CHAPTER 3
“Did you know Booker started closing the bar on Sundays and Mondays?”
“Lindy, I haven’t had coffee yet. I can barely hold this damn cell phone up against my ear,” I said, groaning.
“When did he start doing that?” Lindy asked.
“Uh, it’s been a few weeks. Why?” I asked.
“How the hell did I not know this?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the bar was closed when I told you I thought I worked today?”
“Because we were swamped, and my mother was acting like a drunk maniac.”
“Your mother is a drunk maniac.”
“Yes. We’re now closed Sundays and Mondays. Though I think Booker rents out the place sometimes Sunday nights. Maybe that’s why you thought you were working?” I asked.
“Maybe. I don’t fucking know. All I know is the bar’s closed and I don’t have shit to do. Want to get lunch?” she asked.
“What time is it?”
“Two.”
“In the afternoon?” I asked.
“It’s light outside, so I’m assuming so.”
“I can hear that fucking smirk,” I said.
“I love you when you haven’t had coffee. I’ll come over with some. Then you can ride with me.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I rolled myself out of bed and dragged my body into the shower. I still smelled like stale cigarettes and expired whiskey. For the first time in two years, I had money to spare for a lunch with Lindy, and I was ready to talk shop with her. We could start going through listings of places we could buy to start the clothing store. We had one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to work with for expenses. If we played our cards right, we could put a down payment on a place, get a loan for the rest, then purchase our first three rounds of clothes out of our pockets.
I was ready to make it happen.
“Coffee,” Lindy said.
“Holy shit! How the fuck did you get in here?” I said, startled.
I wrapped my towel around my body as my mother’s snores trickled into the room.
“She didn’t even go anywhere last night. Did she?” Lindy asked.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.
“Everyone knows where your mother keeps her spare key.”
“Wonderful,” I said. “I can’t even get privacy here.”
“All the more reason to talk about the buildings I’ve found for us to buy.”
“Wait, you what?” I asked.
“The alert on the bank account came through yesterday, and I was too excited to go to sleep. I’ve already been looking up some places. Most of them are scattered on the outskirts of town, but a couple of them are in town. I can’t wait for you to see them.”
“They’re all online, right? Because I’m starving,” I said.
“Of course. Girl, I got you. Come on. Get dressed so we can go get food.”
I pulled on some jeans and threw on a tank top before I grabbed my leather jacket. Though it was January, southern California never got too cold. My leather would keep me warm. I took my coffee from Lindy's hand and started to chug as we walked out to her car. I thought about locking the door, pausing as Lindy's comment dawned on me. If everyone knew where the spare key was to our house because of my mother's hookups and drunken tirades, it made no sense to lock the house anyway.
So, I left it unlocked, and we headed to lunch.
The two of us stayed silent as we drank our coffees. That was the rule. When we needed coffee, there was no talking until coffee was finished. We traveled through town and passed by the bar, flipping it off as we went by. I could already feel the freedom whipping through my hair. I was within inches of being able to quit that dingy place and start my own business. I became more excited as the luxurious caffeine made its way through my veins and, as we pulled up to the diner, I was ready to talk.
“Okay, so what are these places you have for me to look at?” I asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Lindy said.
She pulled out her phone and opened numerous tabs. All the building she had up ranged from $100,000 to $500,000 – our price range for down payments. I wanted to stay away from the ones that were more expensive because I wanted to pay as much out of pocket as we could. The less debt we could go into with this type of venture, the more money we would be able to scrape off the top and take for ourselves. I knew it would take time to build up a devoted client base, which meant we were facing anywhere from six months to one year of not being able to make any significant profit for ourselves.
And I was going to pay Lindy before I paid myself. Since I’d be living in the building, I could afford to do it.
There was one building, however, that caught my eye. It was a rough-looking building and it was boarded up. It was three thousand square feet and was free-standing. It would need a lot of work, at least on the inside. The outside wasn’t too bad, especially for being boarded up for four years. The price was set cheap at $150,000 for everything, and it even had the lofted second story I was looking for.
Not only that, but the loft already had plumbing and electricity running through it. Jack pot!
“Holy shit, this place is awesome,” I said.
“I knew that one would catch your eye. And the price is great. We could put thirty thousand down, take out a loan for the rest, and use our remaining one hundred thousand to fix up the place and get the equipment we’ll need,” Lindy said.
“That’s not a bad idea. If we could get approved for the other one-twenty, we’d be set. From the looks of it, it shouldn’t take more than about sixty thousand to do what we need to do inside, which would leave us forty for inventory, and I found a place we can get stuff wholesale for pretty cheap.”
