Page 42 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
After that was done, she faced the pile of papers Patty had dug up about the tea shop’s insurance.
It had taken Patty much longer to compile the paperwork than it took Sheila to go through it. There was nothing there about liquidating the tea shop. Sheila had no idea where Patty had gotten that idea.
There were some business documents they needed, and Sheila scanned them and sent them to the insurance agent. Hopefully they’d be officially covered by next week.
The next issue was Sheila’s house back in Lynnwood. The bank had called and left a message warning that if she missed one more payment, they would be forced to start the foreclosure process.
What did that really mean, though? If the process was just starting, she had time to make money, right?
Eliza was so against renting the house out that she hadn’t wanted to broach the topic again, but she might have to. The accounting clients she’d taken on wouldn’t pay her until the end of the next quarter. She knew she needed to put in effort to find new clients, but there never seemed to be enough time in the day. Between renovating the tea shop, taking over Patty’s grocery shopping, cleaning, and laundry, then fielding Patty’s complaints about losing said chores, Sheila fell into bed every day exhausted.
She sat back and closed her eyes. It would be so nice to just take a little nap…
But no. She couldn’t. She needed to figure out her expenses. She needed to get on top of the mortgage. How many more clients did she need? Did she need to find a new job right away, or could it wait a few months?
A familiar dread filled her stomach. No wonder Patty refused to go into the tea shop. It wasn’t that she couldn’t face the dust or the burnt-out lights. She couldn’t face the shame.
Sheila knew it well. As brilliant an accountant as she was, she couldn’t look at her own bank account or her own credit cards.
They weren’t just numbers. They were memories and regrets, a knee-deep mud she got stuck in every time she overdrew her checking account.
Tomorrow. She could face it tomorrow.
She shut her laptop and got up to switch the laundry.
That weekend, Sheila hardly saw Eliza. She was holed up in the cottage, creating an online shop and adding a new online payment system. She only came down briefly when something smelled irresistible and, on Saturday, it was Patty’s mascarpone french toast.
“The online payments are going to make it much easier for young people to come to the tea shop, which is what you want.”
“You mean children?” Patty asked with complete sincerity.
“Uh, sort of. I mean everyone. You can’t run a cash-only business in this day and age.”
Patty frowned, then turned to fill her baking dish with soap and hot water. “Reggie’s been telling me the same thing. I guess he was right.”
Sheila took her last bite of french toast and cleared her plate. “I’m going into town to meet with Inge if you’d like to join.”
“Is that the lady who’s going to fix the shutters?” Patty asked.
“No, she’s the orca researcher. I’m going to talk to her about Lottie and play the recording for her.”
She’d wanted to meet with her right away, but Inge had been in the Arctic, collecting data on whale populations, until last night.
Patty clapped her hands together. “I’d love to! Let me grab my purse.”
They met at a bakery in town. It was busy, as good bakeries tend to be, crowded with good foods and good smells. Inge was already in line and Sheila and Patty stood behind her.
Sheila got a coffee and everyone else got tea. They took a seat at a table near a window to share an assortment of pastries.
“Don’t ask me how I got this,” Sheila said, sliding her phone across the table. “But this is a recording of Lottie vocalizing.”
Inge looked up from her tea, intrigued. She hit play and Lottie’s song rang out, melancholy and sweet.
Inge listened intently, and when the recording was through, she looked up, her eyes round and bright. “You were right. She’s a resident orca! I’m sure of it. I can’t believe this.”
“You know that just from a recording?” asked Patty.
Inge nodded, speaking quickly. “Oh yes. It’s very easy to tell them apart from their calls. They all have different dialects, and her calls are just like the rest of the L-pod whales.”
