Chapter 15

The spring semester, and the summer that followed, were more of the same. Katie led her team to the conference championship and a second-place finish at the World Series championship in Oklahoma that year. John completed another perfect 4.0 semester, and during the summer session completed his undergraduate degree in Physics with a minor in Astronomy. He was looking forward to beginning his master's degree program in the fall. Katie continued her education in tavern management with Tim.

At the insistence of John's parents, they agreed that John would attend graduation ceremonies the following spring when Katie was scheduled to graduate. Once again John set his schedule on an accelerated pace, if all went according to plan he would not only receive his undergraduate degree, but would also his masters degree at the same time.

Their fourth year in school was much like their third. John spent almost all of his time attending classes, and studying and writing papers. Katie, on the other hand, spent more of her time centered around the sorority, attending classes, but concentrating on those classes which she felt would be on the most help to her upon graduation. They still found the time to work-out together three days a week, with Katie spending an additional hour afterwards on the free weights.

During the spring semester, Katie would get up early on the weekends and would go out into the area surrounding the main campus for morning runs. She would run through the streets of Tucson looking for a building that could be used for an Irish Pub. On one of her runs she found what she was looking for. The building was located in the business district, approximately two blocks from the main part of the campus. More importantly however, it was also on a heavily traveled street. The building itself was a two-story stand alone structure with three retail shops on the first floor and what appeared to be apartments on the second. There was plenty of street parking and a parking lot in the back of the building. The retail space was currently occupied by a small deli, an insurance agency, and a gift shop. And best of all, there was a 'for sale' sign on the building.

Katie sprinted back to the dorm. She found John just as she left him: sleeping peacefully in bed. Yanking off the covers, she jumped onto his naked prone body.

"John, get up! I think I found the perfect building for my Irish Pub; come on I'll show you!" she said grabbing his hands and pinning him to the bed as he struggled against his unknown assailant. Slowly he became aware of who was sitting on top of him and what she was saying to him.

"Katie, that's great, but don't you think I should get dressed first."

"OK, if you insist," she giggled as she began to gyrate her ass onto his growing erection.

An hour later, after they had showered after making love, they walked across campus in the direction of the building.

'How are we going to afford to buy a building; neither of us are working full time, ' he thought, but he knew better than to say anything that would be contrary to anything that she set her mind on.

Soon they were standing in front of the building. It looked like a nice area; the building looked pretty good from the outside. The question was, where were they going to get the money?

Katie wrote down the name and number of the real estate agent, and taking John by the arm, led him back to their dorm.

"John, it would be just perfect for my pub. We could live in one of the four apartments upstairs. It would be within walking distance of the university for you. I could run the pub and be there to manage it full time. Once we were well-established, we could think about moving to our own house somewhere outside of the city. I'm going to call to find out more information."

John watched as Katie made the call. He watched her expression change from one of joy to one of total despair as she scribbled down numbers. After ending the call she looked up at John and said,

"They want a million dollars for the building and a 20% down payment. That means we would have to come up with at least $400,000; $200,000 for the down payment and $200,000 to cover the closing costs and renovations to the building before we could open. Where would we get that kind of money?"

"Well, I have some money put aside in stocks; maybe my parents have some money put away for my education that we could borrow."

"I could check with my mom; maybe she put aside a college fund that we could borrow. But I'm sure that we would need a whole lot more than that."

They sat pondering on their dilemma, as Katie started her computer.

"I've got to set up a business plan. We have to find out how much money we can get our hands on, and how much we are going to need to operate the business and the building. If we can raise $100,000 ourselves, and $300,000 by borrowing from third parties, I think we can make it work. Look, the rent on the four apartments at $1,000 month will pay for the mortgage and the building costs."

"Four apartments?"

"Yes; we would have to pay rent, too. The pub rent would be used to pay back the third party loans. The pub would have to do about $10,000 a week gross before we could see a profit. The work will be hard; I'll have to work seven days a week at the beginning, but I think we can make this happen.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to go see Tim; he gets in early on Sunday. I'll show him my numbers and ask him to review my plan. Maybe I can get him to come down one day next week and take a look at the building. He can tell me if I need to plan for any additional renovation costs."

She called Tim at the bar and set up a meeting for 9:00 AM the next day, which meant a very early morning for her. At 6:00 she was on the road heading north for her appointment. As she drove, the numbers kept rolling around in her head. She was sure it could be done.

"Katie, my dear, it's good to see you again. Come on in, let's sit over here. I'll get you a cup of coffee and we can go over this business plan of yours."

For the next hour Tim read her plan, asked a lot of questions, did some calculations and asked more questions. They finished the pot of coffee and had started on a second, when Tim pushed back from the table. After a long pause he began to speak.

"Katie, they've taught you well. Your numbers look good to me. If the building is in decent shape, I see no problems with your estimates. The only question I have is about your third party backers. Can you get the money? And, what happens if you need more?"

"Tim, to be honest with you, I don't know. That's my one area of concern. This has all happen so quickly that I haven't had time to explore my options as of yet."

"Katie, I'm really excited for you. I haven't had been this excited since I bought this place twenty-five years ago. Let me tell you what I can do for you. You know I'm a widower, with no family here; only a couple of distant relatives in the old country. I've got more money than I could ever spend, and some money that no one knows about. Ever since I've met you, I've thought of you as the daughter that I never had. Why don't we do this? I will be your third party, your backer. I will supply whatever money you need in order to set up the pub."

Katie sat there too stunned to speak. Tim was the answer to her prayers.

"This is what we'll do; you know that Thursday is my day off. Why don't I meet you in Tucson say around 11:00AM; we'll take a look at this building of yours. If it's as good as you think it is we'll put together an offer. I know several contractors who are slow right now, who owe me a few favors. We can get them to give us proposals. I also have an excellent accounting firm that specializes in the hospitality industry; they can help you set up the business properly. I also have a great lawyer; he'll do all the legal stuff."