by B R Snow
“Then what are you planning to do with it?” Chef Claire said.
“It isn’t a question of what I’m going to do with it, Chef Claire. The question is what are you going to do with it?”
“I’m afraid you lost me, Mrs. C.”
“This is your place,” my mother said.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Chef Claire said, glancing around and seeing the grins on our faces.
“You wanted to open your own place,” my mother said, spreading her arms. “Well, here it is.”
“Look at that fireplace,” Josie said, heading across the room. “This would be the perfect spot for the bar.”
“You’re right,” I said, then looked at Chef Claire. “What do you think?”
“I think you people are out of your minds. I can’t afford something like this. The renovations alone would run at least half a million.”
“So?” I said.
“So?” Chef Claire said, staring at me. “So that’s a lot of money, and in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have half a million.”
“No,” my mother said. “But we do. And as your silent partners, it will be our responsibility to make sure that you have enough working capital to get the restaurant off the ground.”
“What? The three of you? Silent partners?” Chef Claire said, leaning against the wall for support.
“Well, silent apart from the clanging of metal you hear every time Josie picks up a knife and fork,” I said, laughing.
“You’re one to talk,” Josie said.
“We need to slow down a bit,” Chef Claire said. “How would this work?”
I looked at my mother and nodded for her to start.
“First of all, the three of you will need to set up a corporation,” my mother said.
“What about you?” Chef Claire said.
“My dear, trust me, I have absolutely no interest in running a restaurant. As far as your business is concerned, my role will be limited to being your landlord.”
“So you’re going to rent it to us?”
“Initially, yes,” my mother said. “But at some point in the future, I’m sure I’d be willing to consider selling the building to you.”
“How much is the rent?” Chef Claire said.
“One dollar a year,” my mother said, starting to stroll off into the adjacent room. “This would be a wonderful place to have dinner. How many people do you think this room could hold?”
Chef Claire glanced around and thought about it.
I was glad it was her turn to do the math.
“Probably twenty,” she said.
“So if there are four other rooms about this size, the restaurant could seat around a hundred people?” my mother said.
“Yeah, that’s probably close,” Chef Claire said, glancing around. “If you turned the tables twice a night, you could probably do two hundred dinners on a busy night. Maybe a few more.”
“I don’t know anything about the restaurant business, but that sounds like enough to make a living,” my mother said.
“Sure,” Chef Claire said. “But it’s a short season.”
“Oh, no, my dear,” my mother said. “You misunderstood me. There’s nothing seasonal about this proposal.”
“What?” Chef Claire said.
“We’re thinking about a year-round operation,” I said. “The town can use a nice place for people to hang out during the winter.”
“We’d lose our shirts during the winter,” Chef Claire said.
“Not necessarily,” Josie said. “Not if we were smart about it.”
“We could go to a limited menu with a lot of soups and stews,” I said. “We could do pizzas and sandwiches, things like that. Maybe even do in town deliveries. And we’d have the bar business. We’d lose some money, but I’ll cover that.”
“You’ll cover that?” Chef Claire said.
“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “I recently came into some money.”
Last night my mother and I had agreed that she would advance a portion of my inheritance to fund the restaurant. She’d written me a very large check with a lot of zeroes on the spot. I had stared at the check and blinked several times just to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. Then my mother had told me not to worry about spending it because it was a very small percentage of my total inheritance. For the first time, I had a pretty good idea of how much money she was worth and, to be honest, it took my breath away.
“Suzy, I can’t let you do that,” Chef Claire said.
“Why not?” I said.
“Because we could lose thousands of dollars a month during the winter,” Chef Claire said.
“Well, if we do, then in about fifty years, we’ll probably need to start thinking about shutting the doors,” I said.
Josie snorted.
For the first time in weeks, I didn’t find it annoying.
“We have a few more stipulations,” my mother said.
Chef Claire’s face dropped.
“Relax, my dear,” my mother said laughing. “You’re going to like them.”
“Okay, let’s hear them,” Chef Claire said, again leaning against a wall.
“As the former mayor and current member of the town council, I consider it part of my responsibilities to look for ways to improve the lives of our residents. So, as part of our business arrangement, I’d like to ask you to include some low-cost meals that would be delivered to our shut-ins. Perhaps a daily special of some sort.”
“Sure, that’s very doable,” Chef Claire said, nodding.
“Wonderful,” my mother said. “The rest of the Council will be very happy to hear that. And I’m sure that will help us expedite any permits or permissions we might need. The Council is going to be delighted that someone is going to do something with this building that’s been vacant for far too long.”
“What else?” Chef Claire said.
“You’ll need to set aside a portion of your wine cellar for some of my personal collection.”
“Here we go,” I said, laughing.
“Nothing major,” my mother said. “I’ll just need enough room for a few cases. I plan on eating here often, and my dinner guests tend to be, let’s call them, upscale clientele.”
