Luxury Cafe Owner - Chapter 37 Geralds Problem

Alan continued to peddle the coffee cake throughout the day, but it was harder to sell that he thought. He even sent out a tweet about it, but the response was muted.

Helpless, he could only continue business as usual. Even though the coffee cake wasn’t selling well, people still ordered the coffee. He noticed some more familiar faces coming back to the cafe.

Still, he felt dissatisfied about the reaction to the coffee cake.

Evening came around and Alan began to serve cappuccinos. Tom came back to the cafe to have the cappuccino. A few other customers came. Even customers who weren’t regulars still came to try the cappuccino. This was the lingering effect of his infamy on Twitter.

As Alan stood behind the counter wiping up a small coffee spill, the bell on the door rang as the door opened. Gerald stepped inside and closed the door quickly, shivering slightly from the cold.

Alan greeted him. “Cappuccino?” He asked. Gerald nodded, but also looked at the menu. Seeing the coffee cake, he asked, “Can I get a slice of the coffee cake too?”

Alan shook his head. “My apologies, the coffee cake can only be served before noon.”

Gerald sighed in reluctant acceptance. His employees would be amazed to see he’d been tamed by the rules of this cafe.

He went and sat by Tom and sighed loudly as he did.

Tom eyed him. “What’s with you? Why are you sighing so loudly?”

Gerald sighed again, and Tom had to resist rolling his eyes.

“I’m dealing with a work problem,” Gerald explained.

Tom shook his head. “So what? Are problems new to us? You built your business up from scratch, like me. What problem haven’t you seen before?”

Gerald sighed again, drawing an irritated glance from Tom. “It’s really not a problem I’ve ever had before. You know how I run a department store right? Well, recently, we’ve started focusing on introducing more luxury items. We want to offer something for high end clientele.”

“So what’s the problem?” Tom asked.

Gerald glanced at him, irritated at being interrupted. “The problem is the brands I’ve been negotiating with. I’ve had to throw tons of benefits at them just to get them to put their brands for sale in the store.”

“Isn’t that expect–” Tom began before Gerald cut him off with an exasperated sigh.

“Obviously that’s expected. The issue is one of the brands. It’s called Allettare. It’s an Italian luxury clothing line owned and operated by a fashion designer named Natasha Bianchi.”

“Natasha Bianchi?” Tom interrupted again, stroking his chen pensively. “Where have I heard that name before?”

Gerald sighed. “She’s a former model. You probably saw her in some magazines.”

“Ah!” Tom exclaimed. “That’s right. Wasn’t she nominated for most attractive woman alive by Vogue like a decade ago?”

Gerald nodded. “Probably. She was really famous for a while. But the shelf life of a model is really short. Most of them end up fading away into obscurity after a few years. Natasha, though, started her own fashion line and it’s been extremely successful. Allettare is already synonymous with status.”

“Then, the problem is she’s unwilling to have your brand in your store?” Tom asked.

Gerald shook his head. “If it was just that it wouldn’t be a problem. I’d move on to the next best brand. The problem isn’t that she said no, it’s that she said yes.”

“How is that a problem?” Tom asked, confused.

Gerald sighed once again. “I offered her the same conditions as the other brands I’m bringing in. She said yes but added one additional condition; I have to go on a date with her.”

Tom sat in stupefied silence for a moment before bursting out into laughter. He drew sharp gazes from the other patrons of the cafe who were annoyed at the disturbance. He forced himself to quiet down to a chuckle.

Meanwhile, Gerald sat there eyeing him in dissatisfaction.

Tom waved his hand in apology. “Sorry, sorry, it was just so unexpected, I couldn’t help myself.” Gerald wasn’t very convinced by the apology as Tom was still smiling as he said it.

“In any case,” Gerald said. “I’m debating what to do. On the one hand, getting that brand in my store would be a huge deal. We’d start drawing in high end customers. On the other hand” Gerald sighed and didn’t finish his sentence.

Tom snorted. “There’s no debate. You do what’s good for business. I don’t get what you’re complaining about. A beautiful, successful woman wants to date you, plenty of men would jump at the opportunity.”

Gerald shook his head. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Natasha was beautiful. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to her. The main issue was that he didn’t like anyone telling him what to do. It was a small thing, but extremely important to him. He valued his independence, his ability to make his own decisions without anyone influencing him.

He didn’t bother trying to explain it to Tom and continued to ponder his predicament.

As Gerald and Tom returned to silence, Alan brought Gerald’s cappuccino over to him.

“Here you go,” Alan said, as he set it on the small end table next to the chair.

Gerald nodded his appreciation. He reached for the cappuccino and was stunned to see the image drawn in the foam this time. It looked like a beautiful woman in a long dress twirling around. Alan had somehow even managed to convey the movement of the woman.

Gerald suddenly had an idea. “Alan, would it be possible for me to bring a date here sometime?”

Alan looked at him in confusion, but Tom suddenly got excited. “That’s perfect, then I can watch you fail at wooing a woman!”

Gerald gave him a condescending glance. “What I was asking was, is it okay if I rent out the cafe for an evening? I’ll more than cover your losses. All I ask is that you serve us your coffee and your coffee cake.”

Alan immediately shook his head. “I can’t do that. Renting the cafe out is fine, but I can’t serve coffee cake in the evening.”

Gerald paused, then said, “Fine, how about the morning.” In his mind that was even better. He could turn their date into a mere coffee date.

Alan thought about it and nodded. “That should be fine. Just give me notice about when you want to do this. I want to give my customers a heads up.”

Gerald expressed that he would, and Alan went back to the counter. Only Tom was left unhappy.

“Why couldn’t you let me watch? Did you need to be so stingy?” Tom demanded. Gerald snorted at him and then ignored him as he sipped on his coffee and pulled out his phone. He texted his assistant to arrange a morning date that fit with Natasha Bianchi’s calendar and his own calendar and to let him know the details once it was set.

Then he enjoyed his cappuccino as he considered how to approach the future meeting.