----------------Wednesday May 18
My cell phone buzzed, waking me up, the room was dark, thanks to the new black shades that were just put in place the day before. It's early, the clock on my phone says seven thirty.
"This is Roy," I said into the phone.
"Roy this is Mike Stephens out at the construction site, do you have time to stop by here today? We need to discuss a few things." He told me.
"Okay, l can be there by ten, I need to do a couple of things first." I tell Mike, and push the phone off icon.
In the bathroom, I take care of my morning rituals.
A few minutes later, I am dressed and in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Rindi came in when the aroma of fresh baked biscuits reached the bedroom and she claimed they told her to come out to eat with me. We put freezer jam on four biscuits, two for each of us, I had also fried several eggs and sausage patties.
"Mike needs me at the construction site to discuss a few plans," I told Rindi, "Do you want to come with me or stay here? I'm not sure what he wants or how long it may take us?"
"I'd like to go with you, I want to see what the buildings look like too, and it might be fun seeing all those muscular college boys on the work crew." Rindi teased me by saying.
We drove to the location where the buildings were being built for the new restaurant, bar and ballroom. The parking lot looked great, freshly painted yellow lines on the black asphalt show the designated parking spots. There is one spot by the main doors that says reserved for Uncle Roy. I pulled into the space a few inches from the concrete parking block.
Mike had watched us pull in and promptly met us as we got out of the Escape, Rindi opened her own door, getting out on the passenger side.
"Roy we will finish construction on the main buildings by the end of the month, nearly two weeks earlier than we planned, the weather has been great and my crew knows exactly what they are doing." Mike informed me.
"That's really good to hear," I told him.
"The thing I wanted to talk about or ask you about, shit, I'm not sure how to ask?" Mike said with doubt in his voice.
"Start at the beginning and just tell me what it is, if it's even within my power to do?" I told Mike.
"The thing is I'm getting older, I don't like climbing ladders, walking on roofs or even lifting lumber anymore. I'd like to retire after this job finishes. It's my daughter Michelle, (Shelly to her friends), I've had her helping me during the summers since she was about twelve, she turned eighteen two weeks ago. Anyway I was wondering after hearing about your long range plans if you would consider hiring my daughter for any position in the new restaurant or bar. Construction is hard work and lately she's been complaining of aches and pains in her back. She's a strong girl and I'm not against her taking over my business but I'd like to see her do a lot more with her life." Mike said.
"How much money are you charging me for the construction? I wonder if we couldn't work out a deal, instead of paying you, we take Michelle on as one of the partners in our business? Or pay you enough that you don't feel like you are being cheated, and figure out how much of a share she would get. Michelle may have her own ideas about what she wants in the future also?" I told Mike.
"That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say," Mike said, "I don't need a lot of cash right now, It's been a good year and what I made just building your house and others, has set me up pretty good and I start collecting social security in June and I already get a military retirement."
"Why don't you have Michelle come over here and we can discuss what she wants?" I told Mike.
He texts his daughter that we want to meet her by the main doors and she comes over a few minutes later.
She was wearing coveralls with a toolbelt steel toed shoes, a hard hat and carrying a hammer.
"What's up dad I was just finishing the sheetrock in the bar area?" Shelly asked Mike.
"Do you really enjoy construction work? Or is there something else you'd rather do? I don't mean like flipping burgers or minimum wage type jobs but I want to retire and Roy will need lots of help once this place opens. Bartenders, cooks, waitresses, managers, accountants and probably others.
"If I'm not mistaken, he has some plans that promise big money to every one of his business partners, I have decided not to make any profit on this job and retire in two weeks. I was going to hand you my construction business but instead, I'd like Roy to make you one of his business partners instead of paying me." Mike informed his daughter.
"Mom's been begging you to retire for ten years now," Michelle told her father, "I could run the business but you know the guys don't really respect me enough to follow my orders, they constantly criticize me about every job I do. I want to go to college in the fall and study architecture and computer drafting, maybe even interior designing?"
"You have never mentioned any of that to me before," Mike said to her.
"It's not that easy to talk to you dad, when we are at a job there's so much noise we can't hear and at home, I never know what might upset you?" Michelle admitted.
Rindi walked over to me and pulled me several feet away from Mike and Michelle.
