Page 44 of Winner Takes All

He laughs again. “We don’t have to start right this minute. Robert will kill me if walk out on him now after promising goodies for the patrons. He’s already sent out a social media post to the regulars.”

“Patience isn’t one of my virtues,” I tell him.

“I’m shocked to hear that,” he teases. “You can sit here and spit out ideas while I cook,” he suggests.

“I like that,” Robert calls in, proving he’s listening to us. Victor and I both laugh.

“Don’t worry, Robert, I’ll get the food out,” Victor tells him. He then moves over to the counter and continues what he was doing when I rudely interrupted him. I have no regrets. I pull up a stool and watch.

“We should find the perfect land. That’s the first step,” I say.

“We already know our menu will be everchanging, but that doesn’t mean we can’t put together a book of ideas of what we want on the menu. We should have some staples that are always there for our creatures of habit,” Victor says.

“That’s a great idea,” I tell him. I pull out my phone since I don’t have paper and a pen. I start taking notes as he cooks, and we both spit out ideas. “We can do comfort foods that are permanent, and the more exotic foods will be what changes.”

“I love it. We could even do theme months, or if there are too many choices for us to choose only twelve, we could do theme weeks. Jamaican, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Mexican... and many, many others,” he suggests.

“That’s brilliant,” I tell him. “We don’t have to make those months permanent, we could simply feature that as the food of the month. The next year that month may have an entirely different culture.”

“We both know the importance of sourcing locally as much as we can. When we do other cultures we’ll do our best to use locally owned places to buy our ingredients,” he says.

“I love what a big heart you have, Victor Fortier.”

“My dad has one of those small shops. I like to support other businesses who are trying to take care of a family.”

“We have plenty of fresh, local seafood, and plenty of produce right here from the farmers market so half our supplies will come from right here in Seaville, which I really love,” I say.

He stops cooking for a moment and walks over to me, leans down and kisses me again. “I love that we’re doing this, Nik. You’ve made me happier than you can imagine.”

“You do the same for me every single day,” I tell him.

He goes back to cooking, and we keep talking. My phone is full of notes as we brainstorm. Robert comes in and offers some fantastic ideas as well, and it’s mind-boggling how close we are to making this dream a reality. I know there’s a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s real now. Our decision is made.

We make one set decision before our planning is over. Our restaurant will be calledThe Tide. After all, it’s our love of this town, the outdoors, and most especially the ocean, that brought us both back home.

The future no longer feels scary to me. I know who I am and now I know where I’m going, and it’s not far at all, but it’s sure to be filled with wild adventures. With Victor by my side, there’s nothing I can’t do.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Victor

Once I’ve made a decision, I go full throttle. Luckily, I’m with a partner who feels the same. We both work on the restaurant with a passion. It only takes us two months to find the perfect property, not far from the new resort in town owned by Callan and Sasha. The property with perfect beach access makes it so the sand will practically kiss our feet when we walk out the back doors once the building is complete. It couldn’t be more idea. We jump on it. The view is glorious enough to take our breaths away each time we stand on the land.

I’m one hundred percent in, and we signed the papers on it last week. I thought this would be our hardest part. I was wrong. I was very wrong. It’s a good thing Nik’s a good sport because this project might give us a few grey hairs.

It turns out that opening a restaurant isn’t as easy as either of us thought, not with all of the regulations and government interference. Why would they want to make it hard to feed our neighbors? Because they always want their piece of the pie. Asshats.

Our first hurdle comes up... zoning issues. Nikki’s sitting across the kitchen table from me, half her hair pulled out as she grumbles at all of the rules, the papers saying we’re planning an invasion. She has a fierce look in her eyes, the one she gets whenshe’s determined to win at all costs. The zoning commission has declared war, and she isn’t afraid of firing the first shot.

“Okay,” she says as she taps her pen against a document. “They want a coastal impact assessment before we can break ground. This could take weeks or even months.”

I let out a groan. We’re both more than ready to begin. “I don’t want this restaurant to open in ten years, I want it now.”

Nikki sighs as she leans back in her chair. “I know, but we don’t have any choice but to jump through their hoops. That’s not all, though. We’re also having an issue with parking spaces. They say there needs to be a minimum of twenty spaces with the size we’re planning. I explained to them most of the citizens here in town walk, bicycle, or take golf carts, but they’re fighting us on this.”

“This is insane. These people with the rules don’t even live here. They don’t know how our community works,” I say.

“That’s freaking bureaucracy. They like to make rules while keeping their heads up their asses.”

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