Struggles of a Single Father (Book 1 of the Struggle Puff Series)

Chapter 19

Edited 2/28/2020

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February – four-years-old

After graduating high school, I began to set my plan in motion.

What plan? You may be asking.

Well, the plan that I made on my first me-day away from Tilisia. I bet you never thought that would come back up. But it did.

The plan that I had spent eleven months cultivating and fortifying was finally coming together, and it felt good.

To preface, after high school, I started working with Amy at the Westin to earn more money. Initially, I was going to use that money to move out sooner, but when I discussed my plans with her, she convinced me to stay longer and put the money into a savings account to help fund the plan.

In the time I wasn't at work, I had taken over Amy's kitchen and began experimenting with different coffees and baked goods. It wasn't long before I started creating a small list of my favorite things I made, and before I knew it, I had put together a menu.

If you hadn't guessed yet, my plan was to start a café.

And everything was playing out perfectly.

"Alright, Mr. Akino. I just need you to sign this last form and then the place is all yours. Rent is due on the third of every month."

This was it. I was one signature away from leasing my first building.

Once I signed, I was handed the key to open the doors.

"It's nice seeing someone so young taking initiative like you. I hope your business does well, kid." The man tipped his hat to me and left me alone in the not yet opened café.

It was previously a café, but it sunk because of poor management. Clearly, I had no plans of the same happening to me.

Lucky for me, the previous owners left a lot of the stuff where it was. I just had to take care of cleaning it, replacing certain things, and going grocery shopping.

Even the to-do list excited me. The more I did for it, the more real it was beginning to feel. I just couldn't wait to open and get things going.

.

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May – four-years-old

"Can you believe the line out there? I knew this would be a success, but this many people at a grand opening?" Jake was merely expressing the same shock Amy and I were feeling as we looked out the closed doors at the people buzzing around waiting for us to open.

We had spent the last three months cleaning, organizing, planning, stressing, and building up this café so that it would open before Summer break, and here we were.

Jake and Amy had spent a lot of sleepless nights with me as I thought over the best plan of action for my business and it was finally coming to fruition.

"Well, it's almost twelve. Any last words before we open?" I asked with a half-smile.

"As your friend and roommate, I would just like to say I'm proud of you." Amy tossed her arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a side hug, "If it were anybody else, I don't think any of this would've been possible."

"I'm with her on that one." Jake added in, putting his arm around me as well, "The first time I saw you have a breakdown about this, I almost told you to give it up, but I had a feeling that it was going to come together so I kept my mouth shut. Now look at you."

I smiled at them both and nodded my gratitude to them, "I couldn't have done this without either of you. Thank you so much."

We shared a quick hug before pulling back and taking a deep breath in, "You guys ready?"

They nodded with confidence before going to their stations along with the rest of the hired crew.

One more breath in and then I was walking towards the door and unlocking it.

It was a race to get in, but I managed to greet everyone that passed through as they looked in wonder at the comfortable, living room like décor that I spent months putting together.

The left wall was lined with bookshelves filled with stories of every kind on them, at the center of the brown, wooden floor, there were dark brown, suede couches that sat on top of a faux fur rug, and around them were simple black tables with USB ports and three-prong plug adapters built into them, and a set number of chairs around each one.

People were already lined up at the counter to put in their order, and others were already relaxed in their seats with a book and a coffee.

I felt my heart swell as I saw people with their phones out, taking pictures of the décor, their coffee, or of the book they were reading. I made sure to walk by and tell them to tag the café on all their posts about us. Then there were people that were taking selfies with me because they thought I was cool.

But the real photo attraction was when Ain and Tilisia came out of the kitchen. A lot of people had seen them from our construction posts on Instagram and they immediately wanted to get pictures of them.

Tilisia was grinning like crazy at all the attention she was getting, while Ain kept his arm securely around her because he was clearly worried.

All-in-all, it was a great grand opening. The stream of people never stopped, and we even became a trending tag on twitter and Instagram because of how many people were coming through and posting about us.

The final customer left at nine o' clock, an hour after we officially closed.

Everyone had done their part with excellence and so we were just sitting on the couches with our own drinks and pastries. The employees were mostly sixteen and seventeen-year-olds, but they were good kids that seemed to care about what they were doing.

We spent most of our time talking about the different people we met and about the bloggers that came through raving about how much they loved the atmosphere.

It was eleven when the employees went home and all that was left was me, Jake, Amy, and the kids who were asleep on the loveseat.

"Can we sum this up as a successful grand opening?" Jake asked jokingly.

"I don't know. It seemed a little slow for my taste. Maybe this was a mistake, Carter."

We all laughed as we continued to talk about how great it was.

"Honestly, I just hope it'll keep this same energy. Who knows? Maybe Tilisia might want to usurp me when she's twenty."

"Geez." Amy cringed, "I forget that you guys are only twenty. What the hell am I doing with my life?"

"You're doing great, are you kidding me? When I first met you, I wanted to be you because you radiated success and confidence. The only reason I could make this happen is because I used you as my goal."

"Seriously, Amy. You've shown us what being a successful badass really means and once I figure what I'm doing, I'm going to strive to be like you too."

"Hey, what about me? I have a business now!" I whined jokingly.

"Eh. You're aight, C. Not exactly goal material."

"Aw, don't be too harsh on him. He's still reeling from how great he did today."

I smiled wryly at Amy as she tried to divert the ribbing I got from Jake.

"I'll show you both that this is more than just an opening day thing. I'm going to keep this place alive with the best coffee, customers, and employees."

"I didn't doubt you before so there's no way I'm going to turn my back on a sure bet." Jake said genuinely.

Of course, I guess I could've called what I was saying talking out of my ass but there was something inside me that made me feel like I could really do this. Especially with two great friends at my side.

As long as I allowed myself to lean on them, I knew I could make this out to be more than just a run of the mill success.