Westpoint Tales - Entangled Tales, 80 - Justin & Billy

They showered again, dressed and went downstairs. On the way out, through the kitchen, Justin said, “We won’t be here for dinner tonight, Grandmother. We’re going out to see Billy’s mum and family.”

“That’s good, Boys. Drive safely, Billy. You’ve got a precious cargo.”

“I know that, Ma’am.”

“Yes, of course you do. Go and have a nice time, Boys.’

“Thanks, Grandmother. We will. See you later.”

“’Bye, Ma’am.”

“’Bye, Sweetcheeks and Company.”

Buckling-up in the car, Justin nudged Billy. “My grandmother loves you, Sunny.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

“Yeah, well, my grandmother loves you too, Sweetcheeks.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

At the Mathieson’s, they were welcomed by the family, they all ate around the huge table and then they all had to go out to admire the new car – new old, used, car.

“It must be so cool, having your own wheels,” Dianne sighed. “Whose car is it anyway? Superboy’s or Billy’s?”

“It’s our car,” Justin replied. “We bought, Billy drives it.”

“So it’s more Billy’s car then?” Robert asked.

“No,” Billy said. “It’s our car. Now you kids can all bugger off. We’ve got to talk to Mum.”

“Oh? Coming out are you?” Brian grinned. “Are you going to tell Mum that you’re straight now?”

“No. I’m not and I’m not. Go away, Bugs.”

The family went back to the TV leaving Cecily, Justin and Billy in the kitchen. She started making them a drink.

“Still drinking tea are we, Billy?”

“Only sometimes. Don’t worry, I’m not drinking beer - Justin wouldn’t like that. Usually we have coke or OJ.”

“Pleased to hear that. You keep him on the straight and narrow, Justin. Or, gay and narrow I suppose that should be. It’s about time that you came out to see us, we’ve been missing you. Are you happy, Boys - being together and all?”

“Sure we are, Mum. We’re really, really, really happy – it’s great!”

“Justin, how about you?”

Justin looked at Billy and smiled. He picked up Billy’s hand from the table and held it up. “This is my life, Mrs. M. My life, my love and my best friend. None of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for you. Thank you.”

“I’m sure it would’ve happened anyway. You two belong together.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t here and I would not have been if not for you and Ma.”

“And then where would our boy have been? I’m just pleased that you’re happy, Boys, and I hope it stays that way. Now, what did you want to talk about?”

“We need help, Mrs. M.”

“Oh? Well, whatever you need, it’s yours. I haven’t got much money – haven’t got any actually, but Ma’s got plenty if that’s what you want.”

“No Mum, it’s not money, it’s . . . oh. Sorry, Justin. I’ll shut up, you keep talking.”

“Well, Mrs. M., It’s about Billy’s Burgers. That’s what we’re going to call our company and our burger bars.”

“Billy’s Burgers? I like it, it is short and sharp and it’s got a good ring to it.”

“Yeah! And we’ve got a logo too – a big, capital B in dark blue with a lighter blue B inside it and a cartoon of my face one top – red-hair and all. Ronald MacDonald, eat your heart out!”

“Shut up, Sunny. I’m talking to your mum. One more outburst and we’ll tape your mouth shut.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Don’t dare me, or I will. Got any duct tape, Mrs. M?”

She frowned at the pair of them. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“No, of course not. I couldn’t do that.”

“Okay then. Good for you. I could though. Shut up, Billy and let Justin speak.”

“Anyway, we’ve been talking and thinking and planning, now it’s about time we got started doing. We want you to come and work for us. Billy said that you’ve got a degree in business administration.”

“It’s not a degree, it’s just a certificate from the Open Polytechnic. I did it by correspondence, finished early this year. It was just something to keep my mind active while I’m at home raising all these kids and, hopefully, to get a job once they’ve all grown and gone.”

Billy was jiggling in his seat. “I’m sorry, Justin, I’ve got to say something or I’ll burst.”

“You’d better say it then. Bursting would be messy.”

“Right! One thing and then I’ll shut up. Mum, you’ve finished your certificate. The kids are growing up – the twins are nine now and you’ve got plenty of built-in baby-sitters. It’s time that you started working. You said that you’ve got no money and we’ll pay you heaps. You could do a lot of the work from home anyway, so you won’t be away all of the time.”

“Hang on a minute. What do you mean, I could work from home? You’re surely not thinking of opening your burger bar out here are you? In case you haven’t noticed, we have not got a lot of neighbours around here.”

“Of course not, Doofus! Oops. Sorry, Mum. The burger bar is going to be in town.”

“How can I work at home then? Do you mean preparing the ingredients? That sort of thing?”

“You won’t be the cook, Mrs. M. We’ll hire other people for that, or rather, you will. We need you to do the hiring and firing and all of the administration details – arranging contracts, paying rents and wages and purchasing ingredients and stuff. We just want to start this off and then hand it over to you to run and to hire staff to do all of the work. We could set up an office out here, with all the latest computer equipment and stuff. The kids could use it too when you’re not working.

