say “we.”  To whom are you referring?

DBR:  The guy who had been working for the former town council member was Patrick Brewer.  He kept coming around, far more than necessary, although he might tell you otherwise.  He thought I needed the help.  While I didn’t actually need it, it was certainly welcome.  He finally proposed working with me.  I told him I couldn’t pay him.  He said that because my business was supporting local artisans and other local businesses, it was eligible for grants, and that he’d be willing to apply for them for me.  If they came through I could pay him using the grants.  [Laughing]  His exact words were ‘I’m gonna get the money.’  And that’s how he became my business partner.  We opened just over ten years ago.

[Photograph of David and Patrick, standing in front of the main display inside the store, arms around each other, kissing chastely on the lips]

VF: Your last name is now Brewer-Rose.  Would we be correct in assuming Patrick Brewer has something to do with that?

DBR:  Well, it’s Patrick Brewer-Rose now, and yes.  We started dating a few months after we opened the store, and got married eight years ago.  Honestly, while I used to imagine what I’d like if I ever had a wedding, I’d never dreamed marriage was truly in the cards for me, and certainly never thought I’d have any kind of relationship with anyone as wonderful as Patrick.  I wake up every day amazed that this is my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

VF:  What about your life before meeting him?  We all know you went through some dark times.  There were the financial issues, the self-doubt, and the wild phase before your family’s financial situation took a downturn, some of which have been documented by Mr. Raine.

DBR:   Keep in mind that whatever Mr. Raine shows you is what he wants you to see, his version of the truth, so to speak, or a lie he’s constructed for his own benefit.  That being said, yes, I made some unwise choices in many aspects of my life prior to deciding to start my business, but they made me who I am and led me here, to this town, to my husband, to the life I have now.  If I hadn’t made those decisions, hadn’t gone through what I did, when I did, I might not have ended up here, and I might have missed out on the best thing I could have ever had.  That’s why despite the humiliation, heartache, and pain I experienced, I don’t regret any of it.

VF:   Tell us a little bit more about the business.

DBR:   As I said, Rose Apothecary opened a little over ten years ago in Schitt’s Creek.  We carry high quality products sourced locally.  Almost everything we carry is made within 250 kilometers of Elm County, Ontario, and over half is made within the county.  The products we stock range from clothing and other textiles to toiletries and personal care products to home décor to food and beverages, as well as other less easily classified products.  We also carry a few products not sourced locally, and not displayed on the showroom floor, but that people might need quickly, like brooms and mops, strictly because it’s the only store in Schitt’s Creek.  Everything in the store is sold under the Rose Apothecary brand.  The store has been very successful, and high demand led us to open our second location, in Elm Glen, about six months after we got married.  Three years later, we opened our third store in Elmdale.  Two years after that we opened our fourth location in Elm Grove.  Our fifth store, in Thornbridge, is set to open in about three months.

At the time we opened our first location, my father had recently gotten involved in the motel business with Stevie, who had inherited the Schitt’s Creek Motel, which would eventually become the first motel in the Rosebud Motel Group.  We agreed to supply it with Rose Apothecary toiletries, and we’ve continued to supply all the motels in the group with Rose Apothecary toiletries.

VF:   Rosebud Motel Group has become known for small roadside motels with linens, toiletries, and breakfasts comparable to those found in luxury hotels.  They’re many people’s first introduction to Rose Apothecary products.

DBR:   They are.  I’m sure that’s what’s fueled part of our growth.  We get people coming to Elm County to go to our stores after encountering Rose Apothecary products at Rosebud Motels, or calling the stores to purchase products they discovered that way.  Once they’re in the stores, they explore and discover we offer so much more.  The calls from people who couldn’t make it to Elm County, along with pressure from my sister, led us to open our online store about a year after we opened the Elm Glen location.  We use the building next to the Rose Apothecary flagship store here in Schitt’s Creek as a warehouse and run the online store from there.

VF:   So everyone, anywhere in the world, can discover the bounty of Rose Apothecary.

DBR:   Yes and no.  The flagship store carries the widest variety of products, although each store has a few products none of the others do from nearby vendors.  Our vendors who have been able to scale up as we’ve grown have done so, but the very nature of the products some of them supply mean that production on a large scale isn’t possible without compromising quality.  As a result, we can’t necessarily supply all the brick-and-mortar stores with all the same products, and if we can’t even source enough of a product to stock all the stores, we obviously won’t offer it as part of the online store.  Therefore, the online store offers a taste of what someone could find in the stores, but not the full selection of products.

