That wasn’t the case with 427 Harper Lane. It spoke to me the moment I saw it. I was instantly mesmerized. Whatever the square-footage, open space or partitioned, concrete floors or carpeted throughout – none of that mattered. I was sold.
Had I not taken a detour to avoid traffic, I would never have happened upon the location. I was excited that I might be mere hours away from having found the location for my couple’s café.
I had my fingers crossed that the agent would call back soon to schedule a date and time to tour the property. I was dying to see the inside.
CHAPTER 21
~*~*~
Lunch proved to be the distraction I needed. As excited as I was about hearing back from the leasing agent, when I walked in and saw those beautiful faces, the reality of how much I missed them set in.
“Hey, Beauties!” I gushed rushing the table.
My mama was the first to respond.
“It’s about damn time, bizzy!”
“I know…I know…I know,” I said apologetically, then made my rounds to plant kisses on each of their cheeks.
“Kisses will solve everything pretty girl,” Di said. “It was beginning to look like you were standing us up.”
Kelli smiled and reached over to give me a love tap on the shoulder. “Glad you got here, Chica.”
“I had to see y’all. I missed ya too much to stand ya up. That would never happen. Just caught some traffic is all.”
I decided to keep mum on the property until I heard back and knew whether the space was already spoken for.
I wanted to tell them badly, if for no other reason to hear the words I knew would come from my mama’s mouth – You got it baby. Why else do you think you drove by there today of all days? There are no coincidences…”
Any other time those words of encouragement got me over the threshold, but that day the risk was too great, so I held onto the secret.
“I’m starving,” I said. “I haven’t eaten at all today…” as soon as I allowed the words to escape my mouth, I knew I’d made a mistake.
Di lifted her wrist to check the time on her watch and headed straight to Mamaville.
“Now, Gabriella. You can’t become so busy with things that you neglect eating. It’s almost two in the afternoon,” she stressed. “…And you’re just putting something in your stomach? You shouldn’t do that, sweetie.”
“She’s right,” my mother cosigned.
“You’re both right. I know. It doesn’t happen often, today just---”
“She’s lying,” Kelli tattled. “She does it all the time and I tell her the same thing.”
“Wowww…Thanks, Kelli! So much! No group is complete without a snitch in the midst!”
For the next ninety minutes, we talked and laughed, managed to get some celebrity gossip in and caught up on a few TV episodes.
Toward the end of our meals, Di lifted her water glass and tapped it lightly with her fork. Ding, ding, ding. She wore the biggest smile and had a look of mystery about her.
“Can I get you guys’ attention real quick?”
She looked as though she was about to burst from excitement. All our eyes were on her.
“So…” she began. “I’ll just beeline straight to the point and let you know that…Joseph asked me to marry him last night…and…I said yes!”
Joseph was a colleague of my father’s, who my matchmaking mother set up with Di, on a blind date, a year earlier. The four of them were inseparable. They were always at dinner, concerts or off doing other couple things.
It didn’t surprise me that their union led to a proposal, and wedding plans.
I looked at Kelli, awaiting her reaction. She had her mother to herself for so long, I wondered how she would take the news. Or had she already known?
“Mom!” she cried. “That is great!”
Kelli rushed to Di for a hug. It was a beautiful moment to witness between mother and daughter that brought tears to my eyes. Before long, the entire table was caught up in emotion.
“I am so happy for you, mom. Joseph is the perfect guy and I couldn’t have picked better myself and I was starting to think I was gonna have to!” she joked.
After their shared moment, my mother and I grabbed our moments to extend well-wishes and hugs as well.
Joseph had been around the family for as long as I could remember. I’d seen him with girlfriends sporadically over the years but never with anyone more than twice that I could recall.
Apparently, Di had what he was looking for.
Ha! Probably all that Romantica talk and toys!
“Umm…Di? Wherefore art thou is thy ring?” I kidded, holding up and tapping my own ring finger.
“I actually left it at home,” she blushed. “I wanted to share the news with you guys first before I began wearing it officially. Silly, right?”
“Not at all,” we managed simultaneously.
“I’ll be over tomorrow to see it in person,” I informed her.
“Well, I’ll be over tonight dammit,” my mother added. “I might just leave my car here and ride with you!”
Laughter ensued around the table.
“Of course you will, my crazy, impatient, Mama,” I said, shaking my head. “Of course you will.”
“Yeah, so Auntie Alexis…” Kelli began with a raised hand, “…since you found my mom a guy, what stats do I provide you to find me one?”
“I don’t think you or your sidekick need my help finding guys. I’m sure between the two of you, there’s plenty of secret boy candy! Mama’s no fool,” she said shooting me a side eye glance.
Kicking Kelli’s leg underneath the table, I shot back, “How’d I get involved? I don’t even like candy, Mama! Give Kelli that side eye!”
~*~*~
When we left and headed in our individual directions, I felt hugely fulfilled.
