Luxury Cafe Owner - Chapter 38 The Approaching Date

Gerald’s assistant got back to him quickly. The date had been set for two days from now. Natasha had to travel to City A, so that was already the soonest they could meet.

Sighing at his fate, Gerald walked to the counter where Alan stood.

Alan looked at him as he approached. “Is the date set then?”

Gerald nodded. “I’ll be troubling you. I’d like to reserve the cafe from 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM two days from now.”

Alan pulled out his phone and made a note on it. “Okay, that’s fine. Now let’s talk about the price.”

“Would $5,000 cover it?” Gerald asked.

Alan was taken aback. That significantly exceeded his income from a typical morning. “It’s more than I usually make. $1,000 would already be fine. It’s only two and a half hours.”

Gerald shook his head. “Don’t refuse it. You’re still trying to establish your business, so losing morning hours means losing chances to bring in regular customers. For it to be worth it you need the short term gain to be significant.”

Alan thought about it before shaking his head. “Even if that’s the case, just pay me $2,000. I really can’t accept $5,000, it’s not a fair price.”

Gerald could only helplessly write a check for $2,000. However, he made a promise to himself to try to bring more business to Alan’s cafe.

Alan took the check and took it back to the desk in the kitchen. He would deposit it using his banking app on his phone after business hours.

The day passed quickly. After closing up, Alan deposited the check from Gerald and went upstairs to get ready for sleep.

The next morning, Alan got up early and prepared the coffee cake. He made two cakes this time in anticipation of more people wanting it. He also sent out a tweet announcing he would be serving coffee cake.

Satisfied with his preparations, he made himself his morning coffee and set about his day.

Time passed quickly. The cake sold decently well, but it was mainly his regular customers who ordered it. Still, he managed to sell all of it by the time lunch rolled around.

As afternoon rolled around, Alan stood at the counter noting down his sales on a notepad. He would add it to an excel spreadsheet later. He wanted to track his sales to better predict how much cake he should prepare each day. If he screwed up he’d have to save the cake for the next day. It would keep, but it wouldn’t be as good. He didn’t want customers to complain about the quality as that was his main selling point.

Alan finished writing the last sale as the door opened and the bell rang. Tom walked in.

He nodded his head at Alan in greeting. “I’ll take a cappuccino.” Alan nodded and went to prepare it. As he brought it back out, Tom started making conversation.

“So the date is tomorrow right? What are you going to make for them?”

Alan looked at him. “Coffee and coffee cake.”

Tom stared at him. “You’re going to serve a former model and successful fashion designer…cake?”

Alan nodded. Tom’s eyes widened. “That won’t go well will it?”

Alan thought about it. “It should be fine. My cake is an effective dieting tool anyways.”

Tom shook his head. “Good luck convincing her of that.”

Alan shrugged. “In any case, it’s what I have to serve. If Gerald wanted something different he could have gone somewhere else.”

“Gerald wants the date to tank though. He’s only doing it to get the fashion line in his store. On the other hand it would be a big deal for you if Natasha Bianchi said she liked your cake. She might even send some models your way. Think about it, having models in your cafe.” Tom looked wistful as he imagined it.

Alan shook his head. “I’m not interested.” He didn’t think it would really make a difference. A few more people wouldn’t help his cafe. It would at most be some temporary fame. He’d learned from his experience with Twitter last time. What he was pursuing now was a more steady client base. Even if the models came, most of them would travel too much to ever be considered regular customers.

Tom scoffed. “How can you call yourself a real man if you’re not even interested in models coming to your cafe? You could treat them to coffee and take the chance to get to know them much better.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

Alan looked at him doubtfully. “Why would I treat them? I still have bills to pay. Besides what year do you think this is? I’d consider it if they offered to treat me to a meal.”

“You still want them to treat you to a meal? You’d be lucky if they gave you the time of day.” Tom was helpless in front of Alan who only cared about money.

“I have bills to pay. I don’t have time or money to pursue a woman, let alone those high maintenance models.”

Tom threw up his hands. “I give up. You and Gerald are crazy, only having money on the brain.”

Alan shrugged and turned his attention the door as another customer entered. Tom went to his usual spot while Alan served the customer.

The sky darkened as evening arrived. Gerald stopped by to get a cappuccino late in the evening.

“Is everything ready for tomorrow?” Gerald asked.

Alan nodded. “I already tweeted out that the cafe was reserved for a private party tomorrow and would open at 11:00 AM. Aside from that, I’ll make sure to have fresh coffee and coffee cake ready.”

Gerald nodded. He didn’t really care about the food and drink. He mainly chose the cafe because it was luxurious. He could justify it as a good location for the date to Natasha, so she couldn’t complain that he hadn’t taken the date ‘seriously’.

Gerald drank his cappuccino while ruminating about the next day. Alan wiped down the counter as he would be closing soon.

Gerald finished his drink and left. Alan meanwhile focused on the system.

“System, how much progress have I made towards the mission?”

“Host, the system has tracked how many times the same people have come into the cafe. Host has managed to increase the regular customers significantly. Currently Host has 76 regular customers.”

Alan was surprised, but then he thought it made sense. He only really remembered the customers who came in nearly daily. Otherwise it was too hard to keep track of how many people came in. He supposed he had seen more familiar faces recently.

“Only 24 more to go,” Alan thought to himself.

Finishing cleaning up, Alan went upstairs and thought about what else he could do to bring in regular customers. He soon fell asleep.