“And you could put some of that into the loft upstairs so you’d have your own place.”
“No, no, no. Outfitting the loft is going to be with my own money. The business money isn’t gonna touch that place,” I said.
“But you need a place to stay. It has plumbing and wiring for electricity, but it has nothing else. You’d need to put up walls and get shit for a kitchen. It’ll take some money up front for you to move into a place like that.”
“It looks like the main area already has a bathroom. Sort of. It will when we renovate. I can use that to clean up until I can find the money to—”
“Emma.”
“Lindy, I’m not fighting with you on this. That’s my home, and the business money isn’t gonna fix up my new home. End of story,” I said.
“Fine. I take it this is the place you want to put an offer on?”
“I mean I want to go check it out tomorrow with you but, if all goes well, then yeah. I think it’s pretty damn perfect.”
“Well, pick one to have on the back burner in case this one falls through. You know, so we aren’t starting at square one,” she said.
“Well, considering that it’s been boarded up for four years, I don’t think the bank is going to turn us down.”
I could feel my dreams getting closer. Lindy was already on her phone setting up an appointment to go see the place tomorrow on our day off. We ordered our food and got to talking about how we would want to fix the place up, but my phone ringing interrupted our conversation.
And I groaned when I saw it was my mother.
“Fuck. Hold on,” I said. “Hey, Mom.”
“Did you leave the damn door open?” she asked.
“Did you tell everyone you fucked where our spare key is?” I asked.
“That’s none of your damn business. Lock the fucking door. You trying to get me killed?” she asked.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?”
“You’re not funny. Anyway, that’s not why I’m calling.”
“Shocker. Some dude steal your panties again?” I asked.
“Drop the attitude. I’m calling about the Grove Brothers.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Don’t play stupid with me. The Grove Brothers. You know. Black hair. Blue eyes. Tall. Muscular. Tattoos. Wear the navy-blue leather jackets.”
“Navy blue? That’s a shit color for leather,” I said.
“They were in the damn bar last night talking to you,” she said.
“How do you know who the hell was talking to me in the bar last night?” I asked.
“So, you do know them,” she said.
“No, I don’t. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The three hot men that sat at the bar with you all night. My friend Georgia said they were nursing beers and shit. She sent me pictures. They are hot as fuck. Did you get their numbers?”
Holy hell, she was talking about Nick, Jacob, and Adam.
“No, I didn’t,” I said.
“Why the hell not? You know the kind of guys I go for. They were perfect!”
“I didn’t get their numbers because they’re not single, Mom,” I lied.
“Oh. Well, shit.” I could hear the disappointment in her voice, but I knew that wouldn't stop her for long, especially if she was drinking.
I wasn’t going to let my mother sink her talons into those three. They had seemed like decent guys. I’d been around some nasty bikers in my time, and these guys weren’t that.
“Well, maybe they’ll be back.” my mother said.
“Can’t you just respect people’s boundaries for once?” I asked.
“What? They’re men. They aren’t married, right? Girlfriends come and go.”
“So do booty calls,” I said under my breath.
“I heard that. The bar open tonight?” she asked.
A thought crossed my mind, and I grinned as I eyed Lindy.
“What?” Lindy asked.
“Can I stay at your place tonight?” I asked while I covered the phone with my hand.
“Of course. What’s up?”
I held up my finger before I cleared my throat.
“Yeah, Mom. The bar’s open tonight. Booker is trying something new out. He’s theming nights now.”
“Theming nights? The fuck does that mean?”
Lindy clapped her hand over her mouth, stifling the laughter pouring from her lips.
“It means some nights have a theme now. Tonight is ‘leather and lace.’ Men are in leather. Women are in racy lace,” I said.
“It’s about damn time that boss of yours did something to get more men in there. I gotta go shopping. See you tonight.”
“I’m not working, but have fun,” I said.
“Always do, sweet cheeks.”
“You are so bad,” Lindy said as I hung up the phone.
“Serves her right for being a bullshit mother,” I said.
“I would love to see the look on her face when she shows up all dressed up, and there’s no one there,” she said.
“Thanks for letting me stay at your place. But we’ll have to go home soon so I can pack.”
“Yeah. She’ll definitely lock you out of the house for this one,” she said.
“Did you get us a time for the tour tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yep. The realtor said she can do anytime, so I told her three in the afternoon. We can sleep, eat, then go, prepared to walk around for a while.”
“I knew there was a reason why I liked you,” I said.
“Smart ass.”