[Photograph of David and Patrick in front of the cash, facing the camera, arms around each other’s waists]

VF:   Well, before we started this interview I did a bit of shopping at the flagship store, and I can attest it’s definitely worth a trip to Elm County.  I’m looking forward to using everything I picked up.

Tell us about the new store.

DBR:   Opening a new location is always an exciting time, but stressful as well.  The preparation for opening our second store is what led us to hire staff other than Patrick and I for the original location, although we still work primarily out of the flagship store.  However, the time we had to dedicate to opening the second store meant that we needed to have the first fully staffed with someone other than us.  Because we always intended to remain based out of the original store, each time we open a new store we also have to hire and train a full staff for the new store.  And we’ve had to do the same for the online store.  So, now we’re in the hiring process.  On top of that, one of us will spend a couple of months, the month before opening and the first month after, living in a Rosebud Motel near the new location and working full time from that store.  It means time apart, which neither of us like, but we make it work.  As for the store itself, it will, of course, have most of our core products, plus some local things none of the other stores have.  One of the things I’m most excited about is that there is a local baker who makes amazing macarons, and we’ve secured an exclusive deal with them.  The only place you’ll be able to get them is the Thornbridge location of Rose Apothecary.  They’re also the thing that make Patrick the most nervous; he’s afraid I’ll eat them all and no one else will get any, and we’ll lose money on them.  He’s the numbers guy.

VF:   Speaking of making it work, how do you keep control of so many locations?  You seem pretty hands-on.

DBR:   [Laughing]  Stevie and Patrick make fun of me for being a bit of a control freak and not being very good at compromise.  Patrick and I have a day each week when we each spend a half day at the Elm Glen and Elmdale stores.  We alternate which of us goes to which store each week.  One of us also visits the Elm Grove store each week, alternating who goes, for about half a day.  Our managers are great, and let us know if we need to spend more time at any of the stores.  Once the new store is up and running, we’ll add it to the rotation.  One of us will go to Thornbridge on the days the other goes to Elm Grove.

VF:  Any plans for further expansion?

DBR:   Not right now.  There are still a few towns in Elm County where we don’t have locations, so never say never, but we don’t currently have plans for a sixth location.

VF:  You mention towns in Elm County.  What about expansion beyond the county?

DBR:   It’s very important to us to locally source our products, and to visit each vendor regularly.  As I said, over half of our stock comes from within the county.  Between store visits each week and a regular rotation to visit vendors, especially with the vendors that are farther away, we’re already pretty busy.  On top of that, we’re always looking for new vendors, so we’re constantly looking for new artisans, new vendors.  We made a conscious decision when we married to stay here, to make Schitt’s Creek our home, so we’re committed to Elm County, to this community, and to the area immediately surrounding it.

VF:   On that note, we did a little research.  We’ve talked to the mayor and town council of Schitt’s Creek and a few of the other towns where you have locations.  It turns out your store has been the catalyst for growth in several of them.

DBR:   I don’t know about that.  I do know there are more artisans and craftspeople in Elm County now than there were a dozen years ago, and there were an amazing number then.  We’ve been contacted by a few potential vendors who wanted to do business, but whom we had to turn away because they were outside our radius.  As far as I know, only one or two artisans have relocated to Elm County or the surrounding counties because of us.

[Photo collage of various Rose Apothecary products]

VF:   We’ve poked around a bit.  I think one or two is an underestimation.  Elm County as a whole, and Schitt’s Creek in particular, has become an artists’ colony of sorts, and it seems like most of the artists and artisans either sell their work through Rose Apothecary or aspire to do so.

DBR:   [Chuckling]  Well, that’s good to know, I guess.

VF:   You mentioned that you and your husband decided to live here in Schitt’s Creek.  Tell me about that.

