Chapter 26
26
‘I’m not following you,’ I tell Abby as she stares at me, her eyes sparkling. ‘He was very clear about it. He said he didn’t know anything about hotels and it wasn’t an industry he had any intention of entering.’
‘And he won’t be. Atkinson Hotels is my company. Well, it will be, once I file all the paperwork and stuff.’
‘I think you’d better start from the beginning,’ I say carefully.
‘Fine. After you left, Dad and I had a long chat. I knew he was up to something, because why bother grilling us on all the business plan and stuff if he had no intention of following through? Basically, there were three points he made. One, that the business plan was good and the best chance of getting a return on The Mermaid – congratulations, Beatrice. Two, that he didn’t want his core business to be distracted or put at risk by a venture he didn’t understand. Three, that there was one part of the model that he felt I needed to revisit – I’ll come on to that in a minute. So, the upshot is we set up a new subsidiary company with me as sole director. Atkinson Construction transfers ownership of The Mermaid to Atkinson Hotels, which refurbishes it and reopens it. There will need to be appropriate governance and repayment clauses, obviously, but that’s the general gist.’
‘Why a subsidiary company?’ I ask. ‘Surely the risks are the same.’
‘No. As long as Dad stays firmly out of the picture and Atkinson Hotels is seen to be operating completely independently of the main company, they’re immune from liability if the hotel company goes belly up. It’s a way of protecting the main business. Dad will still advise me, us, informally if we ask for it, but he’ll have to be very much in the background.’
‘So that’s it? We’re good to go?’ It sounds too good to be true.
‘Nearly. I mentioned that there was something that Dad picked up on and, on reflection, I agree with him. It concerns the food.’
‘Go on.’
‘We both feel that we need a name people recognise in the kitchen. I’m sure your guy is good and everything, but he’s an unknown.’
My mind is whirling. Jock was a big part of my plan.
‘What if I could get him to come down? Give you and your dad a chance to try his food?’
‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘We need a name. If we’re going to get a return on our investment, we need the punters lining up from day one. We simply don’t have time to wait for your guy to establish a reputation from nothing. It’s a done deal, Beatrice. If you can’t work with it, tell me now and walk away.’
I sit in silence for a moment. I do want The Mermaid more than I could have imagined, but Reginald’s words are playing in my mind. If I accept this condition, I’m basically kissing goodbye to any chance of a future with Jock. I need to see if I can get her to come round. After all, if Christopher isn’t in the driving seat, he shouldn’t get to choose the chef, should he?
‘Did you have someone specific in mind?’ I ask.
‘Yes. Emilio Marcuso. Do you know him?’
‘I know of him, yes. But he’s got restaurants all over the country, hasn’t he? How much time will he actually spend in the kitchen of The Mermaid? If you’re going to sell a celebrity chef, the customers need to see him, otherwise they’ll think it’s just a cynical marketing ploy.’
‘They don’t seem to feel like that in his other restaurants. From what I can tell, they’re all extremely successful. Why shouldn’t that translate here?’
‘Because… because that’s not the Margate vibe, Abby! This place is all about authenticity.’
‘There are chain restaurants here. I saw several on the sea front.’
‘Yes, but?—’
‘But nothing. What’s your guy’s name?’
‘Andrew. Andrew McLaughlin.’
‘Right. Surely you can see that “Marcuso at The Mermaid” is going to be a much bigger draw than “Some guy called McLaughlin that you’ve never heard of at The Mermaid”. Emilio puts us on the map from day one, Beatrice. If we’re going to have a hope in hell of this project succeeding, we need that. This isn’t open for negotiation.’
I sigh. I still think she’s wrong, but it is her business and I need to decide if this is a hill I’m going to die on. I try to weigh up the options rationally. If I take her up, then I have a guaranteed job back in the hotel industry. No more fixed-term contracts, and maybe I can use the fact that she’s overruled me on the chef as leverage to get my way in other areas. But I lose Jock. On the other hand, I could turn her down but, not only does that feel like biting the hand that’s trying to feed me from a career perspective, I still might lose Jock. If I were in a cartoon, I’d have a mini Reginald on one shoulder urging me to live well and love wholeheartedly because the rest is just white noise. On the other would be rational Beatrice, telling me that I’ve invested too much in my career so far to let a man, even a man like Jock, derail me.
‘I don’t get it.’ My thoughts are interrupted by Abby. ‘This is a tiny adjustment to an otherwise brilliant plan. Are you seriously telling me you’re prepared to throw the whole thing in the bin over it? You’re the one who dragged me over and sold me the whole idea of reopening as a hotel. It was your blinder of a pitch to my father that convinced him it was viable. I’m offering you what you want on a plate and now you don’t want it any more? What the actual, Beatrice?’
And, with that, I know what I have to do.
‘You’re right,’ I tell her as mini Reginald disappears in a puff of smoke and I kiss goodbye to any hope of reconciliation with Jock. ‘I’m going to stick my neck out and say I still think Emilio isn’t the right choice for Margate, but it’s a comparatively small change to the plan and I’m sure he knows how to make these things work. So yes. I’m in.’
‘Thank the Lord for that,’ she breathes. ‘The whole project would have been dead in the water without you. Right. Next steps. We need to get Emilio on board.’
‘You mean you haven’t spoken to him?’ I ask, appalled. ‘You gave me the impression it was done and dusted.’
‘Of course I haven’t spoken to him. There wouldn’t have been anything to talk about without you, and Dad and I only agreed to go ahead yesterday afternoon. I’m good, but not that good.’
