Chapter 62
Marco, Luca and Alessio met with Harvey and discussed Melina’s business plan. Harvey told them that he was surprised as well by the business plan, but he checked it himself twice with their accountants and the numbers looked really good.
With that reassurance they decided to officially sign off the project. They would take her to see the office building the following day and Harvey told them he would send Melina a list of the specifications they would need for the licencing.
Once they finished their meeting, he walked them out and he looked for Melina. He found her in the living room painting her nails.
“Amore, I have good news” Marco said and Melina lifted her head to meet his gaze. “We finished the meeting with Harvey and we have officially signed off on the project”
“Oh my god, that is amazing” Melina squealed. “I would hug you, but my nails are not dry yet”
Marco sat next to her on the sofa. “Harvey will email you a list of the infrastructure specifications and tomorrow we will go visit the building”
“Marco this is amazing. I don’t know what to say” Melina said. “Thank you so much”
“Amore there is no need to thank me. You did this. I only assigned you the project”
“Still. Thank you for the amazing opportunity. I will not let you down”
“I know you won’t. How about we go out for dinner to celebrate?” Marco asked.
“Can we invite your parents to join?”
“Of course. Let me call my dad” Marco said.
“No need. I will call Sophia” Melina said.
She called Sophia and they agreed to meet at the Redbird restaurant. Melina wasn’t big fan of fine dining, the type that they serve you a big plate with a sample of the food in it and they charge you an extortion amount of money for it, but Sophia seemed excited about it and she decided not to say anything.
"We will meet your parents at the Redbird at 20:00” Melina said.
“Amore, you don’t like these kind of restaurants and tonight is about celebrating you. I will call my mom and tell her that we will go somewhere else” Marco said.
“No, boo, please don’t. If the portions are small, we will just go to a McDonald’s drive through on our way back and I will be super happy about it” Melina said.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“Absolutely. Let’s get ready now, because we don’t have much time left” Melina said.
They got ready and drove to the restaurant. To Melina’s surprise the portions were quite generous, and the food was amazing, so she really enjoyed the evening. She liked being around Marco’s parents and she felt like she was part of the family.
She told Sophia about her plan to make Thanksgiving dinner and Sophia was very enthusiastic about it as well. It was only 3 days until Thanksgiving Day, so Melina made a mental note to make a shopping list of everything she needed. She hoped she would be able to find a turkey, even though she kind of left it for last minute.
They left the restaurant and waited the valet to bring their cars and made plans for the following day and the visit to the office building. They bid their goodbyes and left. That night Melina slept like a baby, having all stress from preparing the business plan left her body.
The following morning Melina stuck to her routine and at 10:00 she was ready to leave the house with Marco and go see the office building. It was only a 15 minute drive and once Melina saw the area, she understood why the building had not been utilized for a long time.
The area was nice, but it was far from the city centre, making it a long commute if someone was not driving. She hoped that the 40% above market value on the salaries, would be enough for her to find the right people to hire.
The building was well preserved but it was in serious need of renovations. It was a three-story building with underground parking lot. Melina started inspecting all the areas and taking notes of what needed to be done on each of them. She had brought a measuring tape and used it to ensure she has everything she needed, when she would have to start ordering equipment.
It took her around 4 hours to check every office and area of the building, but finally finished and felt confident about her next steps.
“I think the building is what we need, but we will need to renovate almost everything” Melina said. “I would like to start by removing everything from the inside. The desks and chairs are archaic, so they cannot be used”
“I will have a crew here tomorrow to start removing everything” Marco said. “I can also give you the details of the crew that is taking care of any renovations we need”
“That would be great boo, thank you” she said.
They went back home, and Melina went straight to her office. She needed to post job ads for the two roles she needed to recruit first. After a couple of hours and lot of back and forth, she was finally happy with the job ads she prepared, and she posted them in various job boards.
She had agreed with Marco that she would host any interviews in her office in person. Marco wasn’t happy about letting random people entering their house, but Melina was adamant that she wouldn’t hire someone that she hadn’t met in person.
Once the job ads were live on the job boards, she made a shopping list with what she needed for Thanksgiving dinner. She called Matteo and asked if he could help her and he asked her to send him the list.
She told him that she was concerned about the turkey availability, but Matteo reassured her that he would find her a turkey no matter what. She hoped he wouldn’t threaten to kill anyone if they don’t sell him their turkey, but she didn’t say anything. Matteo was kind enough to help her out, so she didn’t want to say something that might insult him.