Chapter 10
My visit with Miguel was quick. A sous-chef had up and quit, which meant he was filling in and looking to hire a replacement. I’d passed on his offer for a bite to eat, telling him that I’d be back later for a dinner date with Em. I left for home to take a nap, cuddling with Agatha as I snoozed. I awoke with a jolt two hours later. Waking up at four in the morning had crashed down on me like a piano falling on me from the sky. If my plan was to help Olaya more at the bread shop, which it was, I’d have to completely recalibrate my internal clock. Early to bed, early to rise.
I had time before I was to meet Em and I couldn’t sleep the day away, so I piled Agatha in my car and drove to Cambria Street. I parked by the Lutheran church, strapped Agatha into her harness, and started walking. Past a local brewery, past a new Thai restaurant, past a kitchen store filled with knickknacks I couldn’t afford and didn’t really need—but sorely wanted. The antique mini-mall was across the street. A new boutique had opened up right next to it, the juxtaposition of the old and the new a perfect example of Santa Sofia’s quirky character.
Agatha trotted along beside me, her ears back and her tail curled, two signs she was utterly content. The breeze off the ocean had kicked up, pulling strands of my hair free from my hairband. I did my best to contain them, tucking them behind my ears, as I kept walking. I approached Yeast of Eden, looking inside as I got to the awnings. I hadn’t planned on going in, but that was before I spotted Sandra Mays going into the kitchen. What was she doing here?
I stepped up to the window, cupped my hands, and peered in to get a better look. No Olaya. No Mack. Just Maggie cleaning up after what looked like a great day for the bread shop. Not a loaf or scone or baguette remained.
Maggie spotted me. Her face lit up with a smile. She threw jazz hands up, waving at me, then beckoned me in. I picked up Agatha. I couldn’t have her in the bread shop roaming around, but if I carried her in . . .
“Oh, she’s so cute!” Maggie rushed around the counter and held her hand out for Agatha to sniff. Agatha didn’t have an aggressive bone in her body. She crinkled her flat nose and licked.
“Why is Sandra here?” I asked, my voice low as if it was a whisper.
Maggie shrugged, matching my cadence. “She wanted to talk to Olaya, but she’s out sick. Crazy, right? Olaya’s never sick!”
“So why did she go into the kitchen? Is Mack here, too?”
Maggie waggled her eyebrows at me. “Look at you, calling them Sandra and Mack.”
I leaned closer, whispering like we were sharing confidences. “They’re just people, Mags.”
“But they’re celebrities! They’re on TV!”
“You’re going to be on TV, too.” I scooted behind the counter and pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen, not waiting for her to answer either of my questions.
“I heard her say she wants to film today,” Maggie called after me.
“Then Mack must be here,” I said, remembering the scene between the two of them and Mack’s stern reminder that he was the showrunner and she needed to remember her place.
“Not that I’ve seen,” Maggie said.
Oh boy. So maybe Sandra hadn’t learned her lesson. I knew show business was cutthroat, but Sandra seemed to be pushing the boundaries far and wide. The kitchen was empty. Where had she gone?
At that moment, Sandra Mays strode out of Olaya’s office. “Oh good, you’re here!” Her voice seemed to echo off the stainless steel counters.
“I am,” I said. “But why are you here? What were you doing in there?”
Sandra threw her head back and laughed. “I like you, Ivy. You say what you think. Just looking for Olaya.” Her smile dropped and she became instantly serious. “I imagine you think it’s in bad taste to be here, what with Ben’s, uh, situation, but the show, as they say, must go on. We have some excellent footage so far. We still have a lot to do, though.”
“But we don’t have the Bread for Life class tonight. And what about Mack?”
She had her cell phone in hand and quickly tapped her thumbs on the screen, composing a text. “Taehyun will be taking Ben’s place.”
“Who is Taehyun?” I asked.
As if on command, there was a quick knock on the back door. It opened and a young Korean man stepped in carrying what looked to be the same camera equipment Ben Nader lugged with him. Sandra swung her arm toward him. “Right on time. Taehyun Chu.”
