Chapter 27
Physically, Porter was at work. He’d made it in early, poured himself a massive mug of coffee, and tried his best to get some emails out of the way before opening.
Mentally, he was on a rooftop bar with Fiona, somehow feeling giddy and grounded and out of his element all at once.
Then David arrived, and the illusion shattered.
“Hey, Port,” he said, still a bit guarded.
“Hey,” Porter said, glancing up quickly.
“Listen, I have to tell you something,” David said, closing the door behind him. He sat down in the chair across from Porter’s desk. “Laura stopped in earlier, before you got here. She tried to call you.”
It felt like a stone fell directly into Porter’s abdomen. Sometime during their date, Porter had decided that he was going to talk to David about giving up the space to Fiona, Cassie and Stella. Sure, David was going to kill him. But their restaurant would manage without it. It hadn’t been part of the plan when they rented their space, anyway. He just wasn’t quite ready to tell David and Laura his thoughts.
“What did she say?”
David blew out a breath. “The guy who owns this building has decided to sell.”
Porter frowned. This news was somehow better, and worse, than he was expecting.
“The entire building?”
David nodded.
“What does that mean for us?” Porter asked. “And the place next door?”
David shook his head.
“I don’t know, but you better talk to Laura.”
Porter nodded.
“Alright. I’ll call her.”
One hour later,with just a little time before their staff arrived, Porter was greeting Laura at their door and sitting down for a light lunch. She insisted on speaking in person, which only made Porter even more anxious about the entire thing.
He made pleasantries, asked about her day, but the second David had given them some water, he couldn’t wait any longer.
“What’s going on with the building? Are we getting kicked out?”
Laura daintily dabbed a napkin at the corner of her mouth.
“The owner of this building, Leonard, moved down to Clearwater a few years ago,” she started. “He’s owned this building for almost twenty years, but now that he’s not in town, he doesn’t want the hassle anymore.”
Porter shook his head. “So, what? He’s putting it on the market?”
“He’s planning to. As soon as possible.”
Porter crossed his arms. What was once a stressful situation was quickly approaching disaster status.
David set two plates of sandwiches with mushroom bisque in front of them, and lingered just a bit to hear what Laura was saying.
“The good news is that whoever buys this building does have to honor your lease,” she told him. “You won’t be kicked out.”
Porter blew out a breath, feeling just a tiny bit of relief. “And the space next door?”
“It’s up to the new owner,” she told him. “They can lease it, hang onto it…it’s entirely up to them.”
“And we have no idea how long this will take?”
She shrugged, dipping a spoon into the bisque. “It’s on a very desirable street, and it has six potential rental spaces, so I don’t expect it will be on the market too long.”
Porter frowned. “Six? I thought it was just us, the two properties on either side and the space above us?”
“There are two smaller spaces upstairs, too. Six in total.”
Porter sat back, considering that.
“That seems like a waste,” he told her. “With this location, he could have been making a lot of money off of those spaces.”
Laura nodded emphatically, her red hair bobbing.
“I agree. There were inquiries over the years, but Leonard didn’t want to bother getting those spaces into a rentable condition.”
Porter crossed his arms. An idea was brewing, but it was potentially even more astronomically stupid and risky than renting the space next door.
“Listen, before you list it, could you give me Leonard’s information?”