A long silence passed between them. Monica wondered who had sent him back to her office. As soon as Gil was gone, she intended to find out and have a long talk with that individual about respecting her privacy.
Gil held a vase of roses and he stood still. His usual confidence was gone, as if he could sense that she didn’t want him there. “Can I come in?”
Monica wanted nothing more than to tear into him about the accusations his cousin had just made, but just before she opened her mouth, she remembered her parents’ advice and pushed aside the impulse to jump to conclusions.
He’d better do some pretty fancy explaining, she told herself.
Gil came in, and Monica fully expected him to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
He surprised her completely by putting the vase on her desk, then coming around to her side of the desk and bending down to give her a hug. Although at first she wanted to pull away, Monica didn’t. She rested her head on his shoulder and hoped he was being sincere. All of the old feelings she’d experienced after their break up came flooding back, and Monica realized that what she really wanted was to find a way to make sense of this whole mess.
Despite what had transpired ten years ago, and regardless of what his cousin said, the last thing she wanted was to lose him again.
“How are you?” he asked quietly, pulling away from the hug and taking a seat in a chair.
“Completely mortified. It’s not every day you make a pie so nasty that Penny Phelps spits it out on live TV.”
“I wish I’d tasted the pie last night. At least I could have warned you about it.”
Monica could tell he was sincere, and her earlier misgivings melted away. “At least you kept your promise.”
“Is there anything I can do to help remedy—” Gil was interrupted by Monica’s cell phone ringing.
Monica checked the caller ID and groaned. It was Adella. Her menu presentation was later this afternoon, and Monica didn’t know if she had the resolve to handle Adella’s personality after all that had already happened. She wondered if Gil might be willing to handle that meeting by himself. All he really had to do was show Adella a list of potential dish choices.
“Hello?”
“Monica, this is Adella.” Her tone was clipped and very somber.
Monica wondered if the room was abnormally hot, or if she was just getting nervous. “Hi, Adella. We’re still on for the meeting this afternoon? Three o’clock?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Excuse me?”
“This morning, I was awakened by several phone calls from friends who saw you on St. Louis Morning and told me I was making a big mistake to let you cater my engagement party.”
“Adella, I can explain that. We had a mix up with some ingredients, and that’s why the pie I used this morning didn’t taste right. I can assure you that nothing like that will happen for your event.”
“Well…” Adella hesitated, and Monica glanced at Gil.
He seemed to be getting the gist of the conversation, and he looked worried. Now that he was counting on this job, Monica wanted to do everything she could to make sure it didn’t get pulled out from under them.
“You do realize our contract was contingent upon you finding another company to provide the dinner menu, right?”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, and I have found a partner. We’ve actually written out several sample menus that we were going to show you this afternoon, and I think you’ll be more than happy with—”
“Hold on, that’s my other line.” Adella clicked over and left Monica on hold. But today’s music was more along the lines of contemporary jazz rather than the swoony love songs of a few days ago.
Although Adella’s frequent switching to another line annoyed her to no end, Monica took the opportunity to quickly explain the seriousness of the situation to Gil.
“I’m sorry I was such a klutz. The last thing I wanted to do was lose this job for us,” she told him.
“Don’t worry, I doubt she’ll actually fire us, because that would mean she’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”
Monica nodded in agreement. “You’re right. But now she’ll feel like she can ask for ridiculous concessions, and we’ll have to give them to her.”
Gil shrugged. “That’s the beauty of this business. The customer is always right, so you have to be willing to go the extra mile.”
“Your dad always said that,” Monica said, remembering.
“Yeah. He still does. I think it’s his motto. My mom says she’s surprised those weren’t my first words.”
Adella clicked back over. “Here’s the deal. I will be willing to reconsider if you set up a complete menu tasting for me and Byron.”
“So you’ll come in this afternoon and pick a sample menu, and then we’ll set up another date for you to taste everything?” Monica clarified.
“No, the meeting for this afternoon is cancelled. I want you to cook all of your sample menus, and then we’ll come in and taste everything and then pick the menu we want for the party.”
Monica held back a retort. There were easily sixty to seventy dishes on those sample menus. She couldn’t ask her staff to work that much overtime, and she doubted Gil wanted to ask the same of his employees.
For once, it was her turn to put Adella on hold. “Could you wait just a moment while I check on something?” she asked.
Adella agreed, and Monica put the phone on mute to discuss the situation with Gil.
“She wants us to cook every item on the sample menus, and then she’ll taste everything and decide if she still wants us for the party. Is it still worth it to you?”
“I’m in if you are.”
“If you’re in, I guess I have to be.” Monica picked up her phone again.
“Adella, I think we can arrange what you’ve requested. When would you like to schedule this tasting?”
“How about tomorrow?”
Monica sat up very straight in her chair, indignant that Adella even thought something so complicated could be arranged in a mere day. Trying to remain diplomatic, she spoke quietly. “I’m sorry, but that would be impossible for us. I was thinking more along the lines of a week from now.”
“That’s too late for me. The party is in three weeks, so if this doesn’t work out, I’ll have to find another caterer in record time.”
Monica hated to agree with Adella, but she made a lot of sense. She would feel the same way if she were in Adella’s shoes.
“Okay, I understand. Tomorrow is still impossible for us, but is there another day you would like?”
“Let me check…” Monica could hear Adella turning pages, presumably in her appointment book, and she hoped Adella would pick a reasonable time frame.
“Quite honestly, I’m really booked right now. The only other day I have is this Friday.”
“We’ll take it,” Monica said, hoping Gil would be in agreement.
“How does two o’clock sound?” Adella wanted to know.
As if I really have a choice, Monica thought. “Two o’clock is great. We’ll see you then.”
She hung up the phone and turned to Gil.
“How did it go? Did we save the deal?”
“Maybe. We’ll find out on Friday.”
“Friday? That’s three days away. I thought you were going to insist on more time.”
“It was the best I could do. She was this far from canceling the whole thing,” said Monica, holding her thumb and forefinger a mere fraction of a millimeter apart.
“Then I guess we’d better get in gear to get all of this stuff ready.”
“Yeah.” Monica pulled her planner out of her purse and started mentally noting what she would be able to put off in order to make time to get ready for the tasting. She and Gil would have to set up shop at The Pie Rack and work evenings to get the dishes ready.
This time, there would be no room for mishaps. She would taste anything that went to the table before Adella could even lay eyes on it.
Then she realized that two days from now, the crew from the TV station was coming to get footage for the “Hidden Treasures” segment. She’d planned to spend the next two days getting The Pie Rack into tip-top shape. There was no way she could have the kitchen being used as catering central with cameras coming. Everything had to be beautiful and flawless—especially after what had happened this morning. And if she were busy getting The Pie Rack to look immaculate, where would she find time to help Gil?
“Monica? What’s wrong?” he asked. “I think you just paled several shades,” he said, resting his hand on hers.
“We have a slight emergency on our hands,” she told him.