‘I want brother of the year award for working here tonight,’ Carlo joked, although they both knew there was nowhere else he would even dream of being. It had been their dad’s one request when Carlo left here to open his own place – that he come backto work with them every Hogmanay. Carlo had never missed a shift, closing his café early on this day every year, and then reporting for duty with his family.
‘You always have brother of the year award with me. Just don’t tell Bruno, because I say the same thing to him.’ Dario took a sip of his beer. ‘How’s Yvie doing? Still telling you that you work too much?’
‘Every day,’ Carlo chuckled. ‘But I wouldn’t change it for anything.’
‘I hope you tell her that, bro. Takes a lot of patience to be in a relationship with people who graft like us and sometimes we don’t realise it. At least, I didn’t. And look what happened.’
Dario noticed Carlo’s quizzical glance, which settled into a curious frown. ‘Okay, what’s happening, Dario?’
Sighing, Dario put his bottle down on the table. ‘You remember a few months ago I told you how financially rough things were here?’
‘Yeah. I’m gutted I couldn’t help you out, but we’re still paying off our start-up loans and the cash just isn’t there yet. But if you could hold on for another year or so, I should be able to…’
Dario put his hand up. ‘There’s nothing left to hold on to, Carlo.’
For the third time today – first to his son, and then to his father – he laid the whole thing out. The debts. The costs. The end of the line. And he watched Carlo grow paler with every detail of the story.
‘Oh Jesus, Dario, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realise it had got this bad. Dad must be devastated.’
‘He is. But he’s pissed off with me too.’
‘But why? You’ve worked your ass off to keep this place going.’
Dario gave that a nod of acknowledgement and appreciation. ‘I know, but he wants to keep going. Hope for a miracle.’
‘They’re in pretty short supply in our business,’ Carlo said, now looking as helpless as Dario felt. ‘Sometimes no matter what you do, you have to take the hit and move on. How bad is it going to be?’
‘That’s the thing… There’s a solution, but Dad doesn’t like it. Neither does Matty.’
Dario went on to explain the offer from the American developers, told him what they’d get out of it and what it would leave them with. A clean slate. Money in the bank. Enough that Dad would never have a day of worry.
‘I’ve got until midnight tonight to accept or decline, and if I knock it back, I’m not going to get another shot at it because they’ll move on to something else.’
‘Fuck,’ Carlo said, blowing out his cheeks as he sighed. ‘Maybe for the first time ever, brother, I don’t want to be you.’
Dario was about to reply when a knock at the door interrupted them.
‘Come in,’ he shouted, figuring it was probably one of the staff, probably looking for change for their till float, or maybe keys to the cellar to change a beer barrel.
He was wrong on both counts.
His best mate and lawyer, Brodie, joined the party.
‘Hey,’ he greeted them, Dario first, then Carlo, with one of those shakes of the hand that morphs into a hug.
Dario passed over his bottle of beer and Brodie took it without question. They’d been sharing drinks, food and secrets for a million years, so this was nothing out of the ordinary.
Brodie displayed the intuition that had made him one of the city’s top lawyers, by reading the room perfectly. ‘You’re talking business?’ His comment also displayed the kind of discretion that had made him one of the city’s top lawyers.
Dario nodded wearily. ‘Yeah. Spoke to Dad today and finally got him to listen to the whole story. He’s a definite no. Told Matty too – he was a definite “no fucking way”.’
Brodie was in gentle lawyer mode. ‘Don’t they get that this is the Hail Mary? It’s this or you close the doors with nothing, because we both know that you’ve only got enough cashflow to last another couple of months. Look, I’ve got no skin in this. I’m not taking a fee and there’s no vested interest, but I’m just acting as your mate here. You tell me to take the deal, I’ll take it for you. You knock it back, I’ll do everything I can to help you find another way.’
As always, it was the kindness that hit Dario square in the chest. Problems he could deal with. And he would face any fight. But love and kindness? Touched him every time. That was in the DNA stream that came directly from his mother. ‘I appreciate that, Brodie.’
‘Any time.’ Brodie turned to Carlo. ‘What do you reckon, Carlo? Any words of wisdom, because we’ll gladly take them.’
Carlo leaned his head back, thinking. ‘Look, I can help with your staff, find them jobs where I can…’
