Admitting she needed Leah’s help was hard.Typing it was easier.As she waited for the text to be answered, she opened the program that contained her to-do list and took a fortifying sip of coffee.
The second she’d finished her drink, the phone buzzed.
She picked it up, prepared to answer the incoming text, but it was a call from her cousin.
“Hello?”
“What did your text say?”asked Leah, ever to the point, unwilling to miss an instance where she could give her the business.“I would like to hear yousaywhat you texted me, Naomi.”
And because this call would take twice as long if she refused her cousin’s request, she pulled herself together and said it.“Leah, I need help.”
“Not enough, but it will do,” Leah replied.“Tell me what you need.And then I’ll see what I can do to help you.”
“With the preface of you know nothing, I told you nothing, and you are telling your sister nothing.”
“This is going to be a favor with extra compensation, I see,” Leah replied, making the very yummy Kona blend coffee turn to acid in Naomi’s stomach.“But tell me.Though as I’m dating one of the people who’d contracted services to Judith’s wedding, I have a feeling I might know what you need from me.”
Of course.The first indication that something had gone terribly wrong had, in fact, come from Leah’s boyfriend.“You might.This is what happened.”
And as Naomi went through the specifics of what had happened with Ida, leaving out the very specific details surrounding the hot man who was sleeping in her bedroom, Leah didn’t say anything, which wasn’t exactly worrying because Leah was someone who usually preferred to digest the whole story before answering things.“So yeah,” Naomi said.“that’s what happened, which leads me to what I need.”
“Yes?”
“I need a contract.For contractors.For events.”
There was an extended pause and Naomi wondered what the heck was going through her cousin’s head.Or more specifically, what kind of teasing she would be in store for once she’d made the ask.
“For a new entity?”
Naomi nodded, knowing her cousin couldn’t see it anyway.“An already registered new entity.”
“An already registered new entity called?”
“NN Events.”
“Excellent.Because I could have sworn I had a conversation with someone months ago about the importance of having an LLC set to go, hmmm?”
Naomi sighed.“I have it set to go, Leah,” she said as she hoped the contents of her coffee cup would give her strength.“I just don’t have the contracts, because I never really did much beyond set it up.”
“Yes,” Leah said.“After the January incident, things with Ida went back to what passed for normal; she’d given you her version of help as you went through the crisis of the caterer and then things continued.You had Ida and security and that was fine with you.And now you’re scrambling because she dropped you like a hot potato when she was finished with you.”
This had been yet another reason why she didn’t like talking about the woman who had been her boss with other people; none of them liked her.None of them liked the way her former boss had treated her or ran her business.
Maybe what they’d said had been true.
But just like the situation with the hot man in her bedroom, this wasn’t the time to start analyzing her relationship with her former boss—not with Leah and definitely not with herself.“Either way, no matter what you thought about Ida or how I handled her, the bottom line and most important name to think about right now is Judith’s.I need help, and if you can’t or won’t help me, that’s fine.Just say so.”
“Oh, I can help you,” Leah replied.“But as I said, it’s going to cost you.”
“What?”
“I assume you want Samuel to sign?”
“Yes,” Naomi replied.“I want him to sign a contract with the new LLC.”
“And you want him not to tell anybody about what he’s signing and why?”
Naomi nodded.“Yes.”
