Full Circle (8 page)

“I am from
Peru.” He spoke quietly but proudly. “And my family is of Spanish descent.”

Bella nodded
silently and took a sip from the coffee. He seemed all right. And Randy hadn’t
chased him away...that was in his favor. “The television coverage was in response
to a story in People magazine. Apparently Kristy Brannon likes our clothes.
That was the entertainment channel.”

Rafael raised
his eyebrows.

“You don’t
know who Kristy Brannon is, I take it.” It was more of a statement than a
question.

“I’ve been here
less than a month.”

Bella took a
large gulp of coffee. “Her mother’s in a top-rated television program, but she
gets almost as much press as her mother because of her clothes.”

“This is a
little girl?”

Bella made a
face. “Crazy, huh? But that’s the way it is.”

“So this is
good for your business?”

Bella thought
for a moment. “It was doing pretty well already, but since Wednesday, it’s just
exploded.” She sighed. “I’m not sure how we’re going to handle it all.”

“That’s what
I wanted to talk to you about.”

She gave him
a sharp look. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your
business. When I spotted you the first day, I sensed that you had something
special. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about expanding your business.” He
glanced toward the stand, where Sofia was starting to put things away. “Could I
take you and Sofia out to dinner and we could discuss it?”

“Oh, no.”
Bella shook her head. “I’ve been working here all day. I’m tired and grubby and
I need a shower.” She stood up and finished off the remaining coffee, then
tossed the cup in the nearby garbage. Rafael looked at her with alarm. “Come
on” she said, and relief flooded his face. “Let’s go and see what Sofia has to
say.”

Bella stood
by as Rafael made his pitch. Sofia listened silently while continuing to pack
up. She unhooked the sign, took it down, and looked at it thoughtfully.

“We have to
pick up our daughters,” she said after a moment. “And we’re both tired right now.
But if you give us a couple of hours to feed our daughters and get organized,
you could stop by the house.” She looked at Bella. “We might as well hear what
he has to say.”

* * *

When Rafael
showed up two hours later, he was wearing a crisp white shirt with the neck
open and the sleeves rolled up. Beautifully tooled leather boots were visible
beneath faded jeans. He looked like a model in
GQ
. Bella wondered if
she’d be able to concentrate on what he was saying. They sat in an informal
group on the porch.

“I should
tell you about myself,” he began. “I come from Lima, where my family has been
in the textile business for many years. I’ve been working in and around the
mills all my life, and I only recently realized that there’s nothing new for me
to learn. I wanted to expand into fashion, but my father, who’s still in
control, wouldn’t hear of it.” He spoke calmly, but Bella sensed underlying
frustration.

“His
objection was that if we expanded into fashion, we would be competing against
our present customers, and that they would stop buying from us. While that may
be true in a few cases, I couldn’t make him see that markets are expanding.” He
gave a wry smile. “I mean no disrespect to my father, but the term ‘global
markets’ means nothing to him. He simply can’t conceive of selling our product
in Asia, for example, or Europe. I realize that e-commerce is in its infancy,
but now’s the time to take advantage of that, and jump in with both feet.”

He sat back
and took a sip of lemonade. “The result was that I decided to come to America.
I spent three years at Harvard and there’s something about the American entrepreneurial
spirit that’s fresh and exciting.” He looked from Sofia to Bella. “And your
stand at Venice Beach confirmed what I’ve always believed to be true. With hard
work and vision you can succeed.” He sat back and gave a short, dry laugh. “I
apologize if I sound over-eager, but that’s the way I feel.”

Bella leaned
forward. “So what do you want with us?”

He didn’t
hesitate. “I want to help you expand.” He looked around the small house.
“Where’s your production facility?”

“We don’t
have one.” Sofia spoke proudly. “We farm out our assembly on a piece-work
basis.”

He nodded.
“How much time each week do you spend running around, delivering and picking
up?”

“Too much”
Sofia acknowledged. “And now...” she threw up her hands.