“Hang on another minute! This sounds all very well, Boys, but you can’t run a business like that, you’ll be broke in no time. Westpoint’s only a small town and one little burger bar can’t support a whole office set-up.”

“We’re still at cross-purposes here. We’re not talking about one little burger bar. We’re planning on dozens, maybe hundreds of burger bars, some little, some big; everything from 24 hour vending machines to major sit-down restaurants in the cities.

We plan on starting with one in Westpoint, which will also be a training school for the staff in the others, and then opening more around the country and moving further and further away. We figure that, once it gets going, we could open a new business every week.”

“Now you’re getting into Fantasyland. Where’s the money going to come from to open a new burger bar every week?”

“Every cent of the profits will go back into the business for at least 3 years. By then there should be enough money coming in to keep on growing on it’s own.”

“3 years, 156 burger bars. That could work, but where’s the money going to come from to get them started? You’re talking big money here, thousands, maybe millions, of dollars.”

“We’ve got some loans promised to us and Crispian and Whozzat are going to invest their income with us. They’re making a movie which will probably make millions. To get started, Ma said that she will lend us $20,000. When Granddad heard that, he said that he and Grandmother will match whatever Ma lends us dollar for dollar. So we went back to Ma and she’s going to lend us $45,000. So, that’s $90,000 to get started. Plus, we and Jonathan will invest the profits from our R&R business, which is big and getting bigger all the time.”

“This is starting to sound feasible. You’ve got a very successful business going there. I’ve already paid for 2 R&R systems myself. How much profit do you think there will be from there?”

“About $9,000 per week, and growing.”

“Fucking hell, that’s a lot of money! Whoops. Sorry, Boys, but it is – truckloads of money. With that sort of seed money, this could really work. It will work. Okay, I’m in if you want me. I’d love to be involved in something like this. You’ve just hired your first employee.”

“Great. Thanks, Mrs. M. You’ll make millions and we’ll make mega-millions.”

“Well, I don’t know about that, but, we’ll see. One question, how do you propose dividing your personal profits, when you get some?”

“When we get some, it will be 50/50 of course – equal shares in everything.”

“You’re not going to like this, but it has to be thought about. What would happen if you two split up?”

“Not going to happen.”

“I really hope you’re right, but it could happen. You are both still very young and relationships fail all of the time. In 5 or 10 years, who knows where you’ll be? What would happen to the profits?”

“It is not going to happen, Mum,” Billy spoke up. “We’re never going to split up, but if Justin dumped me or something the business arrangements would still stay the same forever.”

“That could work. I hope that you never have to worry about it anyway. What are you going to live on in the meantime. By the time three years is up you’ll both be out of school. What if you want to get a flat or something?”

“We’re okay at the moment, Granddad supports us and he pays us to do cleaning. If we need more money then we’ll get jobs like anybody else does. We could even work for you, maybe?”

“Only if you’re good enough’” she smiled. “That all sounds good. You’ll be rich eventually. In the meantime, it won’t hurt you to work for your money. So, when do I start work?”

“Ten minutes ago. Tomorrow you could start purchasing equipment for an office and setting up a system to pay yourself wages.”

“Right! This is going to be great, starting everything from scratch. Have you got the premises for your first burger bar yet? You talked about the empty shop next to the Adelphi.”

“No, we haven’t done that yet. We could ask the Council who owns it and then you could make an offer to buy it.”

“Umm. No. I already know who owns it, you don’t have to ask the council. I think that in this case, you’d better do the negotiating, Justin. I’ll arrange the purchase or lease of any future premises, but not this time. And, I’ll tell you now, you won’t be able to buy this shop. It won’t ever be for sale as it is an old family business premises, but you will probably be able to lease it – at good terms too. You will have a tough old landlord though.”

“There’s something you’re not telling us. Who owns this building?”

“Years ago, that used to be the Adelphi Milk Bar and Tearooms. It has been closed down and shut-up for years now, but it was owned by the Adams family.”

“The Adams Family?” Billy grinned. “Sounds like a monster movie.”

“Some people might say that, but be very careful. The Adams family parents died years ago. They only had the one daughter. She married Bob Reynolds.”

“Bob Reynolds?” Justin squawked. “So my grandmother owns the building that we want?”

“Indeed she does. That’s probably why it’s still empty. Everyone’s scared of your Gran, she’d be a tough landlady.”

“Go on, Mrs. M. My grandmother is a pussycat.”

“To you maybe. To everyone else she’s a tiger – or a dragon.”

“That’s great. There’ll be no problem at all then. We’ll go and talk to Grandmother tomorrow – not first thing in the morning though.”

“Yeah,” Billy agreed. “No problems, Mum. Justin’s a tiger-tamer. He can tame any fierce old ladies – look at Ma, look at you too.”

“Enough cheek out of you Young Man. Maybe Justin can tame tigers, but that doesn’t mean that you can.”

Justin smiled and put his hand on Billy’s shoulder. “Ah, but, Billy has tamed the tiger-tamer.”

“And that he has!” Billy said. “Now, let’s talk burgers.”