DBR:  When we moved here, I wanted nothing more than to leave.  More than anything else, I wanted to go back to New York.  I thought that’s what I needed to do, to prove to the people that used to be in my life that I was still relevant.  But I met my best friend here.  I’d miss her.  Hell, I miss her when either she or I travel for business, and we’re rarely apart for more than a week.  I don’t think we ever go more than a day or two, even when we’re apart, without talking on the phone.  And texting; don’t get me started on that.  And I met my husband here, who I love more than I’ve ever loved anyone, more than I thought it was possible to love anyone.  He moved here after we did, but did so voluntarily.  We got married just as my family was preparing to leave Schitt’s Creek.  There was a venture capital group investing in the motel chain, so the headquarters was being moved to New York City, my mother was cast in the reboot of Sunrise Bay, her old soap opera, so she and my dad were moving to California, and my sister had recently started Alexis Rose Communications, and was moving it to New York City.  I was going with them.  I wasn’t thinking of the store, of Patrick, of anything but leaving.  I mean, I assumed he’d happily come with me.  But then we talked about it and I realized he didn’t want to leave.  He would, but he didn’t want to.  We met here, started our business here, built our life together here.  And there was a cottage that reminded me of someplace, just outside of town.  Because I commented on it and liked it, he’d walked up to the door and asked the owners to contact him if they ever wanted to sell.  I found out about that, and realized how much he’d planned for our lives here, and I knew I couldn’t force him to leave.  So I put an offer down on the cottage, and we bought it.  We still live there, and I couldn’t be happier.  I like the pace of life here.  I like the quiet, the solitude.  I like being able to relax, not constantly feeling like I have to be on, like I’m on display.  We visit Alexis in New York City sometimes, and it’s the city I called home for much of my life before Schitt’s Creek, but now I find that I’m not super comfortable there, and while I have fun for a few days, after that I just want to leave, to get home to our cottage. 

[Photographs of David and Patrick sitting in their living room, cooking together, and leaning against their kitchen island]

VF:   Obviously a lot of your life is devoted to work, and you work together.  Is your life all work?

DBR:   It would be easy, since we do work together, to let the work take over our lives.  We’ve made a conscious effort to not let that happen.  As much as possible, we try to do our work during work hours, and keep the rest of the time for us.  It isn’t always possible, but we do our best.  The fact that we have full staffs at the stores helps.  We’ve also hired a bookkeeper/accountant.  As much as Patrick laughs at me about not being able to give up control, allowing someone else to step into that role has been a struggle for him.  He still oversees and reviews everything, and does spot checks to make sure everything is correct.  Given what my family went through, I don’t see either of us ever fully turning loose of that aspect of the business, but having her does ease the day to day pressure of tracking every little thing.  The days we travel to the other stores in the afternoon, we tend to take time for ourselves in the morning.  Sundays the stores are closed, and we almost always spend them together.  Patrick loves to hike, so if it’s warm enough and the weather is good, we usually go for a hike on Sundays.  We do normal, everyday couple things:  we do puzzles, host game nights with our friends, have date nights, curl up on the couch and read or watch TV together, we cook together most nights, and meal prep for the nights when we’re having to travel further away and won’t get in until late.  I know no one from my old life will believe this, but sometimes we just work on the house, or on normal chores:  we clean the house, we do laundry, we do the dishes.  I mean, it’s not exciting, but we do them together, and that makes them bearable, and they have to get done.  Sometimes we tackle bigger projects.  Patrick’s more of a do-it-yourselfer than I am, which should surprise no one, but there are some things we tackle together.  We’ve repainted and renovated the entire cottage, and every once in a while, something needs to be redone.  We both like working with plants, although I prefer potted plants and he likes to garden.  He’s had a garden in our backyard for seven years now, but we just completed a greenhouse.  Hopefully it’ll allow me to keep my outside plants alive through the winter without turning our cottage into a jungle like I’ve done in years past, and it’ll let him get a head start on planting by starting seeds while the ground is still frozen.  That’s the day to day of making time for us, as a couple.  We also visit both his parents and my parents, as well as my sister, for anywhere from a few days to a week several times a year, and we make it a point to go away somewhere, just the two of us, for at least a week every year.  Just to reconnect, to focus on each other.

VF:   So just the two of you?  No kids?  Plans for kids?

DBR:   No, no kids.  I guess because of how I grew up, I’ve always been convinced I wouldn’t be a good dad.  Patrick doesn’t agree with me about that, but for me kids have always been a deal-breaker.  Patrick had always assumed he’d have at least one, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker for him.  He has cousins with kids, and we see them sometimes, and Alexis is married now, so maybe she’ll have one one of these days, but kids of our own aren’t in our future.  We do some outreach, some mentoring through the stores, of teens and young adults, and that, plus kids in the extended family, are enough for us.

VF:   You mention outreach.  Tell me about that.

