If only…
She refused to let her mind finish the thought. Instead, she nestled the white kitten in with the rest, set the alarm on her phone, and headed down the hall to get ready for bed. As tired as she was, she wouldn’t truly be able to rest until the kittens—and Josie’s bar—were safely out of her life.
* * *
Josie had underestimatedthe amount of work that went into an episode ofDo Over. Maybe she’d imagined that Eve would show up, give Swanson’s a glamorous makeover while the cameras rolled, and voilà…her bar would be successful again.
In reality, Eve was here at lunchtime again on Wednesday, laptop open on the bar, typing furiously as she asked Josie question after question. Today, she had on a gray knit dress that clung to every inch of her body in a way that made it very hard not to stare. But that was probably just Josie’s hormones talking.
Since her dad died, she hadn’t had much time for dating, which didn’t mean she hadn’t tried. She’d maintained her Tinder profile and tried to go on at least one date a month. But only a handful of those had resulted in second dates, and it had been over a year since she’d made it to a third. It was beyond frustrating. She wanted a woman who made her laugh, someone who would sit up with her at night and help her bottle-feed tiny kittens, someone who made her whole body short-circuit the way it did every time she looked at Eve.
Eve, who never cracked a smile and never failed to begin a conversation by asking if Josie had found a foster home for the kittens yet. Eve, with her perfect hair and makeup, her frosty personality, and that body…
“So?” she said, pinning Josie with an impatient look.
“What?” She gave her head a slight shake. “Sorry.”
Eve sighed. “Jason is currently your only employee?”
“Yes. He tends bar with me on Friday and Saturday nights.” It was embarrassing to admit that she only had one part-time employee, that she was working every single shift. It hadn’t been this way when her father was in charge, and not even for Josie until a few months ago. But when her other full-time bartender quit, she hadn’t been able to justify hiring someone new. It was only temporary, just until business picked up.
“And what do you do if you’re sick?” Eve asked, glancing at her over her laptop.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, reaching for a cloth to wipe down the bar. “I’d try to make it down here anyway, I guess. It hasn’t happened since I took over full-time.”
“It’s not sustainable,” Eve said. “You realize this.”
“I do,” she agreed. “It’s why I asked for your help. I know I’m in trouble.”
“You own the whole building?”
“Yes.” Her grandparents had bought it over forty years ago for a fraction of what a building like this would cost today, and thankfully, her dad had been able to pay the mortgage off before his death.
“And you rent out the apartment on the third floor?”
“Yes.”
“Any work we do for you as part of the show will be paid for, but you’re going to need a plan for success after I’m gone,” Eve said, fingers still clacking over the keys. “I’ll help you strategize, but you’ll probably also need to take out a small business loan or a home equity loan on the building to cover your operating expenses for the first few months while you grow.”
“A loan?” Josie swallowed hard. The only reason she’d been able to make it even this far was that she didn’t have a mortgage to pay each month.
Eve nodded. “Once I present my business plan to you on Friday, I’ll go over my recommendations for keeping the momentum going, areas I think you can improve, and strategies for success.”
“That sounds like a lot more than a TV show.” And a lot more than she was expecting.
“That’s because this is what I do for a living. I want you to be a satisfied client, not just an episode on a television show. And on that note, you’re welcome to utilize my services after filming is complete, if you like. I want you to succeed, just like any other client.”
“I’m pretty sure I couldn’t afford you,” Josie said as she began to stack clean glasses from the dishwasher behind the bar.
“Sometimes you have to spend money to make money,” Eve said.
“That sounds a lot simpler than it is.” And she doubted Eve truly wanted to step foot in this bar again after filming had wrapped, but she appreciated the offer.
“We’ll go over all of that once I’ve got your launch plan ready.”
“Okay.”
Eve got up from the barstool and began to wander around the space, taking photos with her phone and jotting down notes. She disappeared down the hall that led to Josie’s office and the storage room, returning a few minutes later. “What’s behind that locked door at the end of the hall?”
