THE NEXT OUPLE of days we basically had the same routine. Driving around on the jet skis and paragliding behind a speed boat. Emanuel left after the first day and the guy that tagged along with us now said it had to do with King Helmut sending him away to prepare for an upcoming event.
A part of me just thought it was an excuse. He didn’t want to be around me, scared that his will might break and we would step over that line. It made me want him more.
We left on the fifth day and I went to stay with Becky as the Leaf’s were staying at a hotel waiting for their manor to be finished.
I was glad that my father had left Sir Robert something. I was just excited about the manor as they were. He even said that he was going to build me a room too, it was going to be like my second house once…. I didn’t want to think about that once anymore. It was never going to happen and it felt like Blake and I were the only two that knew it.
Freeing him was still constantly on my mind, even though Becky told me not to think about it.
We pulled into Longbottoms and found parking easily which was seriously a miracle as it was always busy.
“Lucky us, I guess,” Becky said as she switched off the engine and grabbed her bag that was next to mine at my feet.
“I guess they knew Elena was coming?” Sammy said and we laughed. I’d tried to come to Longbottoms once after the news of who I was reached the entire world, but it was a nightmare.
Even in the private lounge everyone was constantly asking me questions about my life, wanting to know more, and at the end we left early as it’d gotten to be too much and we couldn’t enjoy ourselves.
I followed Becky and Sammy up the stairs and walked through the door that Becky opened up.
Light music was playing and only a couple of tables were filled.
“Okay, something’s not right,” Becky said.
Jimmy came walking out his office and smiled as he saw both of us. “Good evening, girls.”
Becky smiled but her confusion was plastered on her face, it was plastered over all of our faces.
“Something happening here tonight? We can leave if there’s a private function.”
He chuckled but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Longbottoms isn’t doing so well lately. I’ve been trying everything I can just to keep this place open.”
We all stared at him. “Jimmy, when did this happen?”
He scratched his head. “It doesn’t matter, girls. I’ll somehow get through this. Go and enjoy your evening.” He nodded toward the VIP lounge.
We did as he said, although we were all wondering about what the hell had happened. Why didn’t people come here anymore?
There was no barman to give us our drinks.
“Okay, this is so not cool Where are all the staff?”
Sammy shook her head. “I don’t know but Jimmy’s not telling us everything.”
“I’ll go talk to him, just stay here, help yourself if you have to.” I giggled and saw Sammy going behind the bar, asking Becky what she wanted. I could hear Becky’s order but apparently it was out of stock.
I went to the place I’d seen Jimmy come out from and found him behind a desk paging through files. I knocked softly and he looked up.
He gave me a soft smile too and got up. “Shoot, I forgot. Charles is off tonight.” He smacked his hands together. “What can I get you girls to drink?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I walked in and put my handbag on the chair. “What’s going on Jimmy?”
“Elena,” he said softly and sighed.
“I want to know, please.”
He pulled a chair closer and gestured for me to sit. I did and saw him closing the door. He scratched his head as he walked back to me.
“Are you in some sort of trouble?”
He chuckled again. “I trusted the wrong book keeper. She left last week with everything. I have nothing left.” He took the seat right next to me in front of his desk. His entire body hunched over as he rested his arms on his thighs and stared at the ground. He even looked tired, stressed.
“Nothing! How is that even remotely possible? What about the money in the bank?”
“She had access to it, stupid, I know, but she said it would save me a lot of time if she had access to the account in order to pay the staff on time etcetera.” He sighed again.
“And I guess everyone stopped coming here because of all the Out of Stock signs.”
He nodded. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I tried to get a loan but the bank manager doesn’t want to take the risk.”
“Why didn’t you come to me, Jimmy?”
He looked at me. “Elena, I can’t. You’re just dealing with so much at the moment.”
“Stop that. I happen to love Longbottoms and I have to say it’s not a bad business deal. If I can have, say a percentage or something of it, I’ll help you get this place back on track.”
He stared at me. “Are you serious, just like that?”
I giggled. “It’s not like I’m going to have a normal life after everything that’s happened. And besides I’ve just got a shit load of money I don’t really need, so I thought about investing and this is the perfect thing to invest it in.”
He shook his head. “Elena, I can’t. It’s too much.”
“Jimmy.” I rolled my eyes. “How much is too much?”
“We’re talking about hiring new staff again, buying new décor.”
“You sold the saddles?”
