Five

Zara was back in her small but pristine office. She was livid. She’d wanted to help The Eclipse. Truly. What did the owner think would happen if Zara didn’t? That 100K would fall out of the burst pipes?

Zara had been seething for hours now. The Eclipse was a cool place that had been a part of the town of Tidecombe forever.

And it was going to die because the owner was a stubborn mule who didn’t know a good deal when it was offered.

Zara couldn’t stop thinking about going back down there to have a word with that woman—shake some sense into her. Which was mad.

Zara wasn’t really going to do it. Probably. Yeah, no, crazy idea. Was it? Yes. Probably. Unless…

She decided to have a cup of tea and think it over.

She walked out of her office to fetch it and found Tess Fitzgerald arguing with her PA, Julian.

‘I just need a minute,’ she was saying.

‘Yes, I get that,’ Julian was saying. ‘But you can’t just…’

Tess glanced up and saw her in the doorway. ‘There you are. I need to talk to you. Now.’

Despite what Zara had been considering, she found herself tightening up. ‘We had an appointment set for this morning, which you walked out on. You said you were cancelling your application.’

‘Look, can we just talk?’ Tess begged.

‘I told her she needs an appointment,’ Julian interjected.

‘This is not your business,’ Tess said to Julian irritably.

‘It’s my job to handle Miss Shaw’s appointments,’ Julian said. ‘So it’s quite literally my business.’

‘But Miss Shaw is right there. So wind your neck in,’ Tess said, practically squaring up to Julian.

Zara nearly laughed in disbelief. Why couldn’t this woman stop herself from turning normal interactions into battles? It didn’t need to get to this.

‘Don’t talk to Julian like that,’ Zara said. She wasn’t big on confrontation, but she couldn’t have young Julian quaking in his Oxfords.

Tess looked at her and she could see the click happen. She knew she’d gone too far. ‘Sorry.’ She turned to Julian. ‘I’ve been stressed.’

‘OK,’ Julian said in a nicer tone than Tess deserved.

Zara stood back from the door. ‘Right. Let’s talk.’

Tess looked amazed, as though she didn’t know asking nicely could achieve her goal. ‘Umm, OK.’

Tess walked into Zara's office, her footsteps muffled by the plush carpet. Zara sat behind her mahogany desk and motioned for Tess to take the seat opposite. Tess settled into the comfortable chair opposite Zara, straightening her ruffled t-shirt and taking a deep breath.

‘I shouldn’t have walked out,’ Tess began.

‘OK,’ Zara said evenly.

‘Look, you need to understand, I’m forty. And you walk in and you can’t be older than, what, thirty? I just didn’t know how you could actually—’

‘I’m forty-two,’ Zara told her.

‘Oh!’ Tess cried, shocked. ‘Man, you gotta give me the name of that moisturiser,’ she said flippantly.

Zara let the joke fall flat.

‘I haven’t been sure what I wanted to do,’ Tess went on anxiously.

‘And now you are?’ Zara checked.

‘Yeah. I have to try and get the place back on its feet,’ Tess said without enthusiasm.

‘I’m glad to hear that.’

Tess frowned. ‘Are you?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘OK. Great. Good,’ Tess said, relieved.

‘Right then. The first thing we do is reschedule that walkthrough—’ Zara began.

‘Look, let’s cut to the chase,’ Tess interrupted. ‘Let’s say the place is busted.’

‘OK,’ Zara said evenly.

‘And then you find that the business was a bit in the red before that even happened.’

‘OK,’ Zara repeated, wanting to keep the energy nice and calm.

Tess still felt like something of a wildcard. Zara had decided to approach her like a hostage negotiator trying to stop an armed woman from blowing the head off an innocent bystander. The innocent bystander being the cinema.

‘Then what?’ Tess asked.

‘Well, in the face of that, I’d need to make sure the business was running optimally,’ Zara explained.

‘I thought you just did loans?’ Tess asked.

‘I work for the bank in a capacity as a business advisor. You probably didn’t take that in before, but that’s good news for you. Because in a situation that you just described, you would most likely not be successful in getting a loan of this size.’

‘I thought I could just put the business up against it. I own the building.’

