NOT AT THAT PRICE

In town on the phone getting it in the ear, fair play, when I saw Trip walk past carrying what looked like a plastic see-through folder and an envelope, both A4, under his arm. I followed him down the steps alongside House of Fraser on to the Horsefair, through the Arcade and out the far end I lost him.
I finished talking on the phone then gave him a call.
‘You’re in town,’ I said when he answered.
‘Where are you?’ he said. ‘At home?’
‘No, I’m I town too. You want to meet?’
We sat in the post office waiting for his number, 418, to be called and then walked back up Stokes Croft on our way to case Cafe Kino.
‘It’s not ideal, is it?’ he said.
The two rooms downstairs are divided by a thick wall and connected by an open doorway too narrow for a performer or performers to play to both sides without blocking the passage of customers.
From Kino’s we went to Zazu’s that advertised parties/celebrations bookings. We spoke to the manager who came up from downstairs to talk to us.
‘Haven’t we met before?’ he said to me.
‘Yes,’ i said. ‘On Dove Street over a year ago...before you began work on this place.’
We liked the space had a built in sound system but, ‘We’ll bring our own,’ said Trip.
‘Start with the cheapest option and work your way up,’ I said.
‘The Bishop of Bristol had a party here,’ he said of one of the catered.
Outside, on Thomas Street, towards the estate I said, ‘The only way we can make that work...’
‘We can’t make that work,’ said Trip. ‘Not at that price.’