But an experienced planner like her?She wasn’t going to be shaken by the state of the cutlery.Something else would make her do that.
What?
And all of a sudden, she was getting closer.Like a shark…he wanted to see.
“Hi,” she said.
Her voice was shaking.He bit his tongue.“Hi,” he managed.
“Can we…talk?”
He nodded but gestured toward the piles of table settings.“You want to help?”
He didn’t think she’d say yes, but she was a professional.
And she nodded, looking at the table and grabbing the necessary elements for the setting.“I want to apologize,” she said.
“Well,” he said, “you’ll have to wait.”
She blinked.“What?”
“I have something to say to you.”
The words were difficult to get out of him, practically impossible.
“Okay?”
She was hesitant, as this was a situation that was slightly outside of her comfort zone.Wasn’t exactly a cup of tea for him either.But he was going to do this because he didn’t like feeling this way around her; on edge, waiting for the pins to prick his feet.
“You said something to me a while ago, and I may have blustered right over you.And that was unfair.The thing you made me realize was, and let me finish, that you were, in fact, under our prior arrangement, acting as my business caretaker.Which was ridiculously unfair to you…”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to.”
“But I should never have asked you in the first place.Which is where we need to start.”
“Okay?”
“Here’s the thing.I have a new proposition for you, and I will preface it by saying that it comes with me.It comes with, you know, all of the ridiculous weird and strange things I’ve got in my life, including the possibility of being deeply involved in the knish business.”
“What?”
Jason continued, “Between the two of us, which of us is slowly edging into the middle of a family business that employs many people and has a great name in the food world?And I’ll give you a hint, it isn’t you.”
“But I thought you didn’t want anything to do with the business?”
“One of the many things that’s changed.”
“How?”
“Because I don’t want any part of the business like it isnow.But if they were to, like so many other heritage businesses, add a thing I would like to call aCatering Division, I would not only like to be part of that, but I wouldalsowant, you know, the best event planner in the world, and no I’m not exaggerating, to give right of first refusal for her services to this division.And that would include at least one person on staff to answer phones for her, so she can plan and not babysit.”
She blinked, and he wondered what she was thinking.“You’d do that?”
He nodded.“I would.I’d risk it all and ask for something like that.Because you risked everything to help me prove I didn’t need a caretaker, when the reality was that all I needed was you.And more importantly, if I wasn’t demonstrating how much I valued your skills, why should my relatives who are stuck in the fifties?”
He continued.“What do you say?”
*
