AROUND THE HEART IN 80 DAYS

Thirteen

Sitting cross-legged after a morning session, part of her last frequent visits, Jacqueline laid a sheet on the floor before her five friends. How she would miss working with them every morning. But the drive was too long and that petrol tank wasn't going to fill itself.

"Fourteen thousand dollars for what? The buying or the renting?" Michael exclaimed.

"The rent, my dear. Better believe it. I'm just glad it's on the ground floor and it's a commercial area, the route is one that people would also take on their way to work. I wanted to rent two even, one for the really large scale commercial baking. But someone is right next to me on both
sides. I shoud look at simply expanding behind.
It's possible market would be very good. I hear that as time goes by, the rent might drop. Imogen and I, my neighbour who introduced me to the place, we tried to haggle but they were adamant."

"Abbotsford is extremely pricey if that's the money you have to pay for one shop space."

"For some reason, I expected more." Jackie leaned back to support her weight on her palms. "It's a bitter-sweet feeling seeing the price though. And there isn't a bakery there for now, so competition is not going to be a headache. The place has two suspended floors. Fifteen shop spaces in total. I suspect eight, thereabout are taken. And I feel I just got a ground floor space because someone else moved out. Two people actually moved from the ground floor. I chose the bigger one." She grinned wide.

"Did you agree to it?" Lola asked.

"Of course I did. I'll just apply for a loan. Later today."

"Ah. Here comes the all-too stressful banking process. I utterly despise working through these legal stuff." Jacob whined aloud.

"As responsibilities come into the picture, you've got to get into government affairs, don't you?" She smiled and looked at the sheet of paper. "I'll just ask Martha to do most of the paperwork for me. To get the place set, with equipment and seating and employment and all I have planned for this place, I could be looking at over ten thousand dollars in loan. I hope the bank grants it." She made reference to a smaller book with a brown leather jacket. The book had a bulky look to it from the pages crinkled with age. Fading blue ink appeared in splotches at the top of the brown jacket that spelled 'JACK' if one looked closely.

"Hope the return on investment is fast enough." Zara said in that matter-of-fact voice she sometimes used. "Does your daily usage of money, such as, providing wasted feeding for Sad Boy, still hold"

Jacqueline hmmphed but still sent a displeased look her friend's way. "I considered that the man's housing me. That's a whole accommodation I don't have to care about. But believe me, I got tired of cooking meals that would go untouched. I stopped, I'm no idiot. I might be desperate but I can't be stressed at this point. I'll just eat the entire thing. Saves me money. If he ever wants to eat, he'll know where to find me."

"Understandable. We even understand he probably wants you as much as graveyards need sunlight. If not for what I suspect is human sympathy and fear of the law, I'm sure you could be in a basement or something. Dismembered."

"Zara for goodness' sake! That's extra! As much as he hates me, and I not being too fond of him either, I don't think he's capable of things that gruesome. I truly don't give a care in the world."

"It's not written on foreheads..."

"So I plan on having just two workers," Jacqueline chose to move on. "One at the counter and one helping with the baking. They could switch from time to time."

"Don't forget you'll need a dispatch guy." Rob added.

"Darn it! Okay. Three workers."

"How many customers do you think you could get in a day. It could be over twenty. And they could need those things delivered ASAP. You are going to need more than one hand in the bakery and in delivery."