Aidan and Katie Ch. 03

Elle smiled nervously again. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Good," He said, "Now relax."

We walked in and Dad walked up to the receptionist. "Mike Cunningham and Elle Nichols to see Max Anderson."

"Yes, sir." The tiny brunette said. "Please have a seat. His assistant asked me to tell you that his current meeting is running long and he apologizes, but it'll be a few minutes. Could I get you anything?"

Elle started to decline and I suggested water to keep her mouth moist. I know my mouth gets dry when I'm nervous and I thought hers might, also. She gratefully agreed. Dad and I asked for coffee.

I watched the brunette walk away and got an elbow in my ribs. "Watch it mister!"

I knew then that Elle would be OK in this meeting. "Hey!" I said.

She leveled her gaze at me and I shut up, knowing what was good for me.

The brunette returned with the drinks and I looked anywhere but at her and I felt Elle's burning gaze on my face. "Better," she said.

My 'Yes, dear' drew another sharp elbow and a snort of laughter from my dad.

Elle really didn't want to talk so we sat there quietly for about twenty minutes. Finally, a statuesque redhead came out and said Mr. Anderson was finishing up with his meeting and asked that we come back. She said that he apologized and would we follow her. I let Dad take the lead behind her and again looked anywhere but at her magnificent ass. I can't say I didn't see it; I did, but studiously looked everywhere but there.

Elle noticed. She squeezed my hand. "Thank you," she whispered.

When we got to Max's office, he was standing in the door with a couple of cowboys. Hey, they had western cut suits, cowboy boots, string ties and they each held a cowboy hat. They were cowboys as far as I was concerned. They were probably multimillionaire ranchers, but at heart they were cowboys. They turned to walk away, putting on their hats.

They noticed Elle, tipped their hats and said, "Ma'am," simultaneously. Cowboys.

As we were standing there I noticed Max's assistant slip behind him into his office. She was carrying a file.

Max turned to us and said, "This beautiful young lady must be Elle. Mac, you didn't do her justice."

Dad grinned and Elle blushed. Just then his assistant slipped back out of the office carrying a stack of files.

Max turned to me. "Aidan? What're you doing here?"

Elle was holding my left hand tightly and I raised it up as I shook Max's hand. "Moral support."

He chuckled, "I understand. Come on in. Stacy, I should be about a half hour or so. Hold my calls." He closed the door behind us.

His office was big enough that he had a small conference table and he directed us to sit around the table. I started to pull away from Elle and she held tight so I pulled a chair over to sit next to her. Max had a file on the table in front of him.

He looked at Elle and said, "Mac tells me that you want to open a restaurant. Is that right?"

Elle looked confused, "Mac? Who's Mac?"

Dad grinned, "I am. Michael Aaron Cunningham. M A C, Mac. It's a golf guy thing."

"But isn't that confusing with Max?" Elle asked.

Max smiled, "Nope, I'm Cabone."

"Cabone?" Elle was more confused.

Max grinned, "Cheatin' Assed Bastard One. CABONE, I'm one because we have multiple Cheatin' Assed Bastards and I was the first."

I could tell Elle's head had to be spinning, "Why do they let you play if you cheat?"

Dad and Max were almost in tears they were laughing so hard.

Finally, I rescued her. "They don't really cheat. It just comes from occasionally playing much better than their handicap and taking all the money on the bets. Really, it's an affectionate nickname."

Elle shook her head. "OK."

Max chuckled again, "Anyway, you want to open a restaurant?"

"Yes, sir I do." Elle said. "Though it's more of a bar and grille. I think I have a pretty good concept and I also think that I'll have a decent following from my regulars at Hayter's. Here's my plan, with a proposed menu."

Max spent a few minutes reading Elle's business plan and menu. Finally he looked up at her.

"Do you have your finances?" Max asked.

Elle slid over another several pages. Max spent another couple of minutes looking over Elle's finances. He looked up at her again. Elle squeezed my hand tighter.