“I couldn’t but they’re in a pawn shop and they’re phoning on a daily basis as they have a lot of interested buyers who are willing to pay more than what they are worth.” He pulled his hands through his hair again. “I’ve actually sold one, but it hardly covered a week’s worth of stock and the money…” he grunted. “It’s a hopeless situation.”
“How much, Jimmy?”
He looked at me with tired eyes. “It’s buying new stock, hiring kitchen staff….paying for gigs and entertainment. Paying overdue invoices. It’s not a couple of pagoleons, Elena. We are talking about at least a million just to function normally again.”
I sighed and started to laugh. “How does two million sound?”
“Elena,” he gave me a scolding look.
“I’m serious. Give me a percentage and pay me back as you can.” I touched his knee. “I meant what I said, Jimmy. This is your life and I wouldn’t think twice about helping you. You can’t let your brother come home to nothing now, can you.”
Tears welled up in his eyes as I said that. I meant it, even though I’d promised my father not to pursue it, I’d find away to get his brother out of there if he was still alive.
“Okay,” he smiled. “But I’m going to draw up a contract and everything. I don’t want you to think that I’m a cheat, you hear me. It’s going to be a normal business contract. How does thirty percent sound?”
I bit my lips and smiled. “Thirty percent. Are you serious? I hope you’re going to let me work here too from time to time.”
He laughed.
“Elena you are a princess, they’d lock me up or something.”
“By whose orders, mine?”
We both laughed and he reached out his hand. “Deal.”
“I’m glad we could do business together.” I giggled. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
He laughed too as we walked to the door. “Just give me your details and I’ll send the money tomorrow to your vault. This place needs a huge reopening. Go crazy.”
He laughed again and this time it reached his eyes. “Okay, partner, whatever you say,” he said and gave me a hug. “Thank you, Elena.”
“You are so welcome.”
“Go, I’ll join you in a few minutes. I just want to lock up and get horribly drunk.”
I laughed. “We got horribly drunk on my birthday, I doubt that we are the right crowd for that.”
“At least one champagne glass. I finally have something to celebrate again.”
“No, we have something to celebrate,” I said and went back to Becky and Sammy.
“We’re going to leave, there’s like almost nothing.”
“I know, and no we are not going to leave, Becky. We are going to celebrate because I just bought thirty percent of Longbottoms.”
Both girls gasped. “Are you serious?” Becky shrieked.
“It’s good to be a princess with a vault filled with money.” I fell backwards on one of the sofas.
They looked at me with huge eyes and gaped.
We sat down and I told them everything about what had happened to Jimmy. From tomorrow on, he was going to get everything back into place. Jimmy joined us with a huge bottle of bubbly and four glasses in his hand as I finished with the story.
“You seriously just went into business with Elena?”
“The girl’s nice and she gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so why not?”
I giggled. “You have to say that now.”
He popped the champagne bottle and poured us each a glass.
“To Longbottoms finally reaching its full potential,” he said.
“To Longbottoms!” we all cheered with our glasses and took a sip.
WE CELEBRATED WITH everything that was in Longbottoms’ fridge. There wasn’t much but we could make us each a sandwich. Jimmy put the music on full blast and we started to dance after we devoured them. He let loose, as Becky said, and around one we said goodbye.
Tomorrow was going to be filled with a lot of things, item one was how to get two million pagoleons over to Jimmy’s vault.
I hoped it wasn’t going to take too much time. Jimmy said he would meet me at the bank and then we could sign the contract afterwards.
I slept like a baby that night without an arrogant dragon haunting me or a guy, the guy I really wanted.
I woke up when my alarm screeched inside my ear and took a shower. I couldn’t stop smiling thinking that I now owned thirty percent of Longbottoms. It was going to be awesome, and I felt awesome helping someone with my new-found fortune, someone who desperately needed it.
At nine, Jimmy’s car pulled up in front of the bank. I climbed out of Lucille’s Audi, which she let me borrow, with my hoody over my head, and greeted him.
“Are you ready to give two million pagoleons away?”
I laughed. “I’m not giving it away, it’s an investment.”
He laughed. “Already thinking like a business woman.”
I giggled and he opened the bank’s door for me.
The woman sitting at the reception desk looked at me twice to see that it was me and ran over to greet us. “Princess, if you’d told us you were coming we could’ve opened the bank a bit later today.”
“Nonsense. I’m only going to be a minute or so.”