I walked away thinking how important it was to take the time – to make the time – for fun, family and relaxation. No matter what comes up in life, that should be mandatory.
My mother called me that night over-the-top excited about having seen Di’s ring.
Full of thrill, she admitted to accompanying Joseph to the jeweler and that the cut Di ended up with, was one of the four she had helped narrow the choices down to.
It was good to witness my mother engaged in a friendship. When I was growing up, she had colleagues who visited our house on occasion, but I had never known her to hang out with them outside that.
As a young girl, I worried that she was lonely because she didn’t have many friends, but as I got older, I realized that she and my father were each other’s company.
She and my dad dated…each other…a lot and they also participated in couple’s outings as well.
I had worried unnecessarily.
She chose the time in her life when she wanted to entertain a friendship of her own, and her bond with Di was the result of that.
Better late than never.
Twenty minutes after our call began, and I had all the deets on Di’s ring, plans for a surprise bridal shower, and anything in between, we issued goodbye’s and I love you’s.
~*~*~
Settling on the fact that it would probably be later than sooner that I heard anything about 427 Harper Lane, I decided to pour myself a glass of Sangria and surrender to Lifetime movies for the night.
Two hours later, even with a slight buzz from my third glass of wine and a semi-entertaining movie playing, my thoughts traveled to the schedule I had in place for the next day: Meeting my agent at another property, new consultant training in the afternoon, plus I had to get in gear with finding an assistant. I was spending far too much time on administrative items and I was ready to delegate.
I played with the idea of calling either Jesse or Todd and spending the night making love noises.
I was seeing them both, but not in a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of way, just in a let’s pleasure each other as the mood hits, kind of way.
The moment I remembere
d that they liked spooning afterwards, the thoughts were immediately halted.
I had a full day ahead of me – much too full to be cuddling and risking a less-than-restful night’s sleep.
I hadn’t encountered a man yet who had come close to making me feel like taking that chance.
I need my entire bed to myself that night.
CHAPTER 22
~*~*~
When I awoke the next morning, my head was slightly abuzz. One too many glasses of the Sangria, I’d deduced, as I rose sluggishly from my bed.
Once I regained my coherency, I pressed forward with performing my daily ritual – to see what action items awaited me and which of those could wait until later in the afternoon when all my tasks and meetings, outside the house were completed.
I headed into my home office, flipped on the computer to check emails and respond to any emergency inquiries.
I checked for new consultant requests, party requests and sales figures from the previous day. I could tell it was going to be a long one.
The mass amount of emails that stared back at me, told an entire story…that just like that, my afternoon was spoken for.
No time to complain. It was me who decided to sign on as an entrepreneur and business owner so my sole option was to roll with the punches.
I created my priority list – a must in my world – saved it to my electronic planner and got into gear.
After I gathered my clothes for post-shower dressing, I was down to my panties about to enter the shower, when my cell phone rang.
I doubled back toward the vanity to see my mother’s number across the display screen.
“Hey, Mom,” I answered. “I’m bukkit nekkit and ‘bout to hop in the shower. What ya need?”
“Too much information, little girl, for one. For two, just call me when you’re done. It can wait.”
“It’s cool, mama. I don’t have to get in right this second.”
I always felt some kind of way about ending conversations with my mother before she got the chance to say why she called.
“It really isn’t important, I just wanted to know if you were going to be around this afternoon.” Then there was a pause. “I was gonna pop by for a bit. I needed to go through your inventory closet.”
“Mama! I told you when you get stuff outta there, I don’t want to know about it! You got a key, just come and get what you need. But I do not want to know or even imagine the stuff that you and daddy do – unless you’re trying to give me a sibling! Anything other than that, I am not interested. Ugh!”
“Ain’t no babies comin’ out of this, so you can release on those pipe dreams. Alexis and Gabriel are too old for that.”
“Whatever you say…but not really. There’s women who have babies in their 40’s all the time!”
“Yeah, but I’m closer to 50 than 40. It ain’t gonna happen. The End.”
“Tell that to all those 30-something dudes that still push up on you!”
It was true. My mama may have been a few years from fifty, but looking at her, nobody could tell. She looked maybe 32. I hoped to be blessed with that gene magic when it was my turn!
“Gabriella…I love you…done with the baby talk, so you can jump your little nekkit self in the shower.”
I let out a light chuckle. “Love you too, mama.”
As I pulled the phone away from my ear, I could still hear her laughing as I pressed the end button.
No sooner than I turned my back to the phone and was headed toward the shower door, my cell rang again. I figured it was my mother calling back because she’d forgotten to say something, but when I looked at the caller ID, the number was one I didn’t recognize. Reluctantly, I pressed the button.
“Good morning, this is Gabriella,” I answered.
“Hi, Gabriella, just the person I was trying to reach. My name is Mya Hayden. You left a message about the property at 427 Harper Lane.”
