Falling for the Secret Millionaire by Kate Hardy Read Free Book Online Page B

this is excellent. Thank you.’
    â€˜Pleasure.’ He inclined his head.
    Enough pleasantries, she decided. This was business, so they might as well save some time and cut to the chase. ‘So, what are these mutual interests you wanted to discuss?’ she asked.
    â€˜Our businesses are next door to each other. And they’re both works in progress,’ he said, ‘though obviously the hotel renovation is quite a bit further on than the cinema.’
    â€˜Are you thinking mutual customers?’
    â€˜And mutual parking.’
    His eyes really were sharp, she thought. As if they saw everything.
    â€˜Are you really going to run the place as a cinema?’ he asked.
    She frowned. ‘Why would I discuss my business strategy with a competitor?’
    â€˜True. But, if you are going to run it as a cinema, I’m not sure you’ll manage to make it pay, and it’s not going to be good for my business if the place next door to me is boarded up and looks derelict,’ he said bluntly. ‘Most people would choose to take the Tube into the West End and go to a multiplex to see the latest blockbuster. One screen doesn’t give your customers a lot of choice, and you’ll be competing directly with established businesses that can offer those customers an awful lot more.’
    â€˜That all depends on the programming.’ She’d been researching that; and she needed to think about whether to show the blockbusters as they came out, or to develop the Electric Palace as an art-house cinema, or to have a diverse programme with certain kinds of movies showing on certain nights.
    â€˜With your background in banking—’ well, of course he’d checked her out and would know that ‘—obviously you’re more than capable of handling the figures and the finance,’ he said. ‘But the building needs a lot of work, and restoring something properly takes a lot of experience or at least knowing who to ask.’
    â€˜It’s been boarded up for the last five years. How would you know the place needs a lot of work?’ she asked.
    â€˜Because if you leave any building without any kind of maintenance for five years, there’s going to be a problem,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘Anything from damp caused by the tiniest leak in the roof that’s built up unnoticed over the years, through to damage from mice or rats. None of it will be covered by insurance—assuming that there was any premises insurance in place at all while it was closed—because that kind of damage counts as a gradually operating cause.’
    There was definitely insurance in place. That was the first thing she’d checked. But she also knew he had a point about uninsured damage. And she’d noticed that he was using legal terms as if he was very, very familiar with even the tiniest of small print. She’d need to be very careful how she dealt with him.
    â€˜And then there’s the state of the wiring and the plumbing,’ he continued. ‘Even if the rats and mice have left it alone, the cabling’s probably deteriorated with age, and do you even know when it was last rewired? For all you know, it could still be nineteen-fifties wiring and it’d need replacing completely to make it safe. Without safe wiring, you won’t get public liability insurance or any of the business licences you need.’
    Just when she thought he’d finished, he continued, ‘And then there’s lead piping. Unless your water pipes have been completely replaced since the nineteen-sixties, there’s a good chance you’ll have lead piping. You’ll need to get that replaced—just as we’re having to do, next door.’
    She didn’t have a clue when the wiring had last been done, or even how to check what its current state was like, or how to check the water pipes. ‘That’s precisely why I’m having a survey done,’ she