Rafael leaned
forward, elbows on his knees. “What you need is a location where you can set up
your entire production facilities.” His gaze darted from Sofia to Bella. “Who does
your designing, chooses your fabric, takes care of ordering, makes patterns,
handles the cutting, orders all the miscellaneous supplies, does the one
thousand and one things necessary to produce the volume you need, let alone
what you’ll soon need?”

They
exchanged looks. “We do,” said Bella. “But to be honest, we’re not sure how
much longer we can keep it up.” She looked almost sheepish. “I work, and
Sofia’s on a widow’s pension, but we don’t have the kind of money it would take
for an expansion of that nature.”

Rafael
slapped his thigh. “That’s where I come in. If we could work out some sort of
an agreement, I’d supply the money for expansion.” He looked from one to the
other. “After all, you two had the initial concept. I’d have to put in
something.”

“We’d have to
think about it,” said Sofia cautiously, “but there’s something that concerns
me.”

Bella and
Rafael turned to her.

“Most of my
workers have small children. Even if they could afford day care, I don’t think
they’d want to leave their children. We’d probably have to find new production
staff but I really don’t want to do that. They’ve been loyal to us and we feel
the same toward them.”

Rafael
thought quickly. “Have you been paying them cash?”

Sofia nodded.

“Are they
legal?”

Sofia nodded
again. “Yes, most of them. The others, I’m helping with the paperwork.”

“Then that’s
fine.” Rafael grinned. “They’re one of your most important resources, and I’ve
always believed in treating people well. We could hire a lawyer to handle the
immigration business.” He glanced at Sofia. “That will free up more of your
time. As for the children, we’ll find a place big enough to set up our own
daycare facility. They’ll have to start paying tax on their income, but we’ll
create such a great environment that they’ll be happy to come to work.”

Sofia beamed
her approval. “That solves a lot of problems. Maybe we can also offer English
classes. Some of them need help.”

“We can do
that too.” His eyes gleamed with enthusiasm. “I know I’ve given you a lot to
think about, so I’ll leave now, but if it’s okay with you, I’ll come back
tomorrow evening.” He turned to Bella. “Where do you work, if you don’t mind me
asking?”

“In a fabric
store.”

“Aha. You’ve
made some excellent choices, but with your permission I’ll start sourcing some
new suppliers. Even if we don’t come to an agreement, I’ll pass on the
information.”

“This all
sounds interesting, but won’t we over-produce?” Bella gave a wry smile. “Right
now, I’m concerned about making enough garments to see us through next week,
but if we got into full production we’d have far more than we could sell at the
market three days a week.”

Rafael’s eyes
glittered. “You’re right, of course. I wasn’t going to go into that tonight,
but we’d have to choose our options carefully. There are two, mainly.”

“And they
would be?” Bella was amazed that he’d thought this far ahead.

It was as
though he’d read her mind. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about this while I
was waiting to talk to you two. Your first option is distribution through
retail outlets.” He paused. “There are a dozen variations on that, none of
which are perfect, but they get your product out there.”

Bella sensed
that he’d left the best for last. “And the other?”

“We’d open
our own retail outlet.”

“What, just
one?” She’d meant it as a joke, but the look in his eyes brought her up short.

“In the
beginning, yes.” He spread his hands. “But California’s a big state. The United
States is a big country.”

“Oh, My God.”
Bella sat back in her chair and studied him openly. He was gorgeous, no doubt
about that. Gorgeous, elegant, and every woman’s dream. But deep inside he
harbored a desire to succeed that equalled her own, and that made him even more
exciting. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

He looked
from Bella to Sofia, then back again. “Yes.”

His eyes held
hers and she gripped the arms of her chair. That one, simple word spoke
volumes. Once in, he wouldn’t stop until they reached the top rung. Bella
didn’t kid herself; it would be hard work, there would be struggles, but they
would make it. Her dream would come true.

But at what
price? She dropped her eyes. If she and Sofia were to become partners with
Rafael Vargas, she had to stop viewing him as an attractive man. As partners,
there could be nothing between them but business. She took a deep breath and looked
up.

“As you said,
you’ve given us a lot to think about.” She turned to Sofia. “Do you have any
more questions for Mr. Vargas?”