Josie laughed.
“Yes, we know, Mom.”
“And I’d like to have a table that I can call my own. I’ll let you know which one as soon as the renovations are complete.”
“You got it, Mrs. C.,” Chef Claire shaking her head at the wonder that was my mother. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s it,” my mother said. “I’m pretty low maintenance.”
All three of us let that one pass without comment.
“Josie and I also have one stipulation,” I said. “During the season, we’d like the verandah area outside to be dog-friendly. And during the winter, we’d like the same thing in the bar.”
“Absolutely,” Chef Claire said. “Actually, I’ve always wanted to include a dog menu. But I’m not sure that will fly with the Health Department.”
“You let me worry about that, my dear,” my mother said, waving away Chef Claire’s concern. “I can’t even count the number of favors the health inspector owes me.”
“Old friend, Mom?”
“No, dear,” she said, flashing me a quick smile. “He’s not that old at all.”
Chef Claire looked at Josie and me.
“How would the corporation be structured?”
“We were thinking about a sixty, twenty, twenty split,” I said. “Of course, the sixty percent is yours.”
“I still don’t know why I should get twenty percent,” Josie said.
“You get twenty percent because we’re business partners,” I said to Josie for what was probably the tenth time. “It what’s we do.”
“All right,” Josie said, catching the tone in my voice. “I’ll let it go.”
“Good. But just remember that you don’t eat for free,” I said, laughing. “If we allow
that, we’ll be closed down in six months.”
“Funny,” Josie said.
“So what do you say?” I said to Chef Claire.
“I’m worried about the winters,” she said.
“You worry too much,” Josie said.
“So you’re saying that I’ll get used to them?” Chef Claire said.
“No, absolutely not. They’re brutal,” Josie said. “I’m just saying that you worry too much.”
For some reason, my mother and I found Josie’s comment a lot funnier than Chef Claire did.
“All you’ll need to do is make sure you get some staff you trust enough to run things if you want to take some time off,” my mother said. “And when you do, you can come spend some time with me at my place in Grand Cayman.” She glared at me. “If you did, you’d be the first.”
“What can I say, Mom? Our dogs need us.”
“And I don’t?” my mother said, holding a hand to her chest.
“Nice try, Mom,” I said, laughing.
Actually, Josie and I had been talking about taking her up on her offer. I’d seen the photos and the place was magnificent. I looked at Chef Claire.
“So?”
“Okay,” Chef Claire said, nodding. “I’m in. But it’s going to be a ton of work.”
“Yes, indeed,” my mother said, reaching into her purse and removing several business cards. “Here’s the card for a local architect that has done some work for me. Here’s one for a local construction company that I highly recommend. The other cards are for people you might need for kitchen equipment, furniture, and all the other usual suspects.”
Chef Claire stared down at the handful of business cards.
“Thanks, Mrs. C.,” Chef Claire said.
“No problem, my dear,” my mother said as she looked around. “I think Memorial Day would be a great weekend to open.”
I knew she wasn’t joking.
“Okay,” Chef Claire said.
“Welcome to the family,” I said, laughing.
“We’ll need to come up with a name,” Josie said.
“Well, since I’m Chef Claire, you’re the Chandlers, and Josie’s last name is Court, how about we just call it C’s?”
We thought about it, and I decided it had a nice ring to it.
“I love it,” Josie said.
“It’s perfect,” I said.
“Let’s hope everything is as easy as that was,” Chef Claire said.
“Okay, I think we’re finished here,” my mother said. “If I remember correctly, Suzy, you said something about buying me breakfast.
“I did, didn’t I? Breakfast sounds great. What do you say, Josie?”
“I could eat.”
My mother locked the door, and we headed for our cars. I noticed the new car my mother was driving. It was a black on black top of the line Audi.”
“Did you get another new car, Mom?”
“Yes, darling. After my recent breakup, I decided my old one had far too many bad memories associated with it.”
“Mom, you had it for maybe a month. How many memories did you have time to create?”
“Enough. And all of them were bad.”
I nodded. It was hard to argue with her logic on that one.
“Where did you get it?”
“From Dirk, of course,” she said climbing into the car.
“After what that guy did to you, you went and bought another car from him?”
“No, darling. After what he did to me, and what he knew I could do to him, he gave me the car.”
“You threatened to blackmail him?”
“Of course not, darling,” she said, starting the engine. “It was a simple case of what I like to call humiliation-fueled payback.”
“Tomato, tomahto?”
“Exactly. I’ll see you at the Café.”
She roared off and left me standing in the middle of the road. Josie approached, and we stared at the car until it turned and disappeared from view.
“You know, now that he’s back on the market, maybe I should hook up with Dirk,” Josie said.
“I don’t think Dirk ever really left the market,” I said, playing along with her.
“You’ve got a point there.”
