Hi, everyone! It's been a LONG time since I've added a new chapter in our hero's adventures, but your wait is over at last! Hard to believe this is chapter 100 in the series! Thank you for all your patience and readership, new adventures and reunions with old friends are in the works.
ENJOY!
The Whitney Group offers big bucks to buy the old East Coast Image offices, now largely abandoned, for new boutique hotel. Paris is the buyer and at the house where he first met her, she offers a lifetime suite at any of her hotels worldwide as part of the deal. Unsure if he'll sell, HJ goes back for a look around and meets Chris' spirit again, who convinces him selling is the right idea. Upon returning from an assignment, he sees a maroon Corvette with Ciao Bella plates, it belongs to a new girl. Leah Austin.
When I first made the trek out to California (and met my destiny, as it were) I was working with an old high school buddy named Chris Foster, who'd started a promotional photography business he called East Coast Image. At first, it was run out of the basement, then the garage, of the house he shared with 2 college students (their names have been lost to me, but I guess they know who they are). Once we hit it big with some lucrative assignments, Chris made a deal to buy a long-shuttered bowling alley and that became our home office. We had a lot of great times there, the bowling alley got used and we each had offices that often doubled as studio apartments when we worked late, which was often. When Chris died suddenly in a car crash on New Years' Eve, I was left with the decision whether to keep the firm independent or merge with the bigger Artists Unlimited. I took the merger offer but made a unique deal that still kept our company going, just on a smaller scale. And even though I moved from Artists Unlimited to an even bigger position with The Morrison Group, my heart would always be at that bowling alley.
But now I was looking at another major decision related to it. A letter from a company called The Whitney Group was looking to buy up the land around our old offices for a major hotel development. I'd had a few offers for it in the past, but they never seemed all that serious. The area around East Coast Image had become more and more gentrified with designer coffee shops replacing the takeout Chinese restaurants, 24/7 convenience stores and car repair shops I'd known there. And even if our company was largely abandoned, its location was still very desirable.
"I'll be honest, I think these guys are a little more serious than the others." Roger Sullivan, my longtime lawyer said as he looked over their letter.
"How can you tell?"
"I know the development they've got in mind, big time boutique hotel, restaurants, shopping, the whole deal. I think they want to make this another version of The Grove. How much are they offering?"
"That's what they left out, maybe they want to negotiate?"
"Possibly. The bigger question is...do you really want to sell? I know that property has a lot of sentimental value to you."
"You're right there. But on the other hand, what am I doing with it now?" I said with a shrug "It's pretty much sitting there unused...I can't remember the last time I went down there. It's a glorified storage unit that I pay a hefty tax bill on every year."
"If you want, I've got a buddy down at the Assessor's office, he could see what it's worth now and if they're ready to make an offer you'd know if it was right."
I thought long and hard about this.
"What've you got to lose?" he said with his own shrug.
"OK, make the call."
Two days later, Roger called me back;
"Well, my friend you're sitting on a gold mine."
"You're kidding?"
"You can really set your own price with these guys. They want the space, plain and simple."
Now I had a real dilemma on my hands. Only one way to decide.
I needed to go down to the old offices.
The East Coast Image offices weren't some boarded up store front. From the outside it still looked like a viable business even with its blacked-out windows (That was my idea after I made the move to Artists Unlimited, I figured it kept the curiosity seekers away). I had to dig around in my desk at home to find the keys and the security codes. But everything still worked, and with a creak, the door opened and the memories started to hit me the moment I turned on the lights. The bowling alley was still operational as far as I knew. The jukebox we bought at a flea market was still there, why I never bothered to move it my current home I don't know. I know it would fit in great there.
Over to the sides were our offices, mine was always super-neat, organized, very business-like. Chris' was, well, unique. There was a reason he had me there to keep up with important stuff. After his passing, I packed up everything as best I could and shipped it home to his family. What they did with it I never asked, in a way I didn't want to know. The offices were now just empty rooms.
I sat down on the floor and popped open a beer from the bag I brought.
"Well, my friend I'm back here. Back where it all began. I gotta decide what to do."
"Geez, you haven't changed a bit!" Chris said from the other side of the room "I figured all this time out here, all the chicks we've met...you still ain't got a clue, do you?"
Chris was sitting on the floor too, but he had on a pristine white suit, fitting for spirits.
"Don't you remember I brought you out here? It was just gonna be a summer job too. What were your plans after that?" he asked
"I-I can't recall."
He was right, I really had no idea what I would've done at the end of that summer.
"I can! You would've been driving back across the country and second guessing yourself the whole way! Instead, you did the right thing...you listened to me."
"You're right there."
"Of course, I am! I'm the guy that gave you your name. Do you realize how much you owe to me?"
There was a silence between us.
"Do you realize how much I miss you?" I finally said "There's way too many good times you should've been a part of."
"How do you know I haven't been there? Being like this, I'm always around you."
"So, you know..."
"Everything, pal!" he said with a chuckle "You've really been getting around with the ladies! I think it's safe to say you're the new Warren Beatty of Tinseltown."
"OK, besides that!"
"What else is there?" he said with more laughter.
"What else is there? How about this?" I said as I tossed the letter from Whitney Group in his direction.
"Oh, THAT! What are you worried about?"
"I'm worried about, well, losing this. We built this place, remember?"
"Yeah, that's true. But, uh, perhaps it's time you grew up. Moved on."
"But...but if I sell...I'm afraid I'll lose you."
Chris gave me a reassuring smile
"You'll never lose me, Hollywood...I'll always be around and around and around..."
With that he raised his glass, and faded away.
I picked up the letter, read it one more time and thought some more. Chris was right. Perhaps it was time I moved on, grew up.
But as I looked toward the bowling alley, I saw there was another way to make a final decision.
I grabbed a ball and lined up my shot, like I'd done many times before here.
"OK, Hollywood...for all the marbles..."
I stepped towards the line, let the ball go, it's rolling echoed through the building, it hit the pins dead center scattering them all.
STRIKE!
I could hear Chris' voice;
"You win, Hollywood!"
