First Steps to Partnership.
The news that the Spotlight Diner was up for sale had been quickly relayed by Santana to those of her friends that were gathered there in the first minutes of 2015. Fast forward just over fifteen hours, and she had found herself back in the diner on shift again. It was not that busy, and of her friends, only Brittany and Mike were actually rostered to work. She wasn't in the least surprised though when Sam walked in with Jeff at his side, closely followed by Nick and Rachel.
"Santana, we need to talk about buying this place," Sam said, almost the moment that he caught sight of her. "I've talked it over with Rachel, and she is in favour; she knows first hand after all that this place is a good business, and that we would be absolutely mad to pass up on the opportunity to purchase it."
"Same with me and Nick," said Jeff. "We want in, and Nick is more than happy to keep on coming in and helping out as he does now. As he says, he would have an even bigger incentive to do so as a co-owner."
As he finished, mike suddenly spoke up. He had walked over as he saw his friends arrive, and had heard the majority of their conversation. "I know that I am the new boy here, but I would like to buy in too. It makes sense for me to have something to fall back on if my dancing career doesn't take off. It's the same for all of us really. If we want to work in the arts, then we need to have something to tide us over through the lean times, and this place could well be it."
"Mike has a good point," said Nick. "I think that we as a group could really make a go of this place. We all have some experience of working here. Admittedly, Santana has the most. That's why Gunther offered the place to her. He knows that she has the ability to keep this place going."
Santana blushed, then corrected him. "No, Nick, we have the ability to keep this place going. We can do this, but it will have to be a team effort. I have my classes at NYADA, and so does Sam. Jeff has his art school, Mike has Julliard. I think the first fact that we have to face is that if we do decide to do this, we will need to hire a manager; somebody that can be here, day to day, like Gunther was. The next fact we need to face is that even if all of us here take a share, it is going to be expensive. This is a prime site after all, and a highly lucrative business. I am positive that Gunther could get far more for this place than he is selling it to us for, if he wanted to. So, if we are all serious about buying…" she paused, and watched as her friends nodded at her "…then we have to discuss this. Do we open up the deal to other people? We all heard what Dave said last night. Do we let them in on this, and if we do, then on what terms?"
"In principal," said Mike, "I think that we should. We could give them a share of the profits, if there are any - sorry, but I had to say it - and maybe we could ask them to work here for free for so many hours a year, as a gesture. By working here I mean waiting tables, or even just getting up on the stage and singing…"
"Sounds fair to me," said Sam. "though maybe we could allow them to pay something back instead of working? I mean, if Puck wanted in, he couldn't just get up and walk out of the base to do a shift. If David, Thad or Mercedes wanted in, it is quite a way to travel just for a few hours work."
"At the same time, though," said Jeff, "we don't want to have too many shareholders in the first place. Decision making would become very fraught, and there is no Wes around to bang a gavel at us."
"Or a Mr Schue to intervene," said Rachel with a smile.
"So it would appear that we are all in agreement that we should let other people in on the deal and purchase a share of ownership," Santana summed up. "Might I suggest that we send out a quick group text explaining the idea, and see what kind of response we get from it?" There was immediate agreement, and it fell to Mike to compose a message explaining the basic principles of the deal. He sent it, and that meant only one thing - they just had to wait to see what reply they would get.
The response was much more rapid than any of them had anticipated. The text had barely been sent before they received a reply from Sebastian, basically saying that he was on his way as he definitely wanted in, but on one condition - he could share his stake with Dave. The next response came from Flint, again saying that he would be very interested in becoming a shareholder; but regretting that he could not head back to the city right away as he had to work that evening. He also wished to share any stake with Beats, although initially he would be the one that injected all the capital. The next reply came in the form of a phone call from Trent to Nick, saying that he and Rory wanted in, and both of them would be more than happy to come up to New York once weekend a month to work, as long as somebody taught him waiter skills. This was the first solid offer to come in with a pledge to work, and they all agreed that this gave the two of them an edge over the others, although they were all equally sure that both Sebastian and Flint would accept the concept too.
After that initial flurry, there was silence. They had expected it really. What they did not anticipate was for the door to be flung open, and for Artie and Cooper to come in one behind the other. They had met each other at the subway, and had laughed out loud when they realised that they were both heading to the same place, and for exactly the same reason. As the eyes of their friends turned to the, they turned to each other, smiled, and then said in unison "We want in!" They got a laugh for that.
"I can work every Monday if you need me to," said Cooper. "I won't have a show on those days."
"And I can wait tables, no problem. In fact, I have an advantage. I can take a tray on my lap, with no risk whatsoever of dropping it." They all had to agree that Artie made a very good point in his favour.
It turned into an interesting evening. When Sebastian arrived with Dave, the two of them, along with Cooper and Artie were presented with aprons, and told that tonight was their audition for a share in the diner. None of them failed. Cooper and Sebastian ended up working together as a duo, and charmed every single table that they served. Artie proved his point and found his niche too, with his ability to take an entire table their food at one go. When he got up onto the stage and sang, his sweet soulful voice made the whole room stop and listen. As for Dave, it turned out that he was a natural behind the counter, dealing with orders, serving drinks and ringing up sales on the register one after the other, with no mistakes. They would certainly be joining the shareholders.
