Pierre seemed interested in buying me out. I was shocked. Why would he even want this restaurant? He never helped do the work. In fact, as I found out later, he never got his TABC certification, never got his Food Manager certification, never even got his Food Handler certification. Clearly, he had no intention of being involved. Pierre never put in his seed money, never stood up to protect our profits, never fully engaged in marketing our bar. Why in the world would he want to take over ownership and management?

Millions of questions started bouncing through my brain. Was Pierre a con man? Did he lure me in with the idea of having me front the startup costs of the cafe and bar? Was Todd actually his partner in a good cop/bad cop game to get as much money from me as possible as they pushed me to quit? Was Max in on it, too? Am I the biggest idiot on the planet? Do I have an ‘idiot’ sign taped to my forehead?

Cyber Monday, I went to the bank and took Pierre off of the cafe checking account. After all my stupidity, I didn’t want my story to end, ‘then Pierre emptied the bank account and disappeared.’ For once in my life, I did something right.