“Please, call
me Rafael.” He grinned at Sofia. “Or Rafa, if you prefer.”

Sofia stood
up. “No questions from me.” She looked at Bella.

“Nor me.” Bella
stood up and extended a hand. “Until tomorrow evening, then.”

Bella watched
him go through the gate and walk down the street to where he’d parked his car.
It was dark now and his hair shone under the streetlights. He was a different
man to the one she’d first spotted at the market...cool, handsome and
infinitely appealing. Back then, she’d dared to dream of the possibility of
romance. She sighed softly. In the space of a few hours her dreams had taken a
sharp turn in the other direction, and they didn’t include romance.

It was what
she wanted...what she’d worked for ever since she left Willow Bend...wasn’t it?

The two
friends sat on the porch after Rafael left, lost in thought. Sofia finally rose
and took a few weary steps toward the front door. She opened the door and
golden light spilled onto the porch. “Can you take tomorrow off?” she asked,
turning back to where Bella sat in the dark. “We need to talk, but too much has
happened and I can’t think straight.”

“I was just
thinking the same thing. We can talk things over while I do some cutting.” She
glanced at her watch. “I’ll call Graham right now and tell him I won’t be in.”

* * *

“I’m probably
repeating myself” said Bella the next morning, “but everything has happened so
quickly it doesn’t seem real.”

Sofia nodded.
She looked tired, worn down...not her usual bright, up-beat self. “It seems too
good to be true” she said, gathering the offcuts from Bella’s work and cutting
them into strips which would be made into scrunchies. “But we can’t deny the
fact that Rafa’s offer comes at the precise moment we need help.”

“That’s true.”
Bella carefully laid the cut pieces aside and started to lay out more fabric.
“But I’m not sure if I want him as a partner.” She paused and looked over at
Sofia. “Does that sound crazy?”

“Not at all.”
Sofia got up and helped Bella smooth out the layers of fabric. “From the way he
was talking, he’d want a legal agreement.” She smiled across the table. “Not
like us; we never even shook hands.”

Bella smiled,
acknowledging their informal partnership. “True again, but then he’s talking
about taking this to a whole new level.”

Sofia
frowned. “You’ve seen the figures recently. Do you think we could make enough
profit to support three partners?”

Bella continued
to lay out pattern pieces, but there was an underlying current of excitement in
her response. “Yes. I think we could do very well.”

“Hmmm. I’m
still not sure if I want a full partner, but without his money, we couldn’t
expand.” Sofia started to label and bundle the cut pattern pieces. “What if we
borrowed his money...all legally documented of course...and agreed to work with
him for a set period. I don’t know how long, a year maybe. He would have some
sort of a title and take a salary. After that time, if we all agree he could
buy in and become a full partner.”

Bella looked
up, not trying to hide her surprise. “Boy, you’re more than just a pretty face,
aren’t you?”

Sofia flushed
at the compliment. “Does it sound like something he’d consider?”

Bella raised
her shoulders. “I don’t know, but it’s the best solution yet. Why don’t we see
what he says tonight?”

* * *

Rafael
listened to their proposal with a faint smile. Bella had wondered if he’d be
angry, but could detect no sign that they’d offended him.

He held up a
hand when they’d finished. “Let me just think about this for a moment” he said,
then sat perfectly still, his eyes fixed on some distant point. When he finally
moved, he smiled. “I have to admit” he said, “I didn’t like the idea at first,
but it has merit. It gives us all a chance to see how this new arrangement is
going to work. The only thing I would like to change is your plan for me to
loan you the money.”

Bella’s heart
sank. Was he going to make some sort of stipulation that would squelch the
deal?

“We’ll draw
up a business plan, take it to the bank, and let
them
loan you the
money. I’ll guarantee it, of course. That way, if after a year we find that our
partnership isn’t working, you’ll have a track record with the bank and you
won’t lose your financial backing.” He stood up and held out his hand. “Ladies,
we have a deal.”

Bella
realized she’d been holding her breath. “All right!” she said, giving his hand
a vigorous shake. “Now let’s get to work.”