Friday Oct 25 2019

Wednesday night Barb dropped Bobbie off at the motel and Bobbie followed her to the airport. Barb dropped off the rental car and Bobbie drove her home.

Bobbie walked up the stairs to her apartment, opened the door and dropped her suitcase. Fossie came to meet her and she reached down and picked him up; snuggling him a bit. “We had a bit of a sketchy vacation Fossie. Someone was trying to scare or maybe even hurt us. I hope it was quiet around here for you.”

Before bed, she texted Effie to thank her for looking after Fossie and to tell her she was home but not really home until Friday.

She moped around Thursday in her jammies making lists, watching YouTube music videos and knitting. She went in her craft room and worked on her Halloween costume a little too. There was the first Halloween party Saturday night.

Friday, she woke early determined to take on the day and get back into the motel business. She went down to the restaurant and put on some coffee. Mark came in and turned on his ovens to get his biscuits going.

“Hi Mark how is it all going. Did everyone survive while I was away?”

“Hi, we did fine while you were away but I’m glad you’re back. We all saw your music video. You’re a star now. Will is hoping you’ll sing at the Halloween party.”

“Ha, we were just at a party and someone filmed us. I can talk to Johnny about playing at the party. It might be fun. We’d have to make a Halloween set.”

“Rocco and Lorne have been around, working on the pop-up bar thing. That was a pretty neat idea. I think Rocco’s going to have it ready for the party.”

A timer dinged and Mark got some hot tea biscuits out and Bobbie poured some coffee and they went out into the restaurant.

“So, this party on Saturday; are we having a bit of Halloween at the Market and then moving it up to the motel?”

“You’ll have to talk to Will but that’s about the size of it. We’ll sell the chili and garlic bread and the baked beans with brown bread at the stall. I have a few scary decorations and we’re carving a pumpkin, well Lorne’s carving a pumpkin. He won’t let us touch it.”

“I’ll get a couple pumpkins for us to carve too. I made a black widow costume; it’s a black dress with spider arms attached to the back. Are we catering the party?”

“I’m making pizzas and serving them in SPOKES. They will be 5 dollars each and that’s a little under priced but people will have purchased tickets. Will plans to keep Halloween going all week and there is a big private Halloween party next Thursday. Then we can take it all down.”

“You sound like you’re tired of it all ready.”

“Na, It’s fine. I’m just a little down in the dumps and don’t feel like a party.”

“Oh no, why are you down in the dumps?”

“Brit will likely be around for the party this week and we’ve sort of broken up. She wants to be friends; I’m just getting used to the idea.”

“I’m sorry Mark I’m sure someone will come along. You can pour your heart and soul into your work this weekend and feel better…”

Mark laughed. “Yes, that will straighten me right out.”

Bobbie finished her tea biscuit and picked up her plate.

“You should stick around Will should be here in a couple minutes. I’ll get you some more coffee.” Mark got up, took her plate and her coffee cup and Bobbie sat back down and got out her phone. She texted Johnny to tell him she was back among the living and they needed to work out a Halloween set for the market. Johnny texted back with a lunch invitation.

Will came into the restaurant. “Hi Bobbie, we didn’t burn the place down while you were gone.”

Bobbie got up and hugged him. “It’s so good to be home. I see you’ve got the Halloween décor all sorted out.”

“We’re almost done decorating. You should come out and see your pop-up bar. It’s great!”

Mark came out and handed Bobbie her coffee in a travel mug.

Will looked at him. “Hey Mark, where’s my coffee, I guess I’m chopped liver now that Bobbie’s back.”

“You can get your own coffee.”

“Now, Guys, don’t fight. Thanks for the coffee, Mark. Let’s see this mobile bar.”

