Chapter 3
I found that if I came in each day and sorted the paperwork that had come in, it took considerably less time to fill out the forms each week. It also gave my mind a break from the schoolwork I had to do to improve my marks. The owner or his wife, and sometimes both, would stop by the table for a chat, and they said they were okay with the idea of doing the renovations as long as it didn’t cost too much.
I started calling them Mr. Boss and Mrs. Boss when they started referring to me as the Kid Bookkeeper, and the staff started to use the nicknames too. When we talked about what type of computer to buy, they kept telling me to decide what I needed and to let them know how much I wanted to spend. Mrs. Boss was the one who said not to spend more than half the money in the bank account for whatever I decided to do, and that included the renovations. She asked me to have the renovations done by the time I graduated so I would have an office to work in when I officially began working for them.
The head waitress was the next one to approach me with suggestions about the renovations. She wanted to know what I thought about the idea of having a space for the staff to take their breaks in. Usually they sat at an empty table or went outside the kitchen, near the freight elevator.
When I asked her why she didn’t talk to Mr. and Mrs. Boss about it, she said she had and they told her to talk to me, since I was in charge of doing the renovations. Then she said something I didn’t understand until after I graduated. “They put you in charge of the renovations. Do the job they have given you. If you need help, ask for it, but don’t keep running to other people expecting them to make the decisions for you. When they sit down with you to negotiate what you want to be paid, be honest with them and ask for what you think you are worth. They aren’t as old-fashioned as they seem to be.”
I took my time thinking about the renovations and the costs involved. The head cook and the head waitress gave me advice on what renovations to do and asked me to make the computer available to them if they needed to use it. Mr. Boss gave me a list of people to contact when I was ready to begin the renovations. The first name on the list was an architect. The one name missing from the list was the owner of the building the restaurant was in. He said he would take care of talking to the owner of the building.
I was a nineteen-year-old student about to graduate, and I had been put in charge of more than just doing the paperwork for the restaurant.
My first call was to the architect, and I took their advice as I worked with them on the preliminary drawings. I decided to build an office for the computer and added space to grow into if it was needed. With the advice of the cook and waitress, I added a space for the staff to relax in that had room for a couch and armchairs, with electrical plugs for a fridge, microwave and other things, including a TV and stereo in the future. The couch and chairs were already in the budget, the rest could be added if they were needed in the future.
I did my research on the computers available and set up a budget to buy two reasonably priced computers, a desktop for the office for later and a laptop for use in the restaurant right away. The old computer was donated to a charity and the receipt was included on the tax forms. Each week, I met with Mr. and Mrs. Boss and explained to them what was happening, and told them to let me know if they had anything they felt needed to be changed.
Having the laptop meant I could take care of the paperwork each day when I went in. I tried to show Mr. Boss how to use it, but he just kept saying, “That’s your job now, that’s what I hired you for.” With the ‘wage’ they were paying me, I put on a little more weight and my clothes began to fit better, and I wasn’t the only one to notice it. Mrs. Boss insisted I buy some new clothes and gave me a company credit card with my name on it. She gave me the same instructions I had for the renovations, “Don’t spend more than half the amount in the bank.”
I convinced my bosses that they needed to change how I was being paid, partly because I didn’t want to get fat, but mainly so I could show it on the paperwork. For the first time, I had to put a monetary value on what I was doing. I knew what the rest of the staff was being paid and based my requested wage on that. They asked me to put it in writing, and to put my reasons for requesting what I did. When they returned it to me, Mrs. Boss had added, “Accepted, plus bonus clause for additional duties. Contract to be renegotiated at the completion of the renovations.”
When I tried to object, saying it wasn’t meant to be for such a short term, Mr. Boss smiled and said, “Just nod and accept it the way Mrs. Boss has written it.” When he referred to his wife that way, I knew better than to argue. They treated me like an adult and didn’t tell me to do things, they asked, and I gave them the same respect.
I wasn’t the only one that was changing. The girl with the braces always smiled at me when we passed in the hallway at school, and she didn’t try to hide her braces. It didn’t take me long to notice she was dressing differently too. She started to stop by the restaurant more frequently, and each time she did, Mrs. Boss would bring her something to eat, though what she brought changed as the girl put on a little weight. On her, the extra weight went to all the right places. She didn’t become beautiful suddenly, but I took more notice of her. As she changed, I felt she became even more out of my league. It didn’t stop me from smiling back at her, and I often saw her blushing when I looked at her in the restaurant. Her braces were always visible when I did. I noticed the waitresses always placed her at a table where I would see her.
Every so often, Mrs. Boss left a receipt for me with a note attached asking me to claim it as a restaurant expense. The amounts were small compared to what the restaurant spent and it was easy to find places to claim them, though I couldn’t figure out how clothing from boutiques and sessions at salons were business-related. Some things I just claimed as charitable donations.
At Mr. Boss’s suggestion, I asked the various people I was dealing with to meet me at the restaurant. The meeting included food paid for by the restaurant, and I learnt the value of what giving away something could do when negotiating a deal. It didn’t take long for word to spread that Mr. Boss had put me in charge of the renovations, and despite my age, they treated me as an adult.
