Page 35 of St. Lucia Escapades
“Oh, Moira that’s great! This sounds like the perfect premise for one of your novels. Maybe you could talk to your man and see if he would be okay with you writing your story. Of course, you would want to change the names and such just to be safe.”Holly suggested.
Moira laughed, “His ma Sally said the same thing. Seems she’s a huge fan of mine and that’s how Cord knew who I was when we met that first day. God Holly, he’s amazing. He’s funny, smart, and the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, let alone met.”
“You said he and his brother own several bars here in New York? Which ones?”
“O’Brien’s Tap.”
“Well I’ll be damned! When you finally hook up with a guy you go for the big fish don’t you.”Holly laughed.“He and his brother were just in The Voice last week. Seems a city councilman’s son had been a bit drunk and caused some damage at their Manhattan location. I believe it was Councilman Walker. Walker not only paid for the repairs, but made his son help. The press release stated that Walker used this latest incident to teach his son that just because he was the son of a wealthy councilman, didn’t give him the right to behave like spoiled child.”
“Wow, I remember Cord telling me he was on vacation while some renovations were being done to one of the bars, but he didn’t tell me that. Course, I didn’t ask either.”
“I’ve been to the one in Manhattan as well as the one in SoHo. They are great places to go and have fun and relax. At least twice a month they have live music on Friday and Saturday night. I got to see Jason Mraz once and let me tell you it was great.”
“I bet.” Moira smiled. Holly was a huge Jason Mraz fan. “So, whenever I make a trip to meet the publishers, unless Cord says differently, I’m assuming he’s going to want me to stay with him.”
“He’d be a fool not to want you to stay with him. So, you saw him last weekend with your parents? How did that go?”Holly chuckled.
“It went great. His mom and brother were so sweet and my Da and Collen spent most of the time talking sports. Ma and Sally talked about everything from books, to music, to movies. It honestly felt like we had known each other forever.” Moira replied.
“That’s great honey. Well, I’ll let you get back to work. If it’s alright, I can send the next group of edits to you.”
“Send them away. I’m nearly done with this group.”
“Will do. I’ll talk to you later Moira.”
Moira bid Holly goodbye and went back to work. As she worked, she thought over the idea of writing her and Cord’s story. Of course, before she even started, she would first make sure he was okay with it. This wouldn’t be like her previous work which was all fiction. This would be true events. She couldn’t stop from smiling at the idea of writing it. She hoped Cord would be fine with it.
Cord
Cord sat at his desk looking over the floor plan of a building. After the previous weekend’s successful meeting of his family and Moira’s, an idea had hit. For the last week he had been combing over the financials and looking at several locations that looked promising. The one thing he hadn’t done yet was fill Collen in on his plans. He was still debating it. Should he do it now? Should he wait? Should he even bring it up to Collen just yet? Cord sighed and closed the folder he had started for this idea. There was a knock on his door followed by Collen poking his head in.
“Hey there.” Collen greeted.
“Hey Collie. What’s up?” Cord asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Just thought you’d like to see the numbers from the past week.” Collen stated, handing over a folder.
When Cord opened it and looked at them, he felt his eyes widen and his jaw drop. “Holy shit. This is from one week?”
“Yep, and that’s for all SEVEN locations.” Collen grinned.
Cord was floored. True their bars were popular, but in the last week their weekly revenue had nearly doubled. “What the hell caused this huge jump?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say that article in The Voice. Plus, Councilman Walker also talked to a few reporters afterward. Like he promised, he didn’t sugar coat a damned thing regarding what happened with his kid. I took those numbers over to Al and his models all seem to indicate that we can see those numbers continuing to increase steadily over the next several months, maybe longer.” Collen explained.
Al was their analysts’ guy. He was also Collen’s best friend. Al had been with the O’Brien brothers from the beginning. The guy was a whiz at projections. He had been the one to determine the best location for their first bar which was the Bronx. Damned if he hadn’t been right too. In fact, thanks to Al, they had made nearly a million their first year. “This is great. I think we owe Al not only a raise but a steak dinner.”
“I agree. And if you’re ready for an even bigger shock, I just got off the phone with the manager for Five Finger Death Punch. They want to do a small concert to promote their upcoming album at our Manhattan bar.” Collen added.
“Fuck me. Really?” Cord gaped.
“Really. I told their manager I would talk to you and then call him back about dates and logistics. He did say it would be a private gig. They would sell passes for maybe 150 people. As the venue, we would receive twenty percent of ticket sales. He would also give us twenty free passes for us to sell or giveaway. If we choose to sell those, we get all the profits of those sales.” Collen said.
“I say get your ass back in your office and call him and say hell yeah.” Cord ordered.
Collen laughed, gave a two-finger salute and left. Cord couldn’t believe this was happening. He glanced at his watch and jumped to his feet. He was late for meeting with his mom. He and her were having lunch today at her favorite place. Tucking the files Collen had given him in his desk, Cord rushed from his office. Luckily, he caught a cab and got to the restaurant only five minutes late.
“Hey mom, sorry I’m late.” Cord apologized, kissing her cheek.
