It's been a long night. Thinking. Drinking coffee. Calculating. Drinking more coffee. Panicking. Drinking bourbon. It's now morning and I've given in. I spent the night talking myself out of asking for Miles advice as he loses enough sleep over me, but I quickly realize I need it, otherwise I'll just question myself the entire way. Taffy hasn't let me say yes yet. She told me to sleep on it which was a bad idea.
"To Miles Bernard Hamilton,
Call me when you can. Not now, clearly, cause you'll be sleeping. You are sleeping. . .right?
Anyway, I've just done something huge. Super huge and I don't know if I should have.
Need your advice.
From me.
P.S: I may or may not have been in 'The Pretty Cupboard' again, just to warn you."
***
Taffy and Alyssa are back at my place so we can sort out exactly how much money will be needed. This is another thing she was adamant about. Find out how much needs to be dished out before I say yes. Again, I think they're underestimating how rich I am, though I don't want that to be the focal point of our meeting.
As I try to sort out my hair, the phone rings. I frown.
That better not be Miles calling due to his lack of sleep again. I head through the house and out to where the girls are filling Joe in with the latest. The Joe whose grave is marked among the celery.
"Hello?" I answer flatly.
"Mmm hi." Miles tired voice mumbles. I lean against the wall, immediately feeling bad.
"What are you doing?" I ask. I hear him yawn.
"You told me to call."
"Not immediately. Shoot...Miles. You don't have to call the second I email you. Do you sleep on your computer or something?"
"No. I can get them on my phone."
"So you sleep on your phone?" I ask as I make my way back to my room. I hear him sigh chuckling slightly at the end.
"Why am I getting interrogated? You wanted me to call, I called. That makes me a good person."
"Have you not thought of turning your phone off before going to bed?"
"Nina." he sighs.
"No, come on Miles. You've hardly been sleeping as it is. Why make it worse by letting me wake you up."
"You sounded worried. It's done now so what happened?" I sigh again feeling bad. "Nina..." Miles voice says ever so softly. Damn that tone of his. "I like hearing from you. You're the only person I can have a normal conversation with."
"Right. Conversations worth losing your sleep over?"
He laughs a bit. I don't though, not when he sounds this shattered.
"Of course. So...you've done something I might have to tell you you'll regret?"
I shake my head at his stubbornness but break into a smile.
"Yeah," I give in, "I'm actually quite excited about it."
"Now I'm worried." he says lightly. I tuck my fringe behind my ears and try to think of how to break this.
"Um, you know the café my sister always talked about?"
"Mmm."
"I'm buying into it." I wait for a reaction but I only get silence for a while.
"Go on." he says, not sounding fazed.
"Oh...um, the owners signed everything over to Taffy then up and left with all the money, leaving the poor girl to try and find the cash to pay everyone and get things going again. She didn't have the money so I said I'd buy in. I have the money there. Its only a small place so it won't drain my account. The place itself rakes in mega bucks so it's an investment and the money I'm putting in should have originally gone to Adriana anyway so. . . I don't know but it feels...right. Adriana loved this place to pieces and it's not as though I'm putting the money into a derelict café. You should see the number of people who come through. It's packed all the time! Nothings been signed yet but...what do you think?" I bite my bottom lip anxiously, waiting for his thoughts.
"How involved are you planning on being with it?"
"Uhhh," I slide down the wall and sit on the floor, wondering where this is going. "well, everyone that works there is twenty-five and under and although Taffy knows the place well, I think she kind of lacks the confidence at the moment so...pretty involved???"
There's a silence.
"You sound excited." he says softly. I smile nervously.
"I am."
"You're staying there then?"
"I hadn't thought about that but it makes sense. Since I've arrived, I've had this weird fear that...that if I go back to London, I'll just slip into my old pattern, you know? I've been here a few weeks and I've done gardening and shopping and I got a hair cut and even though I've had some very, very low points, I've still never felt this good. Now that's gotta be saying something bad about how I was living before."
"Mmm." is all I hear back then nothing.
"Miles?" I ask into the silence. "Am I making any sense?"
"Perfect sense. You sound excited about it and its different to real estate and by the sounds of it, there are people there who won't suck you dry so...I'm excited for you, Nina." he sounds genuine so I sigh, relieved.