Max looked at her steadily before answering. "Looking at your plan, it's solid. Your personal finances are remarkable for someone your age working as a bartender. You've done a tremendous job of saving money. Most of your numbers are in line with what I know about the restaurant business. I talked to Steve after Mac contacted me about this. We think you can find a restaurant to fit your needs and fit your budget. But, (Elle's hand was squeezing mine to the point of being painful) the part of your financial projection that concerns me is the fact that you only have twenty five thousand dollars in cash and no reserve. I appreciate that you need our bank to provide a line of credit to get started, buy inventory, replace some equipment, pay for training and so forth. But, you're going to need money to live. I cannot provide you with funds to live and I don't think it's a good idea for you to keep an outside job for living expenses. This venture needs to have one hundred percent of your focus. So, unless you can find a partner or an investor, for right now I must say no."

I felt the air go out of Elle just through the change in tension in her hand. I felt badly for her. She had gotten her hopes up and just had them dashed. I didn't know what to do to help her until I had a thought.

"Max?" I said, as he was pulling all the papers into his file.

Max looked up and smiled. "Aidan?"

"You mentioned a partner or investor." I said. I felt Elle's gaze turn to me.

"Yes," Max said, pausing in gathering up the papers.

"How much does she need?" I asked.

He didn't hesitate in saying, "I would feel comfortable if she had a hundred thousand dollars in cash."

I smiled, "So if I threw in another hundred twenty five thousand with her twenty five thousand, as a partner or investor, you'd take another look?"

Elle had gone stiff at this point. "Aidan!" She gasped. I squeezed her hand with what feeling I had left in it after her squeezing it for the last half hour.

Dad turned and looked at me and said, "Aidan, are you sure?"

I calmly looked at Max. "So, what do you think?"

He simply asked, "Partner or investor?"

I tilted my head toward Elle. "That's up to her."

She jumped up, kissed me and said, "Partner!"

Max smiled, "Then I'm in. By the way, I love the name of the restaurant."

I asked, "What is it?"

Elle blushed and showed me the logo. It was a picture of an elevated train under the name "The Elle".

I laughed, "That's awesome!"

"You don't think it's egotistical?" She asked, blushing.

"No, I don't." I said. "I think it's brilliant."

Dad said, "Let me see."

I slid the printout over to Dad. He grinned and said, "I love it, too."

"Before we finalize this thing, you guys need to incorporate and I need that paperwork plus your financials, Aidan." Max said.

"All of my financials are with you guys," I said. "You can access them, right?"

He smiled, "Yes I can. I can even set you up with one of our lawyers for your partnership agreement and articles of incorporation. You guys should be ready to go in about a week." He called his assistant and had her check with the lawyers. In a few minutes we had an appointment with the lawyers and in about two hours we were on our way to see Steve.

Elle was almost dizzy with the way the day had gone so far. She never let go of my hand. I followed my dad and we pulled up in front of an open restaurant in downtown Denver. Elle looked at me and I shrugged.

Steve was standing out front. I introduced him to Elle and he explained how the owner wanted to retire and was either going to sell outright, sell to own or lease the restaurant. He was very concerned with who would be running his restaurant. He didn't have a problem with a change in theme or name as long as he thought that the new management would be accommodating to his regulars and his employees.

We walked inside and the building was everything that Elle wanted with exposed wood structure and rough brick walls. It was relatively small at about four thousand square feet, but he owned the whole building and there was room for expansion. We met the owner, Ralph Hutchinson, and he showed Elle all around. They looked at the entire restaurant plus the rest of the building. We just kind of trailed behind.

Ralph said he wanted to talk to Elle alone so they went to a booth in the back. I was concerned and Steve assured me that it was OK.

"I've seen him do this every time." Steve said. "He wants to know that the new people know what they're doing and his life's work won't be wasted. He's turned down two offers already based on his opinion that the new people didn't have what it took to keep his place alive. From what I can tell about Elle, she's got a good chance to make this happen."

I looked at Steve, "How do you know about Elle?"

"I know people in the bar business, Aidan. I asked around." Steve explained. "She's got a great reputation amongst people who know. Even if she doesn't know it, she could walk into any bar in greater Denver and have the job as manager. I put Ralph in touch with the people that I know and he was very impressed. This is just a formality." He pointed at the table, where Elle was waving me over, "You're wanted."

I walked back and sat down next to Elle. She grasped my hand. "Ralph wanted to meet my money guy, my partner. Ralph, this is Aidan Cunningham, my boyfriend and my partner."

Ralph raised his eyebrow. "Boyfriend, huh? Just a friends-with-benefits kind of thing?"

I laughed, here's a seventy-something guy asking about friends-with-benefits. It was funny.