"They need to talk in private," She told me. "Let's invite Shelly to dinner tonight at Pirates Cove and we can find out what she decided to do but I bet she winds up going to college and taking the classes."
"I would bet on her doing exactly that," I told Rindi.
We walked back over and Mike and his daughter both have a few tears in their eyes, and had just finished a tender hug.
"Michelle when you finish here today, Roy and I would like to take you out to dinner at Pirates Cove number one, if you would like?" Rindi asked her.
"I should be done here around three, then I'll need to go home to shower and change clothes. How about if I meet you at six thirty?" Shelly asked.
After shaking Mike's hand, Rindi and I got back in the Escape and drove slowly around the huge parking lot. There were five hundred parking stalls exactly, Mike had told me, plus the one extra, reserved for me.
Six twenty, we are finally parked after circling the nearly full parking lot for ten minutes waiting for someone to pull out in front of Pirates Cove number one.
Sammy greets us inside the door and we tell her we will wait for our guest, Michelle to arrive, before getting our table. Five minutes later, Shelly walks in. She is wearing nice tight, clean slacks and a matching tan colored blouse that sets off her long brown hair nicely. She has brown eyes and a clean complexion with no makeup. She smiles at us and Sammy leads us all to our reserved table.
"That parking lot is a nightmare, I can see why you wanted to relocate this restaurant, the new bar and dance areas will definitely draw even more people." Shelly said.
"There are going to be two separate areas for dancing, I explained to Shelly, "One for the bar patrons, and another one for families, that one will be alcohol free. The main ballroom will be above the restaurant, and the other will be in the bar, itself. We will have three pizza ovens in the kitchen for bar patrons and regular ovens and stoves for other bar food. In the big kitchen will be seven pizza ovens each able to cook four pizzas at a time, five regular ovens for lasagna and other items. The main restaurant will have sixty tables for four, that can be slid together for larger groups. The bar will have twenty tables for four, made the same as the restaurant tables and chairs. We will have a karaoke machine in the bar, hire a DJ to run it as well as play music for the dancers. I think maybe eight pool tables in the bar, four or five in the area outside the main ball room with a partition to separate them from the dancers."
"Uncle Roy, is all that really going to happen, in less than two weeks?" Rindi asked, in disbelief.
"The buildings yes, the staff might not be ready quite that soon, since I haven't even hired anyone yet," I answered.
"Sierra would be the perfect DJ, if she wants the job?" Rindi stated as a question, "She could even teach her dance lessons in the ballroom."
"Now you are thinking like a genius," I complimented Rindi.
Michelle had been listening to us brainstorm about our plans for the new buildings she and her father had been working to build, along with their construction crew.
"Is the food here really so good that people will drive quite a distance just to eat and dance?" Shelly asked us.
"You haven't been here before have you?" Rindi asked our guest.
"No, what should I order? What's good?" Shelly asked us.
"You see all the servers carrying the trays of pizzas to the tables, well it's something that Uncle Roy actually made as a joke for two of my business partners and myself almost two months ago. We asked for pepperoni and sausage with mushrooms and pineapple. Uncle Roy made us one with scallops, shrimp, mushrooms and cashews. Wait until you taste it, you will understand." Rindi said to Michelle.
We ordered three pizza slices and a crab and shrimp salad for each of us. The salad was brought out immediately, we had barely finished it when the pizza arrived.
Michelle tentatively took a very small bite and then she took a second very large bite and chewed it thoughtfully before she swallowed and said, "Okay I think I understand why the place is so crowded, but what about customers who don't like seafood?"
"Well it is a seafood themed restaurant, they also have three or four chicken dishes but the main attraction is the pizza,"
I told Shelly. "Right now they only open from four p.m. until nine p.m. The new restaurant will open at eleven a.m. and close at ten p.m. The ballroom will close at eleven p.m. and the bar will close at two a.m. but will stop serving alcohol at midnight. We don't want anyone driving home drunk so our bartenders and wait staff will be very well trained to spot and stop troublemakers."
"I would like to help you design the interiors of all the new buildings then," Shelly said, "I want to show my dad how good I am at arranging what you described and he might be impressed enough to support me in my decision to take interior designing in college."
