Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(5)

The men high-fived each other. “She’s in,” Derrick said.

Marcia turned her focus back onto her husband. “She’s also still highly pissed off that this decision was made without her prior consent,” she said, walking toward them. “Someone better be prepared to do a lot of sucking up to me over the next few months.”

She poked Derrick in the chest. “Master or not, I’m your wife. From this point on, when it comes to business matters I’d better be treated like a business partner, not a slave, or you’ll find yourself running this place without my help.”

She noticed Kel was trying to hold back his smile.

“And you,” she said, pointing at him. “You’d better come up with some folding tables, Mr. Enabler.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the landlord and I said so, that’s why. We always have food at the parties. People will need places to sit and eat so they’re not juggling plates.”

She turned to the right, facing the southern half of the space. “That’ll be the social area in that side because of the mop sink over there on the far wall. We need to add a regular kitchen sink and counter space, too. And a hot water heater for washing dishes and hands, seriously. And shelves for supplies.” Then she turned to the left half of the space. “That’ll be the play area, where we put the equipment.”

“Okay,” Derrick said, “not that I’m going to argue or overrule you, but out of curiosity, why?”

“Because people naturally turn toward the right. They’ll head to the social area first. You don’t want people heading right into the play area from out of the office, or having to walk through it to get in or out, or while on their way to the social area. Duh. That’ll disturb scenes.”

She turned and walked to the front wall, then took several measured steps away from it. “Office should probably be this wide or so. And we can use the alcove between the office wall and southern wall for a social area, with couches and stuff, after you insulate the roll-up door.”

She pointed at Derrick. “Put out the word that we’re in the market for good used leather and vinyl couches. Absolutely no cloth couches. They can be ugly colors, as long as they’re not white or another really light color.”

“Um, oookaaay. Why?”

“Duh. You can wipe them down.” She looked up at the ceiling again. “And we’ll need an electrician, or someone who won’t electrocute themselves, to run the lights up there.”

The men exchanged a glance.

“Hey, my step-dad is a contractor. You think I don’t know my way around a construction project, think again.”

She rested her hands on her hips as she once again looked around the space. “This’ll take a while to build out and do it right,” she said. “We are not going into debt to fund this. But it’s a doable plan. We need to pick up some cheap decorative accordion room divider screens, though, to put in front of the door for the first few parties. To control traffic flow and block people from seeing inside until we get the office built.”

She walked over to the door and paced it off. “Like this,” she said, indicating with her hands. “Several people can take turns manning the door. We’ll use a cash box and a card table or something. And I need to know what the baseline monthly expenses will run so we can put aside at least three months’ worth ahead of time from the door proceeds before we start buying and building crap.”

Kel slowly shook his head. “Wow. For someone who doesn’t seem keen on doing this, you sure seem keen on doing this.”

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” she said, tapping her forehead. “Office manager, remember?” She walked over and poked Derrick in the chest again. “I mean it. We will not go into debt over this. I don’t mind doing a couple of cash loans to the business to get it started, but we are the primary creditor and get paid back first.”

He nodded. “Absolutely.”

“Give me the expense report by Thursday,” she said.

“It’s only Tuesday.”

“And you guys want to have a party a week from this coming Saturday, right?”

The men nodded.

“Then I need to know ASAP what our expenses will run so I can plan accordingly. I’ll go to the warehouse club tomorrow and price out sodas and cups and plates, stuff like that.”

The men shared a clueless glance.

She arched an eyebrow at them. “Because we need to plan the guest list,” she said. “I need to know how many people we’ll have attending, approximately, so I know what to list as the ‘suggested donation’ for a door fee in the e-mail when I send it out.” She used air quotes around the term. “And if we’re having two parties a month, it means I can adjust the amount accordingly to split the expenses in half per party for a more accurate number.”

“We’re not out to make a profit,” Derrick reminded her.

“No, but we’re going to have some massive expenses up front,” she said. “We’re going to need to make improvements and additions in the first few months. Once we do that and have a steady operating budget every month, we can drop the ‘suggested donation’ amount accordingly. Anyone who can’t understand that, well, they’re an * and we don’t want them here, anyway.”