The Auction House Deal: Bought by A Billionaire

Chapter 157: Professional: Hannah

I started the day out with the clothing shopping I had planned to do in my downtime, just to decompress. It did actually manage to help a bit, giving me a while not to focus on the stress of anything and focus only on myself and what I wanted to do. Once I had my items and picked up a latte and croissant, I headed back to the office.

Nick moved about the office casually as I first made call to a couple of contractors that Rachel had recommended to get them to come give me a couple of quotes for the walls we would need to put up for the therapy rooms, as well as to make the slight modifications to the apartments upstairs. One would be there in just about an hour, and the other would be there later in the afternoon; both could start as soon as the next day.

I then jumped into the call to the staffing agency, not allowing my mind to venture past the act of just trying to find staff. The woman at the agency was super helpful, sending me a list of all the local counselors in the area that were marked as actively looking for work. I pulled it up on my laptop and took a deep breath before beginning the task of calling them each.

One by one, I called them and either left a message, or spoke briefly with them to see if they would be interested in coming in for an interview. By the time lunch rolled around, I had filled up almost the entire next day with interviews. The rest would be the following week. I made notes to myself.

Once I had a couple selected, I figured I would allow them to become the heads of the department, help me decide how many counselors we would need, and what schedules should look like. They could even get involved with the construction process.

I did some research on how much their salaries should be and took note of that as well. I knew it wouldn’t be an issue to cover their costs, but I was still hopeful that the gala would really help cover all the costs for a while.

My goals were simple: get Women Helping Women up and running, staffed with the best staff available, become as financially independent of Roman’s money as possible, and help as many women as we possibly could.

I did a walk through with the first contractor that stopped by, walking him through the building to point out the things that I would like changed and what would need to be done. He took his notes and seemed eager to help. He had a kind smile and pretty quickly felt like an old friend. Like an uncle, or something. As much as I hated to make decisions before I had gone through all my options, I knew that the second contractor would really have to blow my socks off or have a crazy competitive price for me to even consider going with them.

Once the man left, I took the time to call Lori. I needed to know where we were with the gala plans so I knew what to expect.

A groggy, mopey sounding Lori picked up. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to see if you had time today to stop by and go over plans for the gala," I said, trying to keep the humor from my voice. With just three little words, I could tell my sister was hungover.

"What time is it? I’m really not sure if I can be bothered to move at all, Hannah," she groaned.

"It’s nearly noon!" I laughed. "Come on, get up and come over."

"I’m not leaving this house unless there is some food waiting for me," Lori challenged.

I put her on speaker phone and opened a food delivery app. "If you get up and shower right now, by the time you get here there will be breakfast burritos and coffees waiting for you. And Lauren, if she wants to come."

There was some distant talking and shuffling about before Lori came back on the line. "Okay, okay. We will be there shortly. I want donuts, too."

"I’ll see what I can do," I laughed.

We hung up and I placed their orders before sitting back down at my desk. There was still so much to do, and it felt overwhelming. I knew we weren’t working with a deadline or anything, but I still felt this pressure to get it off the ground just as soon as I possibly could. There were women out there who needed a service like this. The longer I took to get things operational, the longer they would have to go without.

I tried to push those thoughts aside and started working on my next list. I needed to check with Roman if he was able to contact manufacturers for me in terms of the goods we needed, I needed to contact the staffing agency about cooks for the kitchen as well as cleaning faculty, I needed purveyors for the food, and still needed to furnish the apartments. That didn’t even include the effort to go find women and get the word out there. Maybe hiring a marketing specialist for a short amount of time, just to help get things going, would be beneficial.

Soon enough, Lori and Lauren were practically crawling their way into the building. They flopped down in some chairs in my office. They were clothed in big hoodies, leggings, and sunglasses.

As promised, I had them a couple of burritos, donuts, and coffee sitting there. The combination was enough to make my stomach churn at the thought, but I could see how it would all be helpful for a hangover.

"So I talked to one of the even coordinators at the business," Lauren started between bites of her burrito, "I think they have the perfect location at the event venue next to the park downtown. There’s an opening in six weeks."

"Six weeks?" I blurted out. "Doesn’t that seem super soon? Would we be able to organize everything in time and make sure enough people know about it?"

"It’s not like I have to send out messenger pigeons," she snorted before taking another bite. "We could have successfully pulled something off for next week if we wanted to. At least now, we can do a little more dress shopping and hand select a caterer, rather than having to just narrow down which are still available."

"It’ll be fabulous," Lori commented, trying to give me a vote of confidence.

I shot her a smile, but I wasn’t so sure. However, I didn’t bother to voice my concerns. If there was anything that Thaddeus family had taught me well, was with enough money, just about anything was possible. Besides, they were the ones planning it. If they weren’t stressed, then I shouldn’t either.

As they ate, we went over some details. Caterers Lauren recommended, how many people should be invited, artists they should reach out to and see if they were willing to donate art pieces, and so on. I was happy to see that they already had a good idea of how they wanted the gala to go, it was just a matter of placing the calls and putting it all together.

They finished their food and headed back out. I got lost in more of my research until another knock came at the door.

I had been so focused on the task at hand, that I had managed to lose a few hours, which was why I was shocked to look up and see Nick and the second contractor standing in my doorway.

Just as before, we walked through the building and went over all that needed to be done. The man seemed to be a professional, but was a bit colder than the first one had been. Not in a rude way, but just different.

It caused me dismay when he handed me the quote and it was a good portion less than the first. It was something I would have to run by Roman, though I knew he would want me to go with the one I preferred and not worry about the cost.

When I walked that contractor out, I noticed it was getting dark. I couldn’t believe the day was already gone. For a moment, I reflected on just how long the days had felt when I had been at home all day by myself.

"Let’s get going, Nick," I sighed.

We headed outside and I locked up behind me.

There was the sound of a car slowly driving by and I closed my eyes. No, I wasn’t going to look. I wasn’t going to give into paranoia.

I waited for the sound to leave before I turned to head to the car. Taking a deep breath, I asked Nick to head to a restaurant so I could pick up food for Roman. I kept my face in my phone, trying my best to tune out my growing anxiety.