He frowned, "There's something funny?"

"I'm sorry; but I find it funny that somebody your age knows about 'friends-with-benefits'." I said. "That may be ageist, but in my experience guys your age generally don't know what that means. But, if it's any of your business, we are not 'friends-with-benefits'. Elle used 'boyfriend' because we're not yet engaged and there is not really a more accurate one word description of our relationship."

Elle sat there wide-eyed.

He sat back, blinking. Obviously, he was not accustomed to anyone speaking to him in this manner. He considered me for a moment before he smiled. "OK. I understand. Now, what do you know about the restaurant/bar business?"

"Absolutely nothing." I said honestly.

"Then why are you investing your money in this? It's risky." I could tell he was curious.

"It's because I believe in Elle. I've known her for a long time and I believe she will be great at owning her own place." I said.

"OK." He said. "I've heard enough. If we can make the numbers work, I'd like you to take over my place." He smiled. "I love the name and the logo. It's original and eye-catching. I will say one more thing; I'd like to get this done by the end of the year. I want to spend the rest of the winter where it's warmer than here."

Elle got up and hugged him and to his credit he blushed. She fairly skipped back to my Dad and Steve and hugged them, too. I took Elle home and headed back to the office. I had to catch up on some paperwork and would have a late night. I called her after I got home and she was still wired.

"Aidan! I can't believe it! It's really happening! Oh my god, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Elle was babbling.

I just laughed. "Elle, you gotta stop thanking me. I get it."

"OK, just let me do it one more time. Thank you!" She giggled.

We talked about mundane things until I said I was beat and needed to get to bed.

"Will I see you this weekend?" She asked.

"I'm planning on it." I said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, OK?"

"OK, I love you." Elle said softly.

"I love you too." I said. "Good night, baby."

"Good night." Elle whispered.

I played golf the next day as planned but it was a little cool. It had gotten deep enough into fall that it was probably too cool to play, but we played anyway. We got our business done. The rest of the week was fairly routine, except for a visit and purchase I made. I spoke with Elle every night after she got off work. It was very late every night.

It started snowing Thursday night and Elle was excited when she called me from work. "Hey, it's snowing, could we go to the cabin this weekend? I got the weekend off. I think it'll be romantic and fun. The two of us, alone in the cabin in the snow, with nothing to do..." She giggled, trailing off.

"OK, I'll call Dad." I said. "Give me a couple of minutes." I called Dad, had to take a ration of shit about the fireplace and then called Elle back. "We're good to go. I'll pick you up tomorrow about three, OK?"

"Sure, sounds good." She said.

I started gathering stuff up, starting with the box I had picked up earlier in the week. By the time I went to bed, I had everything I needed stacked by the front door, ready to go. On Friday, I took off at noon and came home to pack up the truck. I took everything down and packed up my four-wheel-drive truck. I went to the store and picked up enough food for the weekend and then drove to Elle's. I was about a half hour early and hoped that she was ready. She was and I took her suitcase to the truck.

She snuggled in beside me. "This is gonna be sooo much fun." Elle giggled. "Playing in the snow, snuggling in front of your parent's fireplace..."

"Elllllle," I whined.

She giggled. "OK, I'll stop."

All we got done on Friday night was to get unpacked, wood brought in, a fire started and dinner made. We snuggled in in front of the fire and were soon both asleep. I woke up and did my usual routine of taking her into bed and covering her up. She never woke up.

Saturday morning I woke to the aroma of coffee and cinnamon rolls. I went to the bathroom and then went to find Elle. She was already dressed, ready for a day in the snow.

I wrapped my arms around her, "Good morning."

She was fairly vibrating. She spun in my arms, "Good morning. I made cinnamon rolls so we could get outside quicker."

I smiled and kissed her, "OK."

We sat and ate the cinnamon rolls and I had a couple of cups of coffee. I would have liked another, but I thought Elle might explode from the pent-up excitement.

I went in and put on a snowmobile suit and Elle put on a parka and snow pants. We went walking through the quiet woods and found deer tracks, wolf tracks and rabbit tracks. We spent the entire day outside. We didn't even go in for lunch. Elle wanted to make a snowman and we spent a while working on it. Then, she decided that we both had to make snow angels. We finally went back in about four; it was starting to get dark.