By the time that the first week of the year drew to its close, Flint, Beats, Trent and Rory had all also passed their shift test; Quinn had arrived unannounced on the third day of the month; she had grabbed an apron and a pad from a bemused Mike, and four hours later she had secured herself and Puck a share. There had been a polite declining of their offer from those in L.A. As Sam had anticipated, it was just too far for David, Thad and Mercedes to travel on a regular basis, although all of them passed on their best wishes. The same was also the case of course for Ethan and Drew, back in England. One final group did however emerge and request a share - a group that styled themselves as 'The Newbies'. Kitty, Marley, Ryder, Jake and Unique had talked back and forth over Skype, and had finally agreed to ask for a joint share. After a big debate over the practicalities of offering one share to five people, the others had agreed to permit it, on the condition that they elected a spokesperson to take decisions for them. They agreed, although some people suggested that Kitty had just brow beat the rest of them, and so everything was set. There would be twelve sets of shares, some held by one person, most by two. It turned out that was the easy part…
The next step was to establish themselves as a proper, legally recognised group, with a structure in place for dealing with any internal disputes that might arise. This was a safeguard both for them and for the business - after all, the necessary permissions and licences had to be held by someone, and the group could do that. It was only when they found out exactly how much it would cost to set the company up that they got a major shock. It looked for a moment that such a huge and unexpected legal bill could knock the whole scheme on its head before it was even properly off the ground. That was until Nick and Cooper realised at the same time that they had a solution to the problem. After all, as the latter said, why date a lawyer if she can't help you out when you need it…
Ever since she had moved to New York in the aftermath of the trial of Hunter Clarington, Grace had found the city to be one of the most exciting places in the world. It was also a confusing maelstrom of people, all out it seemed to get one and other in some manner or another, at least in her professional life. It was quite a contrast to the firm that she had worked for in Denver, that was for sure. Some of her colleagues had tried their best to sink the young girl from the Rockies, but then again, they did not know that she was a tough cookie that had been born and raised just outside Chicago. She had not only managed to hold her own, but had risen to the top in her department very quickly. If she had put a few noses out of joint in the process, then so be it. Work was good, and so was home. Almost from the moment that she had met Cooper in that courtroom she had felt something; that had slowly grown as time went on. She could not imagine him being absent from her life now. He was a born showman, but she did find it hard to believe the tales that she had been told of the obnoxious idiot that he had been in the past. She admitted quite freely that she loved him; they had the sweet romantic dates and the quiet nights in that she craved. He had surprised her with his culinary skills, and she had even got used to having him walking around the house in high heels in preparation for his forthcoming Broadway debut. A lawyer and a Broadway star in the making were an unusual combination, but hey, for them it worked.
She should have smelt a rat the moment that she walked through the front door that cold Friday evening in January. He should have been at the theatre, so it was a big shock to walk in and see a table set, candles lit, and smell lasagne cooking in the kitchen. She had found him in front of the stove the moment she walked in there; he had kissed her chastely on the cheek, taken her coat, and sent her back to the table with a glass of excellent red wine. There was a starter of minestrone soup, a bowl of tiramisu for afters. It was all absolutely delicious, and it was only after she had been sitting in the lounge for ten minutes whilst Cooper stacked the dishwasher that she suddenly thought to herself - what was all of this in aid of? When he came back into the room, she just asked him straight out - "What do you want Coop?" When he told her, she was reluctant to get involved at first, but then he pointed out that she wouldn't just be doing it for him, but for her brother and his husband too. That left her feeling guilty and conflicted. She loved Cooper, Nick and Jeff to bits, but at that moment she hated them for the simple fact that they had just stolen her weekend of rest and relaxation. And, she realised, probably several other days well into the future.
She had done it for them anyway. It wasn't that difficult a document to draft when all was said and done, not that she told them that. All that was really needed was a legally watertight document stating the terms of the partnership; the full names of all those involved, with a clause for others to take up shares or a part of a share in the future; the means by which any future disputes would be dealt with ('a call to me,' she thought with a small sigh. 'Does that make me the official lawyer of the partnership,' she wondered. She would have to ask them that, so that could also be made formal.)
Then she hit a snag. It was all more or less in place when she called Cooper into the room and asked him for one vital bit of information - the name of the partnership. The silence that greeted her was a concern; she guessed that there wasn't one. In the end she told him that he would need to get one agreed on by all of the partners - in the meantime she would draw the papers up in the name of Spotlight Partners. It would be easy after all to overwrite that on the computer in a couple of days when they had settled on a name that they all liked.
If Grace had only known then what a lengthy process that would turn out to be, she would have run for the hills there and then. No amount of free food would ever be compensation for the stress it would cause.
