Book One, Page Twenty-Two. Comparing Notes.
"What? No!" Winifred said, her voice rising four full tones. She switched the telephone to her right ear, as if hearing it there would confirm what she'd just heard Jerry say.
"If that's true, then you and I really do need to talk. I have been trying to talk my uncle into that for years. He absolutely would not work with me on it, and I don't have the money to do it on my own. This could be great. I'm thinking Asian-Creole. But wait. You're a veterinarian. What do you know about restaurants?"
"I know how to cut meat," Jerry said, as always. He regretted saying it as the words came out of his mouth, but there was no need--Winifred was laughing on the other end of the line. Jerry smiled with gratification that finally someone thought the line was clever.
"Other than that," he continued, "I don't know a lot about restaurants other than eating in them. But I'm learning fast. My wife and I go out to eat almost every night. We don't have children and we hate television. We're real restaurant freaks. I've been talking to everybody I know who owns a restaurant, and they all tell me the same simple thing."
"What--don't do it?" Winifred said.
"Bingo."
"That's what everybody in the biz says. But nobody ever gets out of it once they're in it. I'll tell you what else they always say. Too many new restaurants opening. Too much competition. I've even heard one say--more than one, come to think of it--that they wish a really bad hurricane would come through and close a bunch of places down."
"Yeah, I know how they feel," Jerry said. "But I don't think what I have in mind would compete with anybody. There aren't any restaurants in that neighborhood anyway."
"Not only that, but the city won't allow us to have many seats. Not enough parking."
"The parking's bad?" This was something that had never crossed Jerry's mind, but, come to think of it, the drugstore didn't have a parking lot at all.
"It's bad if you want to have more than six people in the place at one time," Winifred said. "Uncle Bobby always wanted to renovate and expand, but he couldn't because he only has those two spaces in back and four along the street, if he was lucky. He was always fighting with some old goofball neighborwho said the drugstore customers were parking illegally."
"Really!" was all Jerry could say. Then, after a pause in which Winifred came back with nothing, "Well, look. We can talk about all this when we have lunch. Thursday, noon straight up, Christian's. See you there."
"Right," Winifred said.
Jerry put the phone down. He became conscious of Julie, who'd been sitting there on the kitchen stool all along.
"So?" she said. "Am I invited?"
"I forgot to ask," Jerry said. "I'm sure it will be okay."
"I don't know," said Julie. "You and this Winifred sure sound like you're clicking. Won't I be in the way?"
Jerry stared at Julie. At first he thought she was kidding. But the longer he looked at her the more uncomfortable she seemed. And Jerry's mood always mirrored hers. He got up from his stool at the kitchen counter and stood next to hers. She didn't rise. The hug he meant to be warm and reassuring came across as awkward and disconnected. He backed away from her a step.
"Look, Jule," Unless you don't want to be, you're going to be part of this restaurant with me. I can't imagine doing this if it would get in the way of us. Please tell me if you don't think it's something I ought to do."
"I don't know, Jerry. I have all kinds of thoughts about it. I wonder whether we can make a go of it. You know what they say about most new restaurants going broke. Look what happened to the Lee Circle, as good as it was. I just see our nice life been upset."
"But what about the excitement of the challenge?" Jerry said, his eyes opening wide. "The risk is going to force the best out of us to make sure it works. It'll make us new people. I gotta tell you, Julie, I like being a vet okay, but I feel like at forty-five there are other things I can do, and this just seems like it. Come here."
He pulled her off the stool and into his arms. She returned the warmth, but then backed off again. "I guess I just think you want to re-invent yourself. But I like the person you are right now. We need to think some more about this. And talk to some people."
"Like who? We've been talking to a lot of restaurant people."
"I'm thinking about Genie Marks," she said. Genie and Mario went through all that when they opened that toy store. In fact, I definitely want to take them out to dinner to talk with them."
"Aren't they separated?" said Jerry.
"They got back together," Julie answered. "I think they can tell us a few things."
"All right," Jerry said. "Let's do it." His mind wandered off in search of restaurants where they could both have this discussion with the broken couple and find out more about how to run a restaurant.
"Hey, how about Maison Bavette?" he said. "We can ask that couple how it works out for them, with both in the kitchen!"