“But if you did, you’d have to figure out a way to catch him cheating on you, right?” I said.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know, Josie. It sounds like an awful lot of work.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said. “But I’d kill for that car.”
I laughed and then we rejoined Chef Claire and drove to the Café and ate ourselves silly.
Epilogue
It took a while for the shock of John’s arrest to dissipate. Upon hearing the news, no one in town believed it at first, but when people heard the full story, everyone was extremely disappointed. Some, like Josie and me, were heartbroken. But after a few weeks of constant chatter around town, gradually everyone moved on, and our attention shifted to Thanksgiving that was rapidly approaching. Christmas and the full onset of winter would soon follow, but judging from the light snow that was falling this morning as the sun appeared in the early morning sky, winter might have decided to make a relatively early appearance this year.
“How do you think Chef Claire does her cranberries?” Josie said.
“Really? Given everything that’s gone on recently, that’s what’s on your mind?” I said, adjusting our trolling speed to four miles an hour.
“I’m tired of thinking about all the other stuff,” Josie said.
She was sitting across from me out of the wind as much as possible wearing her parka, and a wool ski hat pulled down low over her forehead. Her gloves were wrapped around a cup of steaming hot chocolate. Chloe was on her lap and doing her best to hide in and under Josie’s parka.
“Chloe, you’re such a baby,” I said, laughing. “You’re the one with a fur coat.”
“It’s freezing out here, and you know it,” Josie said, taking a sip of hot chocolate.
“Yeah, it certainly is,” I said, zipping my coat. “But this is the last time we’ll be on the River this year, so let’s try to enjoy it.”
The boat was scheduled to be pulled from the water tomorrow and put into storage until the last bit of ice disappeared next spring. Josie and I always made it a point to have a final day on the River each year, but given recent events, we’d been busy and had almost missed our window of opportunity. Our last boat ride each year was usually held on a glorious fall afternoon and was organized around a water picnic involving several boats filled with friends. This year we were flying solo and so far the morning was highlighted by me trying to catch a Muskie while Josie whined and pounded hot chocolate.
It was already clear that this day wasn’t going to become an annual tradition.
I glanced back at my fishing rod inserted into a holder attached to the stern. My rod remained stationary, and I assumed that my Muskie count would remain at zero. And I’m not talking about this morning. I’ve been fishing for them for years, but have never caught a single one.
That’s a bit fat zero for those of you keeping score.
And as someone who prides herself as a good fisherman, it was a sore spot.
I refused to believe that it was that hard to catch one.
“Did you see the story yesterday about John’s trial starting next month?” Josie said, refilling her mug.
“Yeah, it sounds like there wasn’t much his lawyers could do to slow it down,” I said. “The recording has him confessing to the two murders as well as drug smuggling. He’s pretty much convicted himself.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Josie said.
“Yeah, it’s a sad situation,” I whispered.
“Why do you think he just kept talking on the boat that day?”
“He didn’t think we’d ever have the chance to tell anybody,” I said. “He underestimated us.”
“No, he underestimated you. I thought you’d lost your mind,” Josie said.
“But you were amazing, Suzy.”
My face flushed, and my eyes welled with tears as they had most days since the events on the boat. I felt some degree of pride about solving the murders, but I was also sad, even sometimes ashamed, for having done that to someone who’d once been a very close friend.
As if reading my mind, Josie said, “He would have killed us, Suzy.” She stared off into the distance. “It’s hard to imagine doing that to anyone, much less three good friends.”
“As my mother says, somewhere along life’s pathway, John lost his soul, then he lost his way.”
“Really? Your mother said that?” Josie said, glancing at me over the top of her mug as she took a sip.
“She’s recently started reading Eastern philosophy,” I said.
“Mid-life crisis?”
“She’s dating her yoga instructor,” I said.
“Unbelievable,” Josie said, laughing. “I just love your mother.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said, nodding.
“So is this new boyfriend a keeper?”
“No, Mom says he’s more of the catch and release variety,” I said. “But she’s having fun, and she looks great. I’m thinking about starting to do yoga.”
Josie snorted.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” I said, glaring at her.
“Sorry. It’s an involuntary response.”
“Well, it’s not an attractive quality,” I said. “But I need to start doing something physical. I’ve gained five pounds since the start of summer. And winter is when I can pack it on if I’m not careful.”
“You look great,” Josie said. “And you needed to put a few pounds on.”
“You really think so?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks. Have you gained any weight since Chef Claire moved in?”
“Not an ounce,” she said, shaking her head.
“How is that possible?”
“Suzy, we spend our days taking care of dozens of dogs, and we probably walk five to ten miles a day while we’re at work. Not to mention all the stuff we lug around. Just keep taking care of our dogs and the weight will take care of itself.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am,” she said, leaning back in her seat to give Chloe the room she needed to readjust her sleeping position. “At least for a couple more years.”