DBR:   It didn’t start out as outreach.  It was a way to get people into the original store when it was slow.  The first one was an open mic night.  Then I hosted a painting class.  Both of those are now regular features for the flagship store, but they’re mainly for adults.  We also host vendors teaching various classes at the different stores in the evenings.  Once a month I host art classes for teens and young adults on the weekend at the original store, and Patrick hosts music classes and songwriting workshops for children, teens, and young adults, although not at the same time, at the same store on weekends as well. 

We’ve also had a few local kids who’ve been interested in one or more aspects of the business, and we’ve taken on some of them as interns.  A couple of those kids are now adults who work for us full time, and another has started their own business.

VF:  What’s next for David Brewer-Rose?

DBR:   We’re going to get the fifth location open, then hopefully breathe and relax, at least for a little while.  Like I said, we aren’t planning to expand beyond Elm County, but we’re always looking for new products, new vendors.  We work with our existing vendors to develop new products, which is always exciting.  The online business is always growing, and we’re going to stay on top of that.  We’ve honestly depended mostly on word of mouth, but we’re hiring Alexis Rose Communications to help us with an integrated advertising and marketing campaign, which is something we’ve never done before.  We want to continue to grow, but in a controlled way, so we can maintain the quality and consistency we’re known for. 

Personally, we just bought a cabin in the woods a little ways from Lake Huron.  It needs a bit of work, so we’re planning to renovate it together.  Hopefully, once it’s done, it can be a place we can go to be together, away from everything and everyone, or we can host family and friends when we all want to get together.

VF:   To come full circle, what do you think Sebastien Raine would think if he could see you and what you’ve made of your life?

DBR:   I don’t think of it.  I don’t care.  He can think what he wants, it’s of no consequence to me.  I’m happy, and he can’t take that away from me.

VF:  Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.

DBR:   Anytime.

Patrick gently placed his hand on David’s chin, turning it so he could kiss him.  “It’s such a great article, baby!”

“The best part is that if I know Sebastien, and I do, he’s going to be beyond pissed.  This is going to make him angrier than the lawsuit or us winning it and him having to pay the damages.”

“God, this was what, nearly five months ago that you did this interview?  I’d nearly forgotten about it.”

“Yeah.  This is the advance copy.  A few people get them, including people featured.  Subscriptions should be mailed out in the next day or so, and it’ll hit the newsstands next Friday.  I should probably warn Alexis.”

“Doesn’t she have a subscription?”

“Yeah, but she’ll want to see it as soon as possible.  I told her it was coming, but I swear, pregnancy brain is a real thing.  She’s going to want to use it in the PR campaign.”

David snapped pictures of the article and texted them to Alexis as Patrick gathered their lunches, drinks, and jackets.  On the way to work they chatted about the day to come, and what needed to be done at each store, nearly forgetting the article.  They put it out of their minds, until two weeks later when David’s phone rang.

“What the fuck did you do?”

“Um, hi, Stevie, what are you talking about?”

“There isn’t a Rosebud Motel room available within a hundred kilometers of Elm County at any time in the next four months.  Every room is booked in advance, and everyone wants to know how to get to a Rose Apothecary.  All our occupancy is up, and the closer a motel is to Elm County, the more booked it is, and for longer.  I’ve called around and nearly every hotel, motel, inn, and B&B in the area is booked.”

“Don’t look at me.”

“They keep mentioning an article.”

“Oh.”

“A heads up would have been nice.”

“Sorry.  I didn’t think it would have much of an effect.”

“Well, it did.”

“Um, want to come over to our place for pizza tonight?  We can talk about it then.”

“Will there be wine?”

“Of course.”

“I’m in.  Oh, and just so you know, Ray’s booked solid with showings, so you probably owe him too.”

Just then his phone pinged, as did Patrick’s.  Patrick was driving them to work at the Schitt’s Creek store, so David checked both messages. 

“Mine says we need to discuss increasing orders from most of our vendors.  Most of our vendors?  What does that even mean?”

Patrick shrugged.  “What does mine say?”

“It’s from Kathleen.  Online orders are up sixty percent, and she wants to talk about hiring another person to help fill them, at least in the short term, permanently if orders stay at this level.”

“God, we’ll have to hire someone.  Maybe two people.  There’s no way she, Riley, and Mikey can keep up at that rate.”

“Who would have thought the article would do that?”

“David, look.”

The store didn’t open for another half hour, but when David looked up, he saw a line of people waiting to get into the store longer, and seemingly better behaved and more cheerful, than the one that had greeted him on the day of their soft opening.  He turned to his grinning husband, stunned for a moment, before he threw his head back and laughed.