Saving Charlie

Ch. 1

Braxton Greco

"Peter, I don't want to wait it out. We need to be proactive, start the project or get rid of the land. I'm sick of dealing with the paper work." I tell my business partner Peter Henson. We usually agree on most business dealings but he's dragging his feet on this current arrangement and I'm having to deal with the headache. Stacks of environmental impact reports, and miles and miles of bureaucratic red tape. Permits alone can hold up a property development, why he's stalling on this project is unknown to me and its beyond frustrating.

"So, push it to someone else. Let's sit on it for a couple more months." He insists.

Giving him an irritated look, I shake my head. "No, I have all the permits in order. We start next month."

He gives me a disaproving look. "I promised Charlie that we'd help fund the children's cancer wing and they're not breaking ground for another nine months." He explains.

Listening to his statement my mind instantly fills in the rest. "Of course." I nod. "You don't want to build until we have the market, which will come with the hospital addition." I reply, knowingly. Peter is a philanthropist, but a businessman above all. The tax break we'll get from helping to fund the addition to the hospital is his main concern, his granddaughters happiness a close second. He's a great business partner, even if he's a little taxing on my patience. I'm glad my father introduced me to him. "Charlotte doesn't know about the hotel?" I ask.

"Charlie's only concerned about the hospital. You know that." Peter replies fondly.

I nod. "I understand your hesitation but its really a matter of resource allocation. We currently have five hotels in various stages of construction. Steven Daniels finishes Tokyo in two weeks. I want to put him on this project right away and not twiddling his thumbs for the next nine months."

There's only a brief pause while he pounders what I'm telling him. He knows I'm not asking for permission on this, I'm not even sure why we're talking about it. Time is money and holding onto the plans for this hotel is making us bleed. "Fine, it'll look better to Charlie if we finish the build before the hospital. Get it started, use whomever you need." He encourages.

"She'll still have something to say about it." I respond, smiling slightly at the thought of Charlotte scolding him for profiting from the hospital addition. Sick people with families need the hospital and we provide the families with accommodations. Its a lucrative business, but Charlotte would find it sleazy.

He grimaces. "She usually does."

    Charlotte or Charlie, as Peter calls her is his youngest granddaughter and the only Henson I like, besides Peter. She works as a nurse at the hospital working in the cancer ward. She's been fighting to have a children's cancer wing made and donate's most of her modest earnings to families struggling to pay hospital bills. It's a cause close to her heart after her only cousin and best friend, Amelia Henson died of leukaemia fifteen years ago. Peter's only son, Amelia's father passed just three months later from a brain aneurysm.

I smile thinking of her. You could always ask her out." He chuckles. I narrow my eyes at him. He knows as well as I do, Charlotte is terrified of me.  "She's going to have to move on from that night eventually." He adds, sadly.

"I terrify her." I remind him.

"I know that. You're just going to have to show her she doesn't need to fear you." He replies, trying to be helpful.