‘The building that’s falling apart?’ Zara questioned. She wasn’t trying to be rude, but she was dealing with someone who didn’t quite get the situation.

‘Yes. But then you give me money to make the repairs, and it’s worth something again,’ Tess countered.

‘That would be great if all we wanted to do was seize it in a couple of years,’ Zara said. ‘The service I offer is bigger than that. With my strategic guidance, I can get you profitable.’

‘Why?’ Tess asked.

‘Why what?’

‘If this place is such a money pit, why not just let me take a loan I can’t repay and then take the building away from me?’ Tess asked.

‘You think that’s what banks want?’ Zara asked.

‘Yeah,’ Tess said plainly.

‘Yes, OK. That happens, obviously. But I’m not a bank. I’m a person who wants to help.’

Tess scoffed. ‘Sure.’

Zara examined Tess. ‘Let me ask you a question. If you think that’s what happens, why take the loan in the first place?’

Tess slumped down in her chair slightly and folded her legs. ‘Because it’s my only shot at getting the place up and running again,’ she told Zara.

‘But if you’re in the red, surely you’d only be deferring the inevitable.’

‘I might be able to turn it around. You never know,’ Tess shrugged.

Zara took the segue. ‘Which is exactly what I’m offering. Help to do just that.’

‘I don’t want help,’ Tess said.

‘Well, in that case…’ Zara began.

‘I don’t get the loan,’ Tess filled in, rubbing the back of her head.

‘You think I’m going to change things?’ Zara asked her.

‘You are,’ Tess asserted.

‘Let me rephrase,’ Zara tried. ‘You think I’m going to take away what’s great and unique about the place and turn it into a soulless chain-style cinema?’

Tess raised her eyebrows. ‘Aren’t you?’

‘That would be a bad idea,’ Zara explained. ‘You can’t compete with those chains on their terms. You don’t have the infrastructure. You have one screen where the one down the road has ten.’

‘Well…’ Tess said, and Zara could see she’d taken umbrage.

‘But you can do things they don’t,’ Zara continued, not letting Tess’s annoyance take hold. Zara had a point to make, and she was going to make it, by god. ‘Your audience wants something different. They want an old-school cinematic experience. They want to watch great movies, curated movies. Not just whatever’s out now. Right?’

Tess relaxed slightly. ‘I like to think so.’ She paused. ‘You know the place?’

Zara leaned back in her chair, smiling, nostalgia taking hold of her. ‘When I was a child, my aunt used to take me to The Eclipse every Saturday. It was our little tradition. We’d get a big tub of popcorn to share. I always chose the seats right in the middle for the best view. And the curtains would part, and that old Pearl and Dean music would start up; it was just… magic.’ Zara got her business head back on. ‘What we’d need to do is look at what other successful indie cinemas do.’

‘So you do want to imitate other businesses,’ Tess said with satisfaction.

Zara folded her hands across her desk. ‘You have to work with me here, Miss Fitzgerald.’ This was professional speak for ‘Give your head a wobble.’ Tess wanted everything on her terms, and it wasn’t going to work if she couldn’t learn to meet her somewhere, even vaguely in the middle.

Tess rolled her eyes. ‘I’ve asked you not to call me Miss Fitzgerald. It makes me feel like a Jane Austin spinster. I’m Tess.’

‘OK, Tess,’ Zara said. ‘Here’s what we’d do if you want to go forward. I’ll prepare a detailed proposal for the bank, outlining the loan amount required and justifying the need. We’ll also need to work on a business strategy that shows how the cinema plans to recover and continue operating successfully. It’s up to you if you want to go forward with it.’

‘I don’t think I have a choice, do I?’ Tess said, sounding bone weary.

‘You do have a choice,’ Zara said. ‘You can either try to find another source of money or you can apply for a loan. But if you take what I’m offering, then I’m going to be a mainstay at the cinema for a while. We’ll need to work together on this,’ Zara finished. It was a warning as much as an offer. She wanted Tess to know what she was agreeing to. She was going to be a pain in the arse as it was. At the very least, Zara could make her an informed pain in the arse.

‘So, what’s it to be?’ Zara asked.

Tess sighed miserably but reached across the desk. ‘It’s a deal,’ she said. Zara shook her soft hand, wondering what she had talked herself into.