かもしれない usage question

Question

I'm having trouble parsing the second sentence said by B below:

A:「先生の仕事を始めましたね。どうですか？」

B:「先生は辞めました。ゴールデン街でお店を持てるかもしれないからです！」

The first sentence seems pretty clear to me (I quit my job as a teacher), but I'm not sure I'm fully understanding the grammar of the second sentence. My best guess is something like:

"It might be because I can have a store/bar at Golden Gai."

Some questions:

(1) I have seen in past threads here that「かもしれない」can be translated as "might be", but it seems strange to me that you would express uncertainty about why you quit a job. Is this the correct interpretation here? Or is the the uncertainty actually about whether or not B can have a store in Golden Gai?

(2) What is the best way to interpret「持てる」in this context? Is it that B will own/manage a bar? Or that they will work at a bar? Or that they're being treated well at a bar?

Answer 1

(1) I have seen in past threads here that「かもしれない」can be translated as "might be", but it seems strange to me that you would express uncertainty about why you quit a job. Is this the correct interpretation here? Or is the the uncertainty actually about whether or not B can have a store in Golden Gai?

It's the latter - B might be able to 持つ a store in Golden Gai. Actually, かもしれない in this case is more of the possibility to 持つ, rather than the possibility not to 持つ.

Let's dissect the two sentences. The first one:

先生は辞めました。

means, (I) quit (being) a teacher. The second one:

ゴールデン街でお店を持てるかもしれないからです！

Because (I) might 持つ a store in Golden Gai.

I think it's clear now why B quit being a teacher, and that's because of the possibility of 持つ a store.

(2) What is the best way to interpret「持てる」in this context? Is it that B will own/manage a bar? Or that they will work at a bar? Or that they're being treated well at a bar?

持てる is the potential form of 持つ. 持つ, in the case of the store here could either mean the following.

1. Owning a store
2. Owning and managing a store

It's not just working at a store or being treated well at one - there are no clues to either of these in the sentences. Anyway, so going back to ゴールデン街でお店を持てるかもしれない, it either means:

1. B might be able to own a store in Golden Gai
2. B might be able to own and manager a store in Golden Gai

I think it depends on what B really mean by 持てる whether it's 1 or 2, but it should be safe to assume that B is not just managing it for someone else who actually owns it. It will be off topic to discuss this, but you could Google the difference between 経営者 (manager) and オーナー (owner).