Page 53 of 3 Daddies to Go

“Hi, Jim,” I say. “My name is Trace. I heard you own this fine restaurant. Would you and your wife mind chatting with my friends and me?”

“What is this about? I’m not selling.”

“Don’t worry, we don’t want to buy. We heard you might be having some trouble, and we think we can help. But we need to know more about your situation.”

Jim hesitates, but he finally agrees. He and Sheila join us in our booth.

Tanner slides a business card to Sheila. He did an internet search while we ate, and the restaurant is actually in Sheila’s name because it was originally owned by her mother, who left it to her after she passed away.

“My name is Tanner Bryce, and I’m a banker up in New York. These are my buddies Trace Morgan and Tag McAllister. I hear you got into a rough deal with this place. Can you tell me about it?”

Jim sighs, reluctant to share. Sheila squeezes his hand and starts to speak.

“When I first inherited the business, the building was leased. I arranged to buy it from the owner. At the time, it was a good deal. We would’ve paid it off this year, but there was some flooding last year. Our insurance covered some of it, but we weren’t as well covered as we thought. We had to refinance to pay for the repairs. We didn’t read the fine print, and now our monthly payment is more than five thousand dollars. It was less than three thousand before. And we’ll be paying it off for two more years with this new deal. We can’t cover our operating costs much longer if we’re paying so much on the mortgage. We tried to refinance again, but our lender won’t budge. We’ve tried everything.”

Tanner nearly falls out of the booth.

“That’s ridiculous. What company did this to you?”

“Some scam artists called Echo Park.”

“I am so sorry this happened to you,” Tanner says. “If I had to guess, Echo Park is trying to buy you out now, am I right?”

Sheila nods.

“We don’t want to sell, but we can’t get out from under the loan. We were turning a profit before, but we can’t stay afloat with this higher mortgage payment. If we don’t sell, we’ll end up in foreclosure in a couple months.”

“What if we can help?” Tanner asks. He pulls out a notebook, something he always carries with him, and slides it over to Sheila and Jim. “Do you know how much you still owe on the mortgage?”

Jim writes down the number with a shaky hand. It’s just as high as I expected.

Tanner takes the notebook back and writes down a few more things. The guy is a math genius, so it doesn’t take him long to figure out an interest rate and payment schedule.

“I propose this. I’ll pay off the rest of the loan, and we’ll get you started on a new payment plan. With a zero percent interest rate. Your payment would be fifteen hundred per month, and you’d pay it off in less than five years. I know it’s longer than you originally wanted to take, this way you’ll be able to keep your doors open.”

Sheila stares. “What is in it for you? We can’t accept that kind of money and then pay no interest.”

“Ma’am, don’t take this the wrong way, but I can live without the money for five years. However, I do want something in return. I want free meals for my two friends and me whenever we’re in town.”

Sheila and Jim burst into tears.

“You can have anything you want! You’re saving our lives. I couldn’t bear to say goodbye to this place.”

I squeeze Sheila’s shoulder. “Now you won’t have to.”

She gives me an awkward hug.

“Thank you. Thank you all so much!”

“This is all Tanner,” I say.

“Thank you, Tanner. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

He knows exactly what it means to them. They won’t have to leave their restaurant, or their home, behind.

“It’s my pleasure, ma’am. I’ll have my lawyer draft up an official agreement tonight and send it over to be signed. Then I’ll get Echo Park off your case, and you can get back to business as usual.”

“Thank you so much, Tanner. Truly. This means the world to us.”