“Yes, yes! Hi, Mya! Thank you so much for returning my phone call! I am really hoping you have good news for me.”
It didn’t matter in the least that I was standing in the middle of my bathroom a pair of panties from nude. I was too amped up to give it a second thought.
All I could think about was how happy I was that my mother called because had she not, I would have been in the midst of showering and missed Ms. Mya Hayden’s phone call.
I heard her release a giggle, probably amused by the amount of rowdy in my voice.
“That depends on what good news would be…” she responded.
“Just please tell me that the space is still available for lease and that nobody has claimed it between yesterday and now.”
We hadn’t talked pricing or any other specific details and I was already asking about availability. I wanted to claim that location as mine. My desire was to put an address with the vision so that I could start building, with clarity.
My heart was beating a thousand miles per minute, as I paced back and forth in my panties.
Then she uttered the words, “The property is available,” and everything stood still.
All the sounds around me…birds, wind, kids playing outside. Everything stood still.
“Gabriella? You there?” she asked.
I took a deep breath.
“Yes. I’m here.”
“You’re okay, right? This is the good news you were hoping for?”
“It is exactly what I was hoping for, Ms. Hayden.”
“Perfect” she continued. “The owner wants a 1-year lease and you have the option to buy at the end of that year. We have had a few offers, but the owner is more interested in getting someone there who he knows will take good care of it and who is interested in the purchase option.”
“I’ll just say this, Mya…” I started. “Is it okay for me to call you Mya?”
“Please do,” she responded.
“I have looked at many properties and came away empty, with no connection. I drove past 427 on my way to meet family for lunch and was stopped in my tracks. The building spoke to me. I know that sounds weird, but it’s the best way for me to put it. It matches my vision perfectly. I would love to see the inside for the complete package.”
“I can hear the passion and I would love to show you the inside. I hope that it lives up to what you have in mind because at this point…my goodness! I’m rooting for you and would hate for any part of what you see to be a disappointment.”
“I don’t even want to entertain that as a thought,” I relayed optimistically.
Mya and I ended the conversation with plans to meet at the location at 6 PM that evening.
I sang the entire time I showered. I was on cloud nine. I couldn’t wait to walk through the doors of my potential new space.
Since I had never done well waiting for a specific time to arrive, the busy day I had awaiting me suddenly became a blessing in disguise as it would keep me busy until it was time to meet Mya.
One of the to-do’s for that day was to meet my agent at a property and since the appointment had already been made, I decided to show up.
With everything else he had shown me, I already knew that the property wouldn’t be too much better but I was in a different space.
Where it seemed a race against time before, now I saw hope and was less annoyed by his failure to produce.
When I arrived to the locale, it was exactly as I predicted – another epic fail and both the area, and the building lacked potential.
Had I not seen him standing outside when I pulled up, I might have kept driving, but as a courtesy I took a look. As I did the walkthrough, I silently thanked my lucky stars for my 6 o’clock meeting with Mya.
Please let things work in my favor!
CHAPTER 23
~*~*~
I parked in front of what I had already claimed as my new club space, at exactly 5:30, and sat there for a bit to digest before the official meeting with Mya. I wanted to see the foot and car traffic, and assess the mood of the area.
I watc
hed a couple walk past hand-in-hand and enter the quaint little café that sat several feet away. A few tables and chairs were outside, with what looked like a small business meeting happening at one of them. An older gentleman sat with a book in one hand and sipping on a beverage of some sort.
I liked the calm busy of it.
427 Harper was detached and had a decent sized parking lot that looked to fit maybe 15 cars comfortably and adding to that perk was plenty of street parking. Perfect. I loved the accessibility.
Promptly at 6 PM a black Mercedes Benz drove up and a cute brunette exited. Even early evening she was all business in a cyan-colored dress, cream-colored blazer, 3” pumps and her briefcase to complete the outfit.
She appeared reserved, but like she could have a fun side to her also. Note to self: extend an invitation to one of the upcoming pleasure parties.
As she approached, I immediately noticed her friendly demeanor. Professional, yet personable.
“Hi, Gabriella!” she said, extending her hand.
“Hello, Mya! It’s nice to be able to put the face with the voice. Thank you so much for meeting me.”
“No…Thank you.”
We paired toward the door. Mya had the key out and ready, and everything was in slow motion as she slid it into the lock and opened the door.
“Behind you…” she motioned, stepping aside to allow me in first.
I was rendered speechless, as a plethora of emotions invaded my mental space, and took over me. Had I spoken at that exact moment, tears would have been shed and vulnerability would have been on full display. I was trying hard to maintain my composure.
We walked in and several yards ahead I spotted a staircase that spiraled to a second floor and was at least half the size of the first level.
On the first floor where I stood was an area that had previously housed a bar.
Perfect.
Down a hallway, past the bar/lounge area, were two offices. Not one…but two! Jackpot! A few storage closets near the offices. I could put toys in those, I thought to myself.
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