Chapter 30
Porter was beginning to feel frantic. He had been vague with Fiona for several days about the space, but he didn’t want to tell her anything until he knew for certain what was going to happen.
It had been an exhausting week. A last minute 18-hour trip to Florida, poring over contracts with his lawyers, finalizing the financing, organizing an inspection…and it would still take a couple months for everything to be official. But for now, he had given Leonard everything he needed to prove that he was invested in this property.
Now, he just had to talk to Fiona. The problem was, his calls or texts didn’t seem to be going through.
This was concerning, because the deadline had just passed for them to tell Laura who was renting the property. He knew that Laura was going to have to tell Fiona the space was rented — if she hadn’t already — so Porter had tried to get ahead of it by telling Fiona everything as soon as he could. But she hadn’t answered that call yesterday, or any others since.
That morning, Porter and David celebrated for a few minutes after the inspection was completed. They toured the upstairs spaces again, and while they would take some significant work, it was all within what they expected.
There was a long, challenging road ahead, but finally, Porter saw a golden opportunity for the money his father had left him. A commercial property in great shape, right on one of the busiest, most popular streets in downtown Savannah.
He had needed David to stay at the restaurant while he flew to Florida to meet with Leonard in person, so instead, Porter brought his mother to help close the deal. Martha had been a shrewd businesswomen, and had always had a hand in their family finances and investments, so he wanted her to be there to help assess Leonard’s proposal.
It took some back and forth, and several calls to Laura, David and Porter’s lawyers, but in the end, Porter shook Leonard’s hand and made a binding offer with a purchase contract.
He’d done everything he needed to do, and now he could tell Fiona the good news.
He told David he might be in late today because his one goal was to talk to Fiona. So far, no luck.
Porter had called. He’d texted. He’d tried to call Stella and Cassie at work.
He’d even put in an online haircut request with Fiona for that afternoon, which was immediately rejected. So it was clear to him now that she had zero intention of talking to him.
Porter drove back to work, his panic rising. He arrived at the restaurant an hour before opening, and saw Laura at a table talking to David.
“Hey, Port,” David said, grinning. He was positively giddy over this whole thing. Porter wished he felt the same.
Laura stood, and handed Porter a bottle of champagne.
“Congratulations,” she said with a grin. “I know it’s not totally finalized yet, but Leonard is very happy with everything, so I don’t foresee any issues with all the documentation going through. He’s fine with you guys getting started on the work, too.”
“Thanks,” Porter said, taking the bottle. “I’ll feel better once everything is official though.”
And he didn’t just mean the building. Every day that passed without him getting a hold of Fiona, he could feel himself panic a little more.
“Well, I have a showing to get to,” Laura said, slipping on her Burberry sunglasses. “But again, congratulations.”
“Hang on,” Porter said, rubbing at the tension between his eyes. “Have you talked to Fiona yet?”
Laura gave a tense nod, her mood immediately dampening. “I did. She saw me taking down the sign in the window the other day. She seemed upset about someone buying the building and losing out on the space, but I didn’t tell her any of the specifics. I take it you’ll be talking to her about it all now?”
Porter crossed his arms. Now he understood.
“Hopefully. Thanks, Laura,” he said, and sat at the table with David as she walked away. He dropped his head in his hands, feeling like the more he tried to fix the situation, the worse things got.
“You okay?” David asked.
Porter sighed. “Fiona thinks we secretly stole the rental space out from under them. It explains we she’s been avoiding me. She must think the absolute worst of me right now.”
David shrugged. “I told you that you should have just been upfront with her all along.”
“I didn’t want to get her hopes up without knowing for sure that the deal would go through,” Porter said, exasperation in his voice. “And then the deal just happened so fast that I didn’t get the chance to tell her like I wanted to.”
Porter glanced out the window. “I think I really screwed up. She won’t answer my calls. Neither will her friends. I even tried to book a haircut today, which she immediately canceled. What am I supposed to do? I don’t think she’d appreciate me waiting outside her salon all night, but it’s an idea.”
David tapped a finger on the table, his brow furrowed.
“Just give it a day or two. I’m sure she’ll come around.”
Porter wished he felt that sure.