Chapter 8: I Have A Dream

It was still early when we got back to the apartment. We cycled through the bathroom, and the girls decided that a conversation would go better in comfy clothes, so they changed into the Christmas jammies I had put into their stockings. Jess mixed a rum and Coke for me and for herself, and Kate put some background music on. I made a mental note to find out how these two children of the 1990s had been introduced to ABBA. Soon we were settled on the couch, with me on one end, Kate on the other, and Jess in between us, snuggled up against me. No one seemed to know where to begin. After we had listened to the first track on the CD in silence, I decided to bite the bullet.

“So, we all agreed we need to talk. Jess, you two kindly invited me to spend Christmas with you, and to stay until my car was fixed. I should get it back tomorrow. That means that I could - could - go back home tomorrow. I want to hear what both of you think, but I need to tell you that I really, really don’t want to leave. A week ago, I felt like I had nothing left. No job, no family, no real home. Now, I feel like I’ve got something again, and I don’t want to let go of it.”

Jess spoke next. “Alex, I feel the same way. I don’t want to lose you. I don’t know how to make it work, but I want to keep you in my life. You said at dinner you’d like to stay approximately forever. I’d like that.”

We all knew how Kate felt. It had been her outburst in the pub that started the whole thing. But Jess turned to her, and waited for her to speak.

“Alex, these past few days have been wonderful. And not just because you’ve bought me things. I’ve loved having you around the house, and being out and doing things with you. And I’m with Jess. I want to keep you in my life. I don’t know if it’s even going to be possible for you to be with us, but I want it to happen. Please, can we make it happen? Somehow?”

Both girls looked at me, expectantly. Even if I didn’t want to stay for me, I don’t think I could have let those two young women down.

“OK, so it sounds like we’re all agreed: we want to find a way to make this work. Now we need to figure out how to do that. Jess, I know you know some of my story. Kate, I am not sure what you know and don’t know. So here’s where I am right now: For the past 20 years I’ve been a partner in a software development company. My buddies and I agreed to sell that company last year, and the sale has just become final. I’ll get my last month’s paycheque in a few days. There’s still some final settling up to do, but that won’t involve me very much. I recommended that we hire an outside accounting firm to do the final breakup of the business, since to have me do it would put me in a conflict as both the CFO and a beneficiary of the sale. My partners were all offered jobs with the company that bought us out. But I wasn’t. They wanted the software brains, not the accountant. So the end result of all this is that there is nothing - absolutely nothing - keeping me in Ottawa right now. I could move here very easily, and I would be happy to do that.”

“Really, Alex?” Jess asked. “You’d give up everything you have in Ottawa to move here and be with us?”

“Everything I have? What’s that? I have no job there anymore. I have no family there. My parents lived just outside of Ottawa, but my dad died last year, just after Christmas, and my mom followed him this summer. I have some friends there, including some that I am really close to, but I can keep in touch with them from here. I have a condo there, too. It’s been a decent place to live. But I’ve lived there alone. I’d far rather live here with you then go back to Ottawa and live alone. That is, if I’m not moving too fast in thinking we might move in together more permanently?”

Jess looked at Kate. I’ll never understand how they can communicate like they do, without actually talking. Kate nodded.

“Alex, we’d love to have you move in with us. I can’t quite believe you’re willing to give up what you’ve got, but if you’re sure you can do that, then we are sure we can make it work at this end.”

“Ok, then that is settled. We move in together, and we live in this area. Next thing we need to talk about is exactly where we live. If I am going to move in permanently, I think we need a bit more space. This apartment is ok, but it’ll be tight for three of us.”

“I agree, Alex,” Jess said. “This was the biggest place I could afford for Kate and I. But it will be too small for all of us. If you were able to help out with the rent, we could get a bigger apartment, maybe even in a better neighbourhood.”

“You mean I wouldn’t have to worry about the creepy guys hanging around the front door smoking up when I came home from school in the afternoons?”

“Yes, that’s what we mean, Kate. But I think we need to think about something other than renting. If I am going to move here, that means selling my condo. And it should bring in enough to buy a house here, instead of renting someplace bigger.”

Jess turned at looked up at me, open-mouthed.

“Really? You’d think about buying a house?”

“Of course I would. It would be better to re-invest the money from the condo into some kind of housing. And a house would give us some more space. A bigger kitchen for Kate to cook in, maybe even a nice yard to sit out in.”

“With a pool?” Katelyn wondered.

“Maybe. But before we make too many decisions about the short-term, we need to talk about the long-term too. I assume we want to be here for the next year and a half for Kate to finish school. But what about after that? Do you guys have any thoughts about what your futures might look like? You know, college or university? Career?”

Kate reached out and took Jess’s hand. “Can I tell him?”

“Tell me what?” I wondered aloud.

Jess sighed. “Yes, you can tell him.”

“We have a dream. Well, it started out being my dream. But now it is Jess’s dream, too, I think. You know I love to cook, right? Well, in my dream, I’d go to college and take chef’s courses. Jess would go to school, too, and do environmental studies. She’s always wanted to do that, since we were little. Then when we were both graduated, we’d open a restaurant together. It’d be a place to eat good, local, green, healthy food. I’d cook and run the kitchen, and Jess would help plan the green side of things and run the seating area. We’d be partners, and split the profits. That’s our dream. Right, Jess?”

Jess nodded. “Yes, that’s our dream. And yes, it is mine as well as yours. But you have to remember, baby girl, that sometimes dreams take a long time to come true. And sometimes, they never come true. That’s just the way life is.”

“I know that. But I think we can make this dream come true. It will take time, and a lot of hard work. But we can do it. I know we can. Partners, right?”

Jess leaned over and gave Kate a hug.

“Yes, Katie. Partners. You and me.”

“Well,” I said, “it sounds to me like you need a third partner.” Both girls looked at me. “Think about it. You’ve got one partner who loves cooking and is really gifted at it, and wants to run the kitchen side of things. You’ve got a second partner who has experience working on the serving side of the industry, and who wants to learn about some of the environmental issues that will make your place distinct, give it a niche. It sounds to me like all you are missing is a third partner, someone who has experience running a small business and who has the money to finance the start-up costs. If you two can agree that that third position is necessary, than I would like to apply for the opportunity to fill it.”

Kate stared at me, speechless. Jess found words.

“Alex, we’d love to have you onside with us. But you have to realize that this is a long-term prospect. Opening a restaurant would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Especially the way we want to do it. And that is after we manage to get through school. There’s no way I can quit my job until after Kate graduates from college. Then she’ll have to get a job. We’ve agreed that once she’s found work I can quit, and go to school myself, and she’ll support me. Then we’d both need to work for a while - probably a long time - to save up enough money to even consider starting a business. No bank is going to loan us money for this unless we have at least half the investment we need. So we’re looking at years and years before the dream can even possibly become reality.”

“Yes, you’re right - if you go it alone. But if you let a third person in, and that solves the money problem, then you can speed that up tremendously. You could start university in the fall, Jess, if you wanted to. Maybe even take a course or two before that. And if you take some summer courses, you could likely graduate in less than four years. Kate would be done by then, and we could be looking for a likely place and getting it renovated and ready to go. We could be open in three and a half years, if we really work at it. All you need is the capital to make it happen. And if you two will agree to let me into your partnership, then you have that.”