“Apparently not,” Erik said flatly. “I’ve called at least twelve different caterers, and they’re all booked up. It’s just too late notice for that many people.”
“You can always order pizza,” Zelda said while chowing down on her personal, gourmet meal. “They should just be grateful to have any free food at all.”
At this comment, Erik looked visibly annoyed but held back. “I promised the building a full Italian spread, and that’s what they’re getting. They’ve had their homes torn up from the outside for six months now, and the project’s completion is something to celebrate — properly.”
Zelda put her hands up in mock defense. “I get it, I get it. Jeez,” she sighed, taking another bite.
“Why don’t you ask Cierra to help?” Elliot said. “She can obviously do anything.” He looked at Cierra somewhat expectantly. “Surely, you’ve been in this situation before?”
“Uh, well—” Cierra began. Technically, she hadn’t.
And she didn’t have plans. But catering jobs like this were always four times the amount of work they seemed to be, in her experience. Then she remembered her ten-thousand dollar monthly stipend.
“I could help. But isn’t that the same night as Elliot’s birthday dinner?”
“That’s fine, we can manage, right honey?” Elliot asked his wife.
“Sure,” Zelda said in a flat voice. “I guess.”
“Really?” Erik said, his hazel eyes lighting up with hope. “You’d really be able to do that?”
“If Zelda and Elliot are cool with it, I don’t see why not.”
“Obviously, my company would pay you the same as the caterers. And I’d even help! Like, a sous chef or something. Oh my god,” Erik said, letting out a sigh of relief. “You have no idea how much you’ll be helping me out. I had no clue what I was gonna do.” He looked at Cierra with an expression that simultaneously carried a bit of guilt and gratitude.
Cierra cocked her head and smiled. “It’s no problem at all. We can go over details tomorrow? Make a plan?”
“Isn’t it wonderful how things in life can just work out?” Elliot said, beginning to stand up.
“Says the man married to a business magnate,” Erik teased. But then he looked at Cierra, and with a softer voice, said, “But, yeah, sometimes we get lucky.”
As Erik helped Cierra shop for the event and prep, true to his word, they were driving along Fifth Avenue when they passed an ornate skyscraper. Erik pointed and looked up in awe. “Can you imagine how much it cost to build that thing? How much square footage must be in there?”
Cierra glanced quickly, but was absorbed in double-checking the proportions of all the ingredients and catering supplies they needed to grab. “No clue. What’s your guess?”
“Hmm. Let’s say forty-five stories, each roughly thirty-thousand feet per story, that puts it at”—his brows furrowed as he calculated—“one point three five million square feet at least. What’s yours?”
Cierra looked at him, baffled. Guess he wasn’t lying about being in construction. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“And you know, a lot of that space is gonna go completely unused, too. It’ll get bought up. Used as an investment by rich people. Even though there are thousands of families who desperately could use it.” He shook his head, and Cierra placed her phone in her lap, now fascinated by Erik’s intentness.
“You seem pretty upset about this,” Cierra remarked.
“There’s so many people who work full time and can barely make rent. And then you have these massive residential buildings, and even though they could be affordable — sorry, I’m ranting. It just gets to me.