They all walked out to SPOKES and saw that a table had been moved and a large armoire-type structure was in the middle of the floor. It was about 6 feet wide and high by four feet deep. Rocco peeked around the corner. “Hey Bobbie, welcome home. Here’s my first crack at the mobile bar. This is the size that fits through all the doors onsite. It even fits into your elevator.” He opened the doors and they saw that it was designed to be set up with a table in front. The doors opened and were half mirror and folding shelves and hangers on the top and plain wood on the lower half.

He flipped up the wine hangers and said “These doors will be handy for setting up some glasses. But fold all the way back if you don’t want to use them.”

The main 6-foot stretch of the unit was about 4 feet deep and had an ice maker, a wine fridge, space for on tap drinks and racks for storing spirits and more glasses. It had electricity and was well lit and a three-foot counter over the wine fridge had a charging station for phones and tablets and a cash point with a small change drawer. “The last thing I have to figure out is how to get a coffee station in it.”

Bobbie thanked him. “Rocco, you sure thought about everything. We can use it at the party on Saturday.”

“I’m having a think about plumbing. I can get water in. I just can’t figure out how to best get it out and draining to something. I’d like to have a counter top glass washer. That won’t be ready Saturday.”

Lochland came in. “Hi Bobbie, welcome home. I see you’ve seen the pop-up bar. I’ll get it all stocked up today. I’ll have to move it out of the way. We open for the coffee crowd soon.”

Bobbie sipped her coffee. “Thanks so much guys. It’s truly everything I imagined Rocco. Thanks for taking the time. I know you’re busy…”

“No problem Bobbie, I like doing this kind of stuff.”

She smiled and walked back to the restaurant and out the back and up the stairs to her apartment.

She heard Effie talking to Fossie as she came in the room. “Hi Effie, how was your week?”

“Welcome back Bobbie. I just stopped in to say hi and see if you needed anything. We had a good week. It was pretty full and there was a lot of room turnover but a few rooms are booked for the weekend now. The guys and I have no problem with room cleaning and maintenance and laundry of course.”

“I was wondering if I should send the laundry out…”

“I think Roger would be devastated he likes to look over the laundry and mend anything that needs it.”

“It was just a thought. Roger does a great job.”

“I just stopped in to see if you need anything and check in with my boy Fossie”

“Thanks Effie.” Bobbie moved into her office area and logged in to see how the week went financially.

Her phone dinged. It was Frank. She really wanted to talk more about Towne’s Stargazer Condos so she offered to meet in his office. He suggested she come right over. She freshened up and headed out and over to the Gallery. The reception desk was empty; Quinn was likely still home and Lacey was not yet in the gallery either. Bobbie walked around noticing the Halloween decorations around the place. The windows had giant spooky transparent hanging images and there were some weird pictures on display in the gallery. She didn’t hear Frank coming down the stairs and jumped when he said Hi.

“Sorry I spooked you Bobbie, Lacey will be delighted that you think the gallery is scary.”

“They did a great job decorating. It’s good to see you. Let’s go talk about all my money. Or my lack of money.”

“You’re doing OK Bobbie. After you.”

Frank followed her upstairs, ushered her into the office and sat down. He outlined the sale of the Carson ranch and the financing of the condo project. “We leveraged 250 K out of the hotel and the project is on track. The final gain from the sale of the ranch is double that. That amount is not enough to complete the project but we can keep it on schedule.”

“I guess that’s good. I just wish I was more confident that we can finish it.”

“Don’t worry about it. We can get a bigger lien on the motel and I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. Soon, I can leverage the project itself.”

“I see, so am I going to be the project manager? I’m not sure how to go about that. I don’t know the budget, exactly and I haven’t seen a break down of what work is being done…”

“I don’t have any of that information. I wasn’t Townes’ only accountant. He just used me to handle the money when he bought the site. I can give you a few names. I’m not sure if you want to hire them. Or maybe just contact them to get more details about the project. The onsite workers might know something. Honestly, if it were me, I’d sell it and cut my losses.”

“OK Frank, thanks for the advice. I have a lot to think about.”