After a day of playing and walking in the snow, I was chilled to the bone and needed a hot shower. Evidently, Elle was too because she went into the bathroom in the master bedroom as soon as we came in. I grabbed some sweats from my room and went into the main bathroom. Fortunately, Dad had foreseen these types of days and installed a seventy five gallon water heater, so there was plenty of hot water for each of us. I shaved, getting rid of the stubble of the day.

I was done far sooner than Elle and after I got a fire started, I went to the kitchen to make us hot chocolate. Mom always kept the makings of her hot chocolate recipe in great supply. No Swiss Miss in Maddie Cunningham's kitchen. It took a few minutes to get the chocolate melted in the milk and get all of the ingredients mixed together. Mom's recipe made enough for four large mugs, so there was enough for each of us to have two, if we wanted.

I took the mugs over to the couch and set Elle's on one end table and mine on the other. Elle came out in a long, white silk robe and I could see burgundy silk pajama pants adorning her legs through the gap in the robe. Her still wet, long, blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was barefoot.

"Oooh!" She squealed, "Hot chocolate!" Then she looked over and saw that I had mine at the opposite end of the couch. "Don't you want to sit by me?" She looked hurt and disappointed.

I sighed, "I just thought it might be awkward, having to climb over me to get your hot chocolate."

She faked frowning, trying not to grin through it, "How do you know I don't want to crawl all over you?"

"That would work for me, too." I grinned.

She picked up her hot chocolate and put it on the end table next to mine. Then she sat next to me and promptly crawled over me to get it. Her body, nicely wrapped in silk, slithered over mine. I liked the feeling of her supple, toned body sliding over mine and I felt a twitch in my groin. We snuggled on the couch and drank our hot chocolate, looking into the fire. Elle took every opportunity to slide over me; putting down her mug and picking it back up. The twitching had stopped and had grown to a full-fledged throb. I got up and put more wood on the fire and when I turned Elle had stood up and removed her robe. The burgundy silk pajamas clung to her like a second skin and my breath caught in my throat.

She spun around, "You like?"

"Uh-huh," I mumbled, staring.

"Good," she smiled, gliding over to me; "I bought it just for you."

It had gotten completely dark outside and Elle floated around the room and turned off all of the lights. The room was now just lit by the flickering fire. She stepped into the middle of the round, eight foot diameter, white plush rug that was in front of the fire. "Why don't we lie down in front of the fire?"

I made a face and she looked hurt.

"You don't want to lie in front of the fire with me?" She looked as though she was going to cry.

"That's not it at all." I said softly. "I just haven't looked at that rug the same since my dad said what he did about he and mom snuggling in front of the fire."

She immediately brightened and started laughing. "You idiot."

She softened her voice and came and took me by the hand, leading me to the middle of the rug. "Let's make you a different memory, OK?"

She wrapped herself around me, kissing softly. Slowly, she drew us down to the rug, until I was lying on my back and she was lying on top of me. "Now, isn't this much better?"

"Yes, it is." I said, "You know how to make me forget anything. I love you."

She leaned in and kissed me softly, "I love you, too."

We kissed softly, gently for a long time. I had rolled us over and was lying to her side, kissing. I moved off of her lips and to the soft, smooth skin of her cheek and then to her ear, breathing softly into it. I knew this gave her chills, which she loved...and hated. She shivered and having gotten the reaction I wanted, I moved to her neck. Her head turned away, giving me full access, trusting me to do what she loved. I did, kissing softly, licking and blowing on the wetted skin. She shivered again, her arms wrapping around my back, fingers sliding under my sweatshirt, dancing at my waist, just above my butt, giving me the same chills. My hips involuntarily flexed, driving my rock hard dick into her hip. She paused and I figured we were done, but then she started stroking again. I pulled my hips back, but her touch got firmer and she pulled my hips back to hers.

I kissed up under her chin, and then moved back up to kiss her soft lips. Her hand slid under the waistband of my sweatpants and she caressed the skin of my butt. I moved back down her chin and kissed her throat, staying there for long minutes as I knew she loved the attention to her neck. Slowly, I moved down her throat and paused at the hollow of her neck. I knew she especially loved to be kissed and licked there so I spent a long time lavishing attention to this smooth, soft part of her body. Her stroking of my butt had increased in tempo and firmness so I knew she was enjoying what I was doing. She had wormed her other arm down and around and was now gripping and stroking my butt with both hands.