Chapter 29
The next morning, Fiona was putting on her shoes to leave when she saw her phone light up with Cassie’s name. It was concerning that she would call so early.
“Are you sitting down?” Cassie asked, before Fiona had a chance to say hello.
“I am on the floor, actually,” Fiona said, now thoroughly anxious. “What’s going on?”
“I drove past the rental space on my way to work this morning,” Cassie told her breathlessly. “Guess who I saw outside?”
Fiona had a sinking feeling that she already knew, but she braced herself anyway.
“Porter, David and Laura,” Cassie said.
For a second, Fiona squeezed her eyes shut. There were so many possibilities she could come up with, and none of them were good. But there would be time for all of that later.
“I’m heading there right now,” Fiona said, and hung up the phone.
Fortunately, it was only a few minutes’ drive to get to the rental space, because by the time she got there, she could see that Laura hadn’t left yet. Fiona parked the car illegally before jumping out.
“Laura!” she called, startling her. Fiona crossed the street quickly, worried that Laura would try to evade her again.
“What’s going on?” Fiona asked, somewhat out of breath. “Were the guys touring the space again, or…”
She noticed the “FOR RENT” sign in Laura’s arms.
“Did you just take down the rental sign?” she asked between breaths.
Laura looked increasingly more uncomfortable.
“Yes,” she said slowly. “The building is going to be under new ownership.”
Fiona shook her head, trying to process that information. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“I can’t disclose much,” Laura told her. “But there is a new owner, and they already have a tenant for this space.”
Fiona stared at her for a heavy couple of seconds.
“Excuse me?”
Fiona was certain she’d misheard. Because if she didn’t, it meant she and her friends had just missed out on the space they desperately needed.
“I was going to give you a call soon,” Laura said apologetically.
“Were you, um…” Fiona started, though she wasn’t sure if she should continue, “just with the tenants?”
Laura shot her an unreadable look.
“Again, I can’t say much more, but the new owners do already have someone in mind.”
That was all Fiona needed to know.
“Um, okay. Thanks.”
She had a million more questions, but she knew she had to get out of there. They had two clients for Savannah Glam that morning, and she had to hold it together. If she told her friends now, their day would be a loss. So she collected herself, got in her car, and tried her best to put it out of her mind.
Only a couple minutesafter their last client left, Cassie barged through the door.
“You haven’t answered your phone all morning,” she said, shaking her phone at Fiona as she walked into her salon suite. Stella, who had been kept in the dark, was taken aback.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned.
Fiona sighed.
“I have news, and it’s not good.” She closed the door behind Cassie.
“Don’t tell me you talked to Laura already,” Stella said. “I thought we had until tomorrow morning.”
Fiona nodded wordlessly. “I did talk to her. I saw her this morning.”
“What happened? I’m freaking out here,” Cassie said, sitting on the folding chair in the corner.
Fiona took one steadying breath.
“Sometime during the past couple weeks, the owner of that building decided to sell,” she started. “And, somehow, this new owner has already found a tenant for that space.”
Cassie’s mouth fell open. Stella gasped.
“And, it gets worse,” Fiona continued, her voice flat. “Cassie said she saw Laura talking to David and Porter this morning, and after I got there, I saw her carrying away the ‘FOR RENT’ sign.”
“So…David and Porter took our space,” Stella said, defeated.
Fiona nodded. “We’ve been talking all week, but he’s gotten vague whenever I try to talk about the space. Then he was gone for a business trip in Florida, but—”
The emotions Fiona had been avoiding began to bubble up.
“Do you think it’s possible he got close to me so I would get distracted?”
“Honey,” Stella said, rubbing her back. “We don’t really know what happened yet.”
“Oh, please,” Cassie said. “What else could have happened? The timing is awfully convenient.”
Fiona shook her head, tears stinging her eyes. “I knew one of us would miss out but I never expected him to do…this. I felt like something real happening with us.”
She let out a shaky breath. When she left New York, she’d sworn to herself that she would never again put herself in the position of being taken advantage of. And yet, her she was. Back at square one.
“What are we going to do?” she asked, sniffling. “We need a place. Fast. Or this thing might start to fall apart.”
“This sucks,” Stella said, sighing. “That space on Broughton was ideal.”
“We will be fine,” Cassie said, doing her best to convey confidence. “We will find another place. We will make it work. I promise.”