"Really? I was almost expecting you to growl at me for leaving you to rot in London."
He laughs at this.
"No...this is good. This means I get to come and see you after my sisters wedding...if you like."
My smile widens and I look down.
"Sure. You don't have to though."
"I know...I want to. I'm curious about this coffee shop of yours."
"Ah yes, the tables will be turned which reminds me, I bought a hot Italian. His name is Romeo."
"Romeo DeLonghi?"
"You know him?" I ask back in a shocked tone. He laughs again.
"I'm familiar with his work." he says softly. I can't help but laugh also. "Hey um...thanks for the Scotch."
"Oh. She did it. Good."
"You didn't have to do that." he says gently.
"Yes, well you don't have to call everyday but here we are. Besides I really wanted to make sure you know how much I appreciate everything."
"I don't mind...I enjoy having someone to call."
I look down realising just how lonely he must be. No mother or father, only a step sister who lives far away and no friends. How does someone as selfless as Miles end up with no friends? It's strange how one comment like that can make all the guilt of making him call vanish.
"Talk in the morning?" he asks. I nod.
"Yeah. Sounds good. Goodnight Miles Alfredo Hamilton."
"Night." he laughs softly.
"Turn your phone off." I order.
"Mmm."
"Miles." I warn.
"Night Nina." he says with a chuckle before hanging up.
I lean my head back against the wall with a sad smile. Now it makes sense...his worrying and his willingness to call. He's spent the last however many years moving from place to place, making no friends, just floating through life by himself like I was. My mission now is to make sure I act more like a friend to him than a wingy patient.
After staring blankly into nothing for a while, I hear a cough next to me. I look up to see Joe leaning casually on the door frame, arms folded, eyebrow raised.
I frown at him, not moving.
"How long have you been standing there?" I ask.
"Long enough." he grunts back.
"Long enough to what?"
He looks at me a tad longer then shakes his head with a small smile, saying nothing. I roll my eyes and get off the floor, dusting myself off. I then stand in front of the scruffy man and sigh.
"Have you got something to say, Joe?"
After smiling secretly to himself again he looks at me properly.
"Mucher?" he asks quizzically. I roll my eyes, putting a hand on my hip.
"Allow me to rephrase: have you got anything worthwhile to say, Joe?" He chuckles a bit in reply, "Ah yes it's all very funny until someone gets buried in the celery garden." I frown. He shakes his head.
"As long as I get to watch you try to dig the hole." he mutters. I laugh a bit myself knowing he raises a valid point.
"Right, well I'm here for a while. Just give me some time."
He grunts again, looking down at his shoes.
"Big step buying a café." he says.
"Yep." I nod, walking past him and through the house. "Step in the right direction I hope."
"Direction to what?"
"Uh...not sure." I say as I put the phone on the hook again. "I think it's more a step away from the wrong direction."
Joe takes a perch on the stool and raises an eyebrow.
"The wrong direction being?" I wave a coffee cup at him and he gives a nod of approval.
"Ummm, overworking I think. How do you have it?"
"Strong, sweet and white."
I start his coffee and pop into the next room where Taffy and Alyssa are sitting suspiciously quiet.
"You two want a coffee?" I ask.
"Tea please." Alyssa says.
"Coffee would be great." Taffy nods, looking a lot more chipper than she did yesterday.
"How is buying a coffee shop not overworking?" Joe asks continuing our original conversation.
"There's set hours, I'll be an owner so I won't have to worry about a black-hearted-good-for-nothing boss and it doesn't require me being up at ridiculous times trying to get paperwork done." I lean on the bench and look at him. "Why? What do you think?"
He shrugs.
"You'll be putting in all the money." he says. I keep my eyes on him, wondering where exactly he's taking this.
"Yes. From what I gather it won't be mega bucks. A drop in the bucket compared to what I got from my parents. Do you think it's a bad idea?" He shakes his head. "What then?"
He shrugs and looks at his hands.
"Just making sure you know what you were doing. You've only been here a few weeks." The tone in which he says this is strangely sincere, not at all cynical like I'm used to.
"I suppose it could look that way." I say slowly. He shrugs again and I start to question myself.
"I don't know you that well though so..."
"Do you think I'd be making a mistake?" I ask.
"No, do you know what your doing though?"