She pulls her phone out of her bag and dials a number. ‘Hi, Donna. It’s me. Beatrice is on board, so can you see if you can get us a meeting with Emilio Marcuso? Yes, as soon as possible please. Thanks.’
She’s smiling as she puts her phone away. ‘It can’t be as simple as that,’ I tell her. ‘“Hi, Emilio. I know you’re a celebrity chef and everything, but we’re opening a boutique hotel in Margate and wondered if you’d drop everything to have a chat with us about it.”’ I’m allowing myself to hope again. If Emilio says no, maybe I can get Jock on board after all.
She shrugs. ‘He’s a businessman. It’s a business proposition. Besides…’ She smiles enigmatically.
‘What?’
‘He’s a member of the same golf club as my dad. They often play together and Dad has his personal mobile number. We didn’t just choose him at random, you know.’
I don’t know whether to be impressed or dismayed. Choosing a chef based on shared membership of a golf club is hardly good business practice, but I can’t deny Emilio Marcuso’s reputation. Barely a minute has passed before her phone rings.
‘Hi, Donna.’
There’s some unintelligible speech before she says, ‘Tomorrow? Blimey, that’s even quicker than I’d expected. Let me just check with Beatrice.’ She puts her hand over her phone and turns to me. ‘Emilio can see us at four o’clock tomorrow. He’s at Marcuso’s on the Strand in London and can spare us an hour between lunchtime and evening service. Will you be ready by then?’
‘Ready for what?’
‘You need to pitch it to him.’
‘What?’
‘It’s fine. Just use the same pitch you used on Dad. I mean, you might want to adapt it a little bit, obviously. Take whatshisname out and make it look like Emilio was in the plan from the start. These top chefs can be a bit diva-ish. Can you do it?’
‘I don’t know. I can try.’
Abby turns her attention back to the phone. ‘Donna. Tell Emilio we’ll be there, and can you find me a hotel room in Margate for tonight? Yeah, Beatrice and I need to work on her presentation. Thanks. Oh, and can you email over the contracts for Beatrice to sign as soon as you’ve finished them? Ta.’
She slips the phone back into her bag and smiles. ‘Congratulations and welcome on board, Beatrice. You are officially Atkinson Hotels’ first employee.’
Although I’m pleased on a professional level, I feel a little disloyal to Jock by going with Abby’s decision without putting up more of a fight, but perhaps it would have been selfish to expect him to relocate down here. After all, all the reasons I shared with Reginald about not moving to Scotland apply to him coming here, and what if our relationship didn’t work out? Also, dealing with Abby this afternoon has felt a little like being hit by a runaway train, and I’m conscious that I could plan to use the change of chef as leverage. A thought comes into my mind and, although it’s audacious, I decide it’s worth a try.
‘Abby?’ I begin.
‘Yes?’
‘Here’s the thing. You’ve said to me that this project would be dead in the water without me, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you need me, for this to succeed.’
‘Yes. What are you getting at?’
‘I just think that maybe I’m bringing more to the table than a mere employee, and that should be reflected in my role.’
Her eyes narrow but, now that I’ve started, I’m warming to my theme.
‘At the start of this meeting,’ I continue, ‘you said that you were going to be the sole director of Atkinson Hotels. Am I remembering that correctly?’
‘It’s my family business that owns the hotel, and my family business that’ll be putting up the cash to pay your salary and refurbish it. So yes, I will have the controlling interest.’
‘But it’s me that’s bringing the expertise and the industry knowledge. You might be financing it, but the success of this project depends on me bringing all the different moving parts together.’
‘Go on.’
‘So, in light of that, I think you should appoint me as co-director of Atkinson Hotels.’
She stares at me for so long without speaking that I start to wonder if I’ve overplayed my hand. The longer the silence goes on, though, the more convinced I am that this is a concession she needs to make.
‘This sounds a bit like blackmail. What happens if I say no?’ she asks eventually.
‘It’s not blackmail. I’m simply asking you to recognise what I bring to the table. It’s up to you whether you do that or not. I’ve said I’m in and I’m a woman of my word. The question is what value you place on me.’
‘So you’d do it even if I said no? What’s my motivation to say yes?’
‘Because it’s the right thing to do.’
There’s another long silence. I know I’ve shot myself in the foot by saying I’d work for her anyway. In an ideal world, I’d have thought of this before saying yes in the first place, but these things are always easier in hindsight, aren’t they? As I wait for her to make up her mind, I decide that her next move will play a big part in how long I stay. If she says no, it will definitely dent my opinion of her. I’ll still get the hotel up and running so it looks good on my CV, but I’ll look to move on as soon as I can after that. I like her, but she’s shown her ruthless side today, and I don’t want to be her doormat.
After what seems like an age, she pulls her phone back out of her bag and dials another number.
‘Hi, Dad. Slight change of particulars for the new company. Yeah, I’m appointing Beatrice as co-director. No, it’s not up for discussion. This is merely a courtesy call to let you know. Yes, we’re meeting Emilio tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted. Bye.’
‘Any other curve balls you want to throw before we get down to work?’ she asks.
I feel vindicated. If I’m going to sacrifice a chance of love on the altar of my career, I need to score a concession to soften the blow, and this is a cracker. ‘No, that’s it,’ I tell her sweetly.
‘Right then, partner,’ she says and I’m relieved to see she’s smiling. ‘Let’s start putting together this pitch for Emilio.’