The man couldn’t have been more than twenty-five. His dark hair was parted and neatly swept to one side and his long sideburns gave him a slightly edgy look. With his black coat, an open-at-the-collar white button-down, and black twill pants, he could have been ready for a night out with friends, but he was here with Sandra Mays instead, seizing the opportunity that fate had presented him with—an opening as a cameraman. I guess I didn’t blame him.
“Hey,” he said a little sheepishly and with a quick wave. “Call me Tae.”
Sandra waved her arm wide. “Taehyun has seen Ben’s footage so he’s familiar with what we’ve been doing,” she said, ignoring Tae’s request. Sandra, it seemed, wasn’t willing to give up any of her power, not even with a green cameraman. Ironic, since she insisted on being called Sandra, and not Sandy as Mack had done several times.
“But is this okay?” I asked. “What about Mack—”
Sandra spun around, eyes blazing. “We. Do not. Need. Mack.”
I grimaced from her tone, not liking the way it had turned on a dime. Sandra ran hot and cold. “Get some test shots of the kitchen,” she told Tae. An order, not a request.
Tae set up his equipment and did as he was told. His sheepishness had morphed into something else. Anxiety? Hesitation? Out-and-out fear?
Maggie came into the kitchen from the front. “Closing’s done,” she said, stopping short when she saw Tae swing so his camera was directed at her. She took a step back. “Oh, uh, sorry—”
Sandra strode to her, taking her arm before she could disappear to the front of the bread shop again. “We don’t have any tape of you,” she said. She clasped Maggie’s chin, moving it this way, then that, as if she were evaluating Maggie’s bone structure. Maybe that was exactly what she was doing. “The camera will love you,” she said.
Maggie stammered. “Oh, I, uh—”
“She’s right,” Tae said, lowering the camera and raising his eyebrows.
Maggie blushed and Tae gave her a shy smile. Ooo, a little love connection was happening right here in the kitchen of Yeast of Eden.
Sandra clapped her hands, drawing the attention back to her. “This afternoon, Tae and I are going to work on an intro and some transitions. We really don’t need you.”
It wasn’t her bread shop, so that seemed pretty ungracious.
“Your bread is amazing,” Tae said. “I came in for the first time yesterday. I’m already addicted. This is going to be a great show.”
The moment he started to speak, Sandra’s jaw tightened. “Ben did his job, Taehyun. They already know it’s going to be great,” she sniped.
Tae glanced down to avoid Sandra’s glare and Maggie’s wide eyes, but I thought I detected a faint smile on his lips. Maybe he wasn’t quite as green as I initially thought.
I hung back and watched Sandra run through an opening just like she’d done, then she and Mack had done. Take after take, she changed her words around, changed the cadence of her voice, changed where she stood.
“I think we have it,” Tae said.
I could see the blood boiling just under the surface, but before Sandra could put Tae in his place, her phone rang. She took the call, immediately putting on a “phone” voice. “Tammy! Any news?”
As she listened, her expression shifted and her tone grew serious. Real. “So I heard.”
Tammy, on the other end of the line, said something, and Sandra replied. “Ben has always said, choices have consequences—”
She stopped abruptly. Listened. Turned her back on us. “You’ll let me know how he’s doing, won’t you?” she said, then followed up with a curt, “Great. Talk to you later.”
“Is everything okay?” I asked as I adjusted Agatha in my arms. I couldn’t put her down in the kitchen. Pugs had two layers of hair and shed a lot. A. Lot. I was not going to risk dog hair in a single bit of Olaya’s bread.
“That was Ben’s wife. There’s no change.”
“Do you know her well?” I asked. “Is there anything we can do for her?”
“Ben will be fine, and Tammy needs to be strong. She’s scared, that’s all.”
So Sandra was a tough love kind of woman. I wondered what she’d meant when she’d said that choices have consequences. Definitely not sympathetic words to lift up the spirits of a scared wife whose husband was in the hospital in a coma.