"No I don't, but I think that's what I'm excited about." I hand him his coffee and start on Taffy's coffee and Alyssa's tea. "I've just spent the last umpteen years doing the same thing for the same business and the same kind of people. Adriana was sick and ...dying yet she still seemed happy, you know? And I want a piece of that, of what she felt. I've been here three weeks and I've felt happier and...and ..." I let the words run out and I keep my head down making the drinks. Emotions run a tad deeper than I thought they did with this subject. "If Adriana had the money, which, rightfully, she should have if my parents were fair, then...she wouldn't have hesitated to bail Taffy out of this situation. I may not have known much about my sister but I'm guessing I can assume that much about her." I look at Joe briefly and he nods, his dark grey eyes lightening. He then looks down.
"Sounds about right."
I pick up the drinks and lead the way into where Taffy and Alyssa are, dragging the conversation into them.
"Look...like you said, you don't know me. For all you know, I could up and leave just like the other couple did, but you really have no idea how much I need this. I have nothing to go back to in London. The money is there. I have a house. Residency is no problem because I was born here so, I'm not going anywhere." I start putting the drinks down and I keep talking as I grab some biscuits, put a coffee on for myself and pull up another chair, "Granted, I don't know much about food but my job the last fifteen years was to make people want to buy things; I know what sells, I know how people think and if we can get a new chef, I think the café will remain just as popular as it was before. Adriana has spent her life dishing out money to other people so why can't I? Every single time she wrote to me, it was from that corner in that café. I don't want to see it disappear just as much as you lot."
"Adriana's Corner is a perfect name for it I think." Alyssa says.
"You're renaming it?" Joe asks, taking a seat.
"Goodness yes. Anything is better than what it is." Taffy sighs, sipping at her coffee. "The only thing I'm worried about is keeping up the standard. People don't necessarily like change."
"Well, there's no helping that." I sigh, "but...it doesn't matter how much people like a place, there are always things that can be improved. I'm not talking huge things, I just mean little things. If you lot can't think of anything, I'm sure the others who work there can or the ones who visit often." I look at Joe for some help. He shrugs.
"Loyalty cards would be nice." he mumbles. I look at the others.
"See."
"That will cost more money." Taffy says.
"Not necessarily. If the coffee is 50 cents or a dollar cheaper than a place around the corner, they'll keep coming to ours. Besides, rewarding our loyal customers means they'll keep coming. Anyway, we can talk about all this later. We still have to sort out the numbers." I look at Taffy, seeing uncertainty in her eyes. "I'm not going to come in and rattle things unnecessarily. All I'm saying is as an investor, I, like you want to make sure we can get the most out of it. You know the people here and the food so clearly we'd have to see eye to eye with everything. Put it in the contract if you like. I'm just saying, if Joe can think of something, others may have other ideas on how we can make it better. We want people to be glad we're the new owners don't we?"
Taffy nods slowly but I still feel as though I haven't won her over and I don't blame her. As Joe said, I've been here a few weeks and they don't know me or my record. It may seem very suspicious.
"Do you trust Joe?" I ask. This question earns me a few confused looks.
"Um...yes."
"You'd trust his judgement?" I ask. She nods. "Well, if he agrees, what if all contracts and agreements have to be done with him in the room. You don't know me from a bar of soap but you know him so..." I look at Joe, "What if he became the mediator? You trust him, I trust him. It's a win-win."
Joe raises his eyebrows at me then we both look at Taffy.
"You wouldn't mind?" she asks him. He shrugs in reply.
"Shrugs don't have any contractual leverage." I tell him.
"I don't mind." he says finishing the last of his coffee. Taffy smiles looking a lot more confidant. I smile back. I too will feel better having another person there who I know. I'm just surprised I can say I trust someone after such a short amount of time. Joe has this weird way about him that makes a person feel as though he could never do you wrong...unless you count planting an entire garden with celery as 'wrong'.
"Right...so, more coffee and whip out the calculator?" I ask. There's a nod of approval, so I do so.
It fells good to be in control of something again. Something I can focus on and something I can sink my teeth into. The secret to this whole operation though will be finding the perfect chef.
Another hot Italian may be in order.
A/N: Hi to any and all who are reading this. I hope you're enjoying it so far. Would love your thoughts. Thanks for reading x