The renovations quickly went through the planning stage into the construction phase, and just like any construction project, changes needed to be made as problems occurred. The minor things were dealt with by the people I hired, but there were still I few things I had to make decisions on.
I also found ways to save money, such as by offering to feed the crews at the restaurant's expense. By claiming the regular price of the meals as an expense, the restaurant only had to pay the cost of preparing the food, and the reduction in the negotiated price of the construction was significantly better than what it cost to feed the crews. With well-fed crews doing the work, the renovations started ahead of the schedule and stayed that way.
As it got closer to the end of the school year, the topic among the staff turned to graduation. Everyone knew someone who was graduating and they wanted to know what I was planning to do. The big discussion revolved around the party in the evening, and they all had stories to tell about theirs. Some of the stories were quite risque, though they didn’t get too descriptive. When they found out I wasn’t planning on going, they wouldn’t stop asking me why until I explained I didn’t fit in with the crowd at school and hadn’t even asked if anyone would go with me.
There was plenty for me to do as the renovations were completed. The desktop computer arrived, along with the rest of the office equipment and furniture. The renovations didn’t just include the new office space and staff area, I included wifi for the restaurant, and the customers commented on the addition. It didn’t take long for there to be an increase in the size of the tips being left. With the tips going into a jar and being divided between all the staff, everyone was happy.
The Bosses had been keeping a closer eye on things than I realized, and I received a call from one of the formalwear stores in town asking me to come down for a fitting. I had used half the balance in the account at the start of the renovations as the amount to work with, and had kept track of all the expenses as they came in. Mrs. Boss had a big smile on her face when she told me the fitting was part of the bonus for completing the renovations ahead of time and under the budget they had set. She asked me to pick out a suit to wear for the graduation party, and from the way she phrased it, I understood it was one of those requests I didn’t have a choice with. I had just been notified I was going to be attending the party.
The staff at the store had several choices ready for me when I arrived, and as I tried them on, they made suggestions to narrow down the choices to the one I felt best in. Each suit had come with suggestions for shirts to wear with it and it didn't take me long to realize I was being fitted with a suit I could wear after the party as well. When I walked in, I looked like a kid getting ready to graduate. By the time they were done, the image I saw was of a young man getting ready to face the business world. I also found out I wasn't renting it, the restaurant was buying it for me, together with the shirts to go with it.
On the day of the party, Mrs. Boss asked what time I would be ready and explained a car would be picking me up. It was all part of the bonus for the work I did on the renovations. What she didn’t tell me was Mr. Boss would be my driver and she would be with him in one of his carefully restored automobiles. It wasn’t a limousine, it was classier than that.
I found out there was one other stop on the way to the party. Mrs. Boss informed me she had arranged to have someone accompany me to the party. All I could get out of Mrs. Boss was it was someone I would recognize, and she was sure I would enjoy being with the person.
We pulled up in front of a house in the better part of town, and Mrs. Boss asked me to accompany her to the door. It was another one of the requests I knew better than to argue about. I knew it was traditional for the guy to pick up his date for the party at her place, but this situation was not typical. As the door opened, I was met with a smile I recognized right away, though the person smiling at me didn’t look like she usually did. She still wasn’t beautiful the way people usually define beauty, but she definitely looked way out of my class.
Even with the braces, her teeth hadn’t improved much yet. She had definitely filled out in all the right places, and the dress she was wearing was highlighting all of it in a very appealing way. Mrs. Boss was ready for the stunned look on my face. “See, my dear, I told you he would be speechless when he saw you. Give him a chance to recover, though I think it may take him a while.” Then she turned to me. “This is the part of your bonus I have had the most fun working on. I’ve been taking her clothes shopping and to the salon for a while now. After I saw how you looked at her in the restaurant and asked me to take her the piece of cake, I knew I had to do something. I could see you wouldn’t. When I asked her if she would go to the party with you, she said she was more than willing.” She paused, and then stage whispered, “I think she likes you. I didn’t even have to bribe her to go with you. When I took her shopping for a dress to wear to the party and she saw the prices, I had to tell her you were buying it for her.”
Charlotte and I were both blushing by that time, and she looked even better to me. I finally got my brain to work enough to say, “My name is Brian. It’s nice to finally say ‘hi’ to you, Charlotte.”
Her smile got bigger as she said, “I know who you are. I’ve been too scared to talk to you, and I’ve been waiting a long time for you to say something to me.”
Mrs. Boss had things under control. She whispered to me, “Hold out your arm so she can slip hers through it, then walk her to the car.” It was the final thing needed to relieve the tension we were feeling and Charlotte laughed as I extended my arm. Mr. Boss was waiting by the back door of the car for us to arrive. He took her hand and assisted her into the car, and gestured for me to follow her, before shutting the door for us.
At the hotel where the party was being held, Mr. Boss stepped out and slipped on a hat. All the eyes in the area turned in our direction as he opened the suicide door on his classic car and I stepped out wearing my suit. Everyone went quiet as I extended my hand to Charlotte as she stepped out. Mr. Boss whispered, “Hold your head up and walk into there as if you own the building. Have fun tonight, enjoy yourselves. When you are ready to leave, have us paged. I’m going to take my wife to have a meal and we’ll be listening to the music in the club afterwards. I still remember how to have a good time.”