Trying Not To Love You

Part Seventy One

Chapter Seventy One

A/N Sorry a little later than usual. Hectic day. More ammunition for the anti Sonny brigade??? MZxxx

The restaurant was closed on a Monday night, and Martha was always glad of that after a weekend away. They’d got back from London late the previous night, and Ethan was in bed by half past six, shattered after the weekend antics. Martha was catching up with life in the kitchen when her father came in from an afternoon trip to a nearby market with Eamonn.

                “I need to talk to you about taking on some more staff at the restaurant.” She’d wanted to chat with him for a while, but they seemed to keep missing each other rather a lot.  “I mean in a couple of weeks Sonny’ll be gone to the pub, and you’ve already told me that you can’t really help out in the restaurant; but Paul is in the same boat as me. It’s going to be impossible to function if we don’t take on at least one other worker, someone reliable.” He’d told her that the new perspective owners were going to need at least two months to organise the finances to buy them out. By then it would be spring, and she was already trying to think of what she could do, the world was after all her oyster.

Her father moved across the kitchen and opened the fridge door, grabbing a beer before he answered with a smile, “the owners, the ones who want to buy are struggling with finances, so we’ve changed the plans, they’re leasing the place. It means we get some money from them, enough to cover the pub stake, but we keep the building and the collateral. I think it works well for us, and soon we’ll be free of the graft there.”

That shocked Martha, “when does this happen?”

He sighed, “we’re getting the papers drawn up, if all goes well we could be free of it in two or three weeks. Then it’ll be someone else’s responsibility. And they’ve agreed to keep the kitchen staff on for six months, see how it works out.”

She stared at him, unable to believe that yet again he hadn’t discussed this with her, he was pulling the rug from under her feet once again and she was struggling to control how she felt. Taking a deep breath she managed to say, “so as of three weeks time at a maximum I’ll be unemployed? What the hell am I supposed to do?”

Laying a hand on her shoulder, he smiled, “be a mother...shop...have fun...”

Martha glared at him, “Shop? Have fun? I AM a bloody mother! Jeez Dad, I spent months grafting, abandoning everything for you to keep that restaurant healthy. I have put blood sweat and tears into that place, and you sell me down the river now? Without a discussion or explanation?”

                “I thought you’d be pleased.” Carl had the decency to look embarrassed, but it was too little too late for Martha.

She shook her head, “pleased? No I’m not pleased. I at least thought I had time to plan what to do.” Rather than shouting as she thought she would, she was eerily calm. Looking at her father her anger was surprising and upsetting  him, she took a deep breath trying to process all that he’d said. Did he honestly think this was the best for her? She groaned, if only he TOLD her before making the decisions, maybe that’d hurt less. She had to get out. Before their relationship dissolved any further. Because it was bordering on hostile.

Turning she made for the door, “thanks Dad, you may not have intended it, but you have once again undermined me and made me feel worthless. Ethan’s in bed, I need fresh air.”

There was nowhere to go but the pub, everywhere else was closed, and it was too cold to wander the streets aimlessly. Monday nights weren’t the busiest, but this close to Christmas it was doubly bad. Walking in to the lounge of the pub she was gutted to see that she was the only one there. James was behind the bar filling the fridge with bottled beer, preparing for the week ahead.