Gino reluctantly sat down on the chair across the desk from his son, and Dario began to lay it all out again, just as he had before. The state of their accounts. The debts. Their costs. Their options. Gino’s jaw set into a hard line and he said nothing, but at least this time he was listening, and not brushing the problems off.
Next, Dario went into detail about the offer. Only when he’d finished, did his father finally speak.
‘I know nothing about this. I need time to consider it.’
‘Dad, that’s not true. I warned you about this last year. And I told you about the offer when it first came in. You just chose not to listen. I’ve been trying to talk to you about the deadline all week. I even printed a copy of the offer and gave it to you.’
‘I don’t read paperwork. That’s your job now.’
If the situation wasn’t so resoundingly shit, Gino’s obstinance would be almost amusing. The truth was, he didn’t read it because he didn’t want to know. That was it. No more or less.
‘I know this is my responsibility, but the time has come for a decision that I don’t want to make without your consent, because I understand the importance of it. So I won’t do it without you.’
It was a dangerous gamble, but Dario meant it. If it was a choice of losing the shirt off his back, or his father, he would start undoing the buttons.
He carried on pleading his case. ‘You have to understand that if we do this, we will be fine. There will be enough left over to clear our debts and for you to have a comfortable retirement.’
‘I’ll retire when I die,’ Gino repeated his long-held stance on the matter.
‘Well, maybe you could retire before that and go enjoy your life. This will give you the financial freedom to do that.’
‘And what will you do in this fairy-tale world?’ Gino’s eyes were blazing and Dario knew his dad well enough to understand that the fire came from passion more than temper. A trait he’d passed down to his grandson, who was standing behind the family patriarch right now, silent, but with the same furious expression.
‘I’ll work. I’ll go back in the kitchen. I’ll do something different. I really don’t know what I’ll do, but I do know I’ll be fine. Matty…’ He moved his gaze to his son. ‘…You’ll be fine too. You’re a great chef and there’s a whole world out there. There’s nothing you couldn’t take on.’
Matty didn’t respond, so Dario turned back to his dad. ‘What’s important is that this offer expires tonight. And I think the only option that makes any sense is to sell. I’m so sorry. I really am. But it’s the only way.’
‘Mum?’ Matty didn’t need to ask the whole question.
Nicky’s sigh came from her boots. ‘I’m not involved in this decision, but I’ve seen the figures and I think your dad is right. I don’t see another option, Matty.’
Before Matty could reply, Gino had something to say.
‘The restaurant belongs to you, so I have no power to change where we are. And I understand what you’re saying. But over the years I have faced many challenges…’
‘Not like these ones, Dad.’
‘Perhaps, but challenges all the same. And every time, I worked my way out of it.’
‘And we worked with you too,’ Dario countered. It was true. The global crash of 2008 had made numbers plummet and forced them to cut staff and run on the tightest budget, but they’d managed it because when things were lean, Gino and Alicia, Dario and Nicky, Bruno, young Carlo and teenage Matty had worked obscene hours and taken meagre wages to get them through. This was different. Now, there was nothing else to cut, and with the extortionate rise in costs, the seesaw between the outgoings and income had slammed down on the wrong side. There was no pulling this back. Because even if they were at capacity every single night of the week, an impossibility in itself, there would still not be enough profit in this location to cover the inflated bills and the payments on debts they’d incurred during the pandemic.
‘Why can’t we take out a loan? Sell my house? Sell yours?’ Gino challenged him.
Dario flushed. ‘Because I’ve already mortgaged my home, Dad, and put it all back in here.’
That made Nicky’s eyes grow wide. ‘Dear God. If you’d done that when we were married, I’d have murdered you.’
Dario decided this wasn’t the time to debate that point, but he could see both his dad and Matty registered it. He ploughed on, ‘And your house, Dad? Really? You know that you told me that had been left to Bruno and Carlo, so it would kill me to touch that. In in the meantime, you want me to sell and put you out on the street? No. Because the thing is, it won’t be enough. It’ll never be enough, because any attempt to inject cash and keep it going is just throwing good money after bad. In six months, a year, two years, we’ll be right back here again. That didn’t stop me from trying though. The reason we’re at crunchtime today is because I found out this morning that my last-ditch attempt to get another loan failed. It’s probably not a bad thing, because for all the reasons I just listed, it’s a terrible idea. I just need you to know that there isn’t an option I haven’t explored.’
‘I don’t want to discuss this any more,’ Gino answered stubbornly. ‘Not today.’
Damn it. If avoidance was a sport, Gino would be on the podium. Not for the first time, Dario wished his mother was here. She had always been shrewd. Sensible. Able to handle the tough stuff.
‘I don’t either, Dad, but the offer to buy the building and the land it sits on expires at midnight…’ he spelled it out one more time, ‘…and it’s a take it or leave it. And I really don’t think we’ll get another deal anywhere close to this. Like I said, it’s crunch time, Dad.’
Gino stood up, and Dario knew the conversation was about to be over.
‘Not for me. I don’t want to talk about this any more. Dario, you do what you have to do, but I don’t agree, and please don’t ask for my blessing because I won’t give it.’
