Page 19 of The Dating Prohibition
“I love you, sunshine. You know that, right?” He squeezed her tightly.
She nodded against his chest. “I do. I love you too, Daddy. And I love Momma. I just want to feel like y’all have my back. It’s hard enough trying to break out into this industry when you’re doing it on your own. It’ll be even harder if it feels like no one believes that I can do it.”
Her father kissed her forehead once more. “We believe in you, honey.”
“That was...” Logan shook his head as he opened another bottle of wine and reached for Kendra’s glass to top her off beforerefilling his own. Shonda had retired upstairs after the family left for the evening––they were expecting some early deliveriesat the restaurant in the morning, and she wanted to be there to take inventory and do some planning.
“Yeah. Welcome to my hell.”
“You know they mean well, Ke,” he groaned.
It was hard not to feel like he was taking their side.
“I know that,” she sighed. “I just wish I felt like they were as confident in me as they are in you. And I get it––you’rethe firstborn and my big brother, so they expect you to lead by example. They expect me to follow––I’m the baby. But I’m notactuallya baby anymore, and I amcapableof achieving just as much as you are. Please know that none of this is to detract from what you and Shonda have built, becausePALATE is spectacular, and I am beyond proud of all that you’ve done. I amnotcompeting with you. I just don’t want them to be so damn surprised when I put something together that actually seems likeit could be successful.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. Logan reached across the table and placed his hand on Kendra’s. “I hear you. And I’m not going to invalidate your feelings, because I see how they do you, and it’s not fair. I’m sure it’s not easy for them as parents to see us as anything but thekids they raised––half the time, I think Momma still sees us in diapers.” He cracked a smile. “But I am looking you in the eye as I say that Iknowyou are capable. Go grab your proposal and all your stuff, and I’ll go grab the one we put together when we were gettingour place off the ground. We’ll compare notes.”
Kendra set her other hand on top of her brother’s and squeezed. “Thanks, brother. I’ll be right back.” She rushed downstairsand grabbed an accordion file full of documents from the coffee table. She huffed as she returned upstairs. “The main placethat I could still do more research is for the financial projections, which I won’t have a ton of clarity on until we securea location, but going and visiting some local sites and talking to Duke should really help with that piece.”
Logan nodded, accepting the paperwork from her and flipping through the pages. “You’ve already got your company descriptionand LLC together, I see. You’ve started the liquor license application and just need to have your location set for that...Damn, look at all this data for your market analysis!”
She grinned at him and shrugged. “If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.”
He nodded, his eyes widening. “This is in your savings right now?”
She’d scrimped and saved as much of her severance as possible. “My employment contract guaranteed two times my base salary,but I’d negotiated a bonus on top of that. For my time away, I didn’t have to pay for lodging in Asia or in New Orleans. Ipaid for food here and there, but I was apprenticing most of the time. I knew I’d have to hold on to as much as possible sinceI don’t have property for collateral––I need to show that I’ll have skin in the game too.”
“You’re right. And this is a good starting figure.” Logan took a sip of wine. He thumbed through spec sheets on differentproperties that Kendra had collected. “Wow, I didn’t know that one was a landmark building,” he marveled, pointing to a large brick structure in a heavily trafficked part of Northeast DC.
“Yeah, I made notations for what I could find about their histories, and I included in my business plan the different waysthat I envision showcasing a bit of that history within the establishment.”
“You showed this to BJ already?” Logan quirked a brow as warmth spread to Kendra’s cheeks, his image forming in her mind.
“No, I haven’t shown him anything yet.”Maybe he won’t want to see anything now.
He rolled his eyes as if he could read Kendra’s mind, but there was no way that BJ would have told him that there was chemistrycooking with his baby sister. “I think this is right up BJ’s alley. I’m sure he’s excited to talk to you about all of thisstuff.”
She shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know, he’s a busy guy.”
Logan narrowed his gaze suspiciously. “Right. Well, I think you’ve got the right plan and you’ve done way more than I thinkMom or Dad––or even Uncle Ronnie––gave you credit for. It’s a fresh concept, and I can imagine it being featured in theWashingtonianas the new hot spot.”
“We got a ways before that happens. Besides, PALATE is gonna get that recognition first!” They raised their glasses and tappedthem together. “To the Porter empire.”
“To the empire. Love you,” he added.
“Always.”
“Don’t worry about Momma. She’ll come around.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Kendra sighed. “I’ll call her tomorrow so she knows I’m not mad at her.”
“Good.”
Chapter 5
“Kenny.” BJ’s deep voice reverberated through her.
She startled, flinching at the proximity since she hadn’t heard him approach her as she organized glasses and supplies, ahalf-eaten pack of peach rings in her hand. It was Tuesday afternoon––prep day for the restaurant before they reopened onWednesday for their work week. Shonda sat at the bar with her laptop, inputting the inventory so that she could determinewhat supplies needed to be ordered to keep them fully stocked for their second full week of business. She made quick eye contactwith Kendra before averting her gaze back to her screen. It was like she hummed her amusement without making a sound.Unspoken communication between Black women is unmatched.