Jimmy suppressed a smile and burrowed his chin deep into the top of his chest.
“I’ll get the manager then.” She walked back to the desk. “Please take a seat, it will only be a minute,” she said and we both sat down on a sofa.
“A minute, you know they are going to ask you at least a million questions right?”
I looked at them. “Well I don’t have a million minutes for this, so they’ll have to find another time to ask the million questions.”
Bogart emerged from one of the doors and gave me two kisses on each cheek.
“I didn’t know you were still here.”
“Well, I decided to stay for a while, making sure your money is safe and secure.”
I smiled. “Then you are not going to like what it is I have to ask you today. But I really need this to be taken care of.”
He frowned. “Okay, let’s hear it in my office.”
Jimmy stood up.
“Before I forget, this is Jimmy Seymore. My new partner.”
Bogart smiled. “Already opening businesses I see.”
“It’s not what you think, your office,” I said as he shook Jimmy’s hand and introduced himself.
I was glad Bogart was still here, at least I could negotiate with him into releasing two million pagoleons.
We followed him into a small office and sat down.
“How much are we talking about here, Elena?”
I sat straight in my chair. “Now before you say anything, I’ve thought about this and nothing is going to change my mind. I want this for me and obviously for Longbottoms to survive.”
“I thought it was about Longbottoms.”
“I want it Bogart, please don’t make it hard for me.”
He laughed. “Princess, it’s your money. You can do with it whatever you want. If this is what you want, all I need is the bank account to transfer it to.”
“Really?” I said too chirpily and we both laughed.
“Guess with royalty it does only take a couple of minutes,” Jimmy said as he handed a huge file to Bogart which I assumed had his bank details.
Bogart typed on his computer, not asking one question. He apologized on behalf of everyone about me going through hell with the council but I waved it away.
“So how much are we going to move over to Mr. Seymore’s account?”
“Two million, please,” I said.
Bogart hovered for a minute, then a smile sprawled over his face, and his fingers pressed the buttons again. “Are you sure, princess? Once I press this button it’s gone.”
“It’s not gone, it’s in Longbottoms and Jimmy and I have a deal. So yes, press that button please so we can begin.”
He laughed again.
“Elena, are you sure about this?” Jimmy asked. “It’s a lot of money.”
“I’m a hundred percent sure. If I wasn’t I wouldn’t have come to your office.” I looked at Bogart. “Press the button, please.”
He pressed it. “It’s done. The money will be available in two days. That I can’t speed up, sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“Will there be anything else? I see you haven’t made any huge withdrawals other than today. Have you thought about getting some property, things like that?”
I shook my head. “I’m not ready for that yet, and I don’t need anything else, thanks Bogart.”
“You are welcome, princess.”
“Please, call me Elena.”
Both men chuckled.
“Sure will, Elena.” Bogart arched both his eyebrows and stood up.
We mimicked him. Jimmy shook his hand and I gave him two kisses on the cheek again and we left.
“My heart is beating so fast. Pinch me,” Jimmy said and I giggled.
“I’m not going to pinch you. My heart is beating crazy as well. I’m so excited for this new journey to begin.”
“At least it’s not going to be a life threatening one.”
I laughed. “Thank Heaven for that.”
WE SIGNED THE contract next and it was general stuff, as a lawyer explained. There was no fine print and it was straightforward just like Jimmy. It felt good to sign my name taking thirty percent ownership of Longbottoms.
Afterwards we met Becky, Sammy and the whole crew with Isabel and Lucille for lunch to celebrate my new business.
We laughed as Jimmy told the story of just a minute. “I’ve never had things so easy at the bank as you do,” he joked.
“Perks, I guess.”
“They’d really close the bank for you to go and do business?”
“I don’t know, I guess,” I said.
After lunch we said goodbye to Jimmy, who decided to take two days off, and keep Longbottoms closed.
In two days, everything would start happening again. I’d never felt so alive and I was glad that my mother and father had left me something to help someone like Jimmy. Okay, it wasn’t something, it was plenty, more than I needed and I had to spend it wisely. Even if I hadn’t made that promise to my father ….I shouldn’t think about that.
I wondered what the papers were going to say about all of this tomorrow morning. Urgh, I dreaded it, but something this big was bound to come out, if it hadn’t already.
Still my dream that night was pleasant.
WE WENT TO Longbottoms every single day to help out where we could, but to be honest, I was more of a distraction than anything else, so I spent half of everyday in my office, it was so awesome to be able to say, and looked at resume’s for the kitchen chef. Longbottoms needed a good one, especially when we were going to start catering for huge functions and maybe it wasn’t a bad thing that my name would be associated with Longbottoms. Lots of business was going to come our way.
I found two chefs who had a lot of experience. One was a Copper-Horn just like Dad and I made my choice. Copper-Horns just know how to present the most amazing food and I dialed his Cammy from Longbottoms’.
An entire kitchen appeared and I heard a voice coming from a man wearing a huge chef’s hat. His back was turned to me, and staff squirreled around the kitchen as if they were preparing for a huge event.
“Hi, it’s Elena here from Longbottoms, can I please speak to Jerry?”
Everything stopped and the chef turned around. His eyes were huge, but he snapped out of it and quickly grabbed a cloth and wiped off his hands. “Princess, I really didn’t expect a call so soon, or one coming from you.”
I giggled. “Well, here at Longbottoms we don’t waste people’s time, so can you come in for an interview in the next few days?”
“I would be honored to, thank you.” He smiled.
“Let’s say Thursday at nine.”
“Thursday would be perfect. I’ll take the day off. Thank you again,” he said and we said goodbye.
The kitchen with all its staff and stoves disappeared.
“Look at you, arranging interviews and everything,” Becky said with a magazine in her hands as she plopped down on the chair in front of my desk.
“What can I say?” I joked back.
“Can we go or do you still have paperwork to do?”
I giggled. “We can go, I’m sure Jimmy can handle everything. Besides I’m just a distraction,” I replied and got up.
Inside, Longbottoms was a mess. Charles, who’d stuck with Jimmy through all of this was busy packing the fridge behind the bar with new stock that had arrived this morning. Jimmy had appointed a manager who was really hands-on. She’d created a system out of nothing, and said that the previous one was a mess.
I really liked her. She was tall, beautiful, and loved to wear tank tops with jeans and slip-ons. Her raven black hair was tide up into a sloppy bun and the way she kept tugging on her hair, placing it behind her ear whenever she spoke to Jimmy made me think she was into him.
Her name was Monique, and she was really in her element whenever she came to work. It was just the right person he needed for the job.
She struggled to speak to me in the beginning, but after two days she’d warmed up to all three of us and babbled like she did with everyone else.
I found Jimmy behind one of the booths with a lot of invoices in front of him. He looked up as I came near. “Jerry is going to come and see you at nine, on Thursday morning.”
Becky and Sammy walked to the door.
He smiled. “Thanks, Elena. Tell me, was he shocked that it was you?”
“A little, but that’s a good thing.”
“So, Jerry then, huh?” he asked as I walked away.
“He’s a Copper-Horn, they’re good in kitchens.”
He laughed again. “See you, Elena.”
“Bye,” I said and met Sammy and Becky still waiting by the entrance.
The flyers were going to arrive today, and the radio stations all had advertisements going that announced Longbottoms was in business again. Oh, and each and every time they mentioned my name.
We refused to think about the bitch that’d stolen all of Longbottoms’ money and decided to look forward and make the best out of all of this.
School was going to start soon, and Jimmy made sure that the opening would be the Friday before we had to go back to Dragonia.
He was really an amazing person when it came to Longbottoms and the best person/dragon to run it.
FRIDAY CAME FASTER than we thought and everyone helped with the opening, even Sir Robert.
The entire day Monique shouted orders at whoever and I found Jerry early on Friday morning preparing for tonight’s opening. He reminded me of Monique the first time she’d seen me. I guessed both of them didn’t think that I was actually going to be so involved, but I wanted to be. It helped me forget who I was and what was lying ahead of me.
Jimmy had gotten five of Paegeia’s best D.J’s to play tonight. Three of them were actually dragons from the other side and never in a million years did I ever think that David Guetta was a dragon, and not just any dragon, a Fin-Tail.
I guess he’d broken all the rules of becoming famous and just did it because of his love of music.
How old he really was, well that was the question.
Sir Robert helped with wiring up huge spotlight outside and people would see the light miles and miles away tonight.
Lucille and Isabel helped Jimmy with whatever he needed and, after a while, Jerry, with feeding everyone after everything was working the way it should. At five we left to go get dressed.
Tonight was going to be awesome and a great opening. If all of this wasn’t going to get Blake to come back, nothing would, and a small part of me was really starting to miss him too.
