Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
HANNAH
I was in the middle of the lunch shift at the restaurant, helping run food, when the lights started flickering.
I frowned, peering across the street to see if any of the signs were flickering out there.
None.
I set the food on the table and headed for the kitchen, where I could hear a commotion. When I got back there, I was plunged into darkness, with Carl shouting for lights.
What in the world was going on?!
I rushed to my office for a flashlight and then turned it on just in time for Carl to turn off the stove as a burned smell filled the air.
“Did we lose power? I’ll go flip the breaker,” I said, but then the lights came back on and flickered again.
“Do we need new bulbs?” Sydney asked. “This place is old. Maybe it’s time for that.”
The kitchen door opened and one of my servers, Tanya, peeked her head in. “Customers are asking what’s going on.”
I sighed. “Get them to-go boxes. Don’t charge them for their meal, and lock the front door when they leave. Put up a temporary closed sign. I gotta figure this out,” I said, and then ran to my office.
I did the only thing I could think of. I called Raj, the man Jack had sent to teach me restaurant management.
He picked up on the first ring, and I explained what was going on.
“Could be electrical,” he said. “Shut everything down and call a twenty-four-hour electrician. Pay whatever you have to in order to get the business up and running as soon as possible. Each day you stay shut down, you lose money and customers.”
Lose money. I was doing well, but that was because I depended on the daily earning income of the restaurant. If it shut down for even a few days, I could be in trouble. I didn’t have much in the way of savings yet.
“Okay, thanks, Raj!” I told him and then hung up.
Twenty-four-hour electrician. That was funny. We had one electrician in town, and he worked whenever he wanted to. And bad luck for me, Tom had been sweet on my mom in high school and she’d denied him. I called him, told him what was going on, and braced myself, but he said he couldn’t come over until tomorrow.
I’d have to wait. Unless I wanted to bring someone in from another town, but Tom might get territorial, and that would deepen the rift we had. No, I would get his quote and time frame and see what we could work out.
“Sixteen thousand dollars!” I shouted as Tom leaned casually up against the serving window of my restaurant. We stood there in darkness with only flashlights to illuminate anything.
He nodded. “You need a whole new panel, all new wiring, and a week’s worth of labor for me and two assistants. It’s a lot of work, Hannah.”
Lord, he is going to test the Jesus in me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and took in a deep breath so I didn’t let the rageful thoughts I was having turn into words.
He watched me, and when I was finally calm, I spoke. “Tom. I know you and my mother had your differences in high school?—”
He sputtered. “You think I still care about that?”
I raised one eyebrow, challenging him. Tom was Christian, and God knew whether or not he was lying.
He winced. “Well, okay, maybe a little. But that’s not factoring into the price, Hannah. I got three people, eight-hour days, five days of work at eighty bucks an hour each. That’s almost ten grand right there. Then we got copper wiring and?—”
“Eighty dollars an hour?” I balked. “Tom, please have mercy. I just got this restaurant. I’ve still got my mother’s medical bills to pay off. Can you give me a local discount?”
He sighed. “Everyone’s local, darlin’.”
I had to suppress a growl.
Stay calm. Stay calm.
“You could call your billionaire friend. The one who bought you the place,” he suggested.
This time, the growl did leave my throat. “No way!”
Call Jack? I wasn’t asking for money from Jack Marrow if my life depended on it. He’d made his goodbye very clear, and I was a grown woman. I could figure this out.
“How about you do the job for eight grand and you and your assistants eat one meal a day for free for life?”
His eyebrows rose. “Even steak?”
I had to suppress my laugh, because he was dead serious and I saw it as a payment plan of sorts. Besides, my credit card only had an eight-thousand-dollar limit anyway, so that was literally all I could afford.
I nodded. “Anything on the menu, one meal per worker, only once a day. For as long as you live. I’ll even sign a contract.”
He stuck out his hand. “You got a deal. We’ll start right away.”
I sagged in relief. A week of being shut down was not ideal, but I didn’t want to burn the place down in an electrical fire, either. And in the end, I’d gotten fifty percent off the price. Sort of. Whatever. I’d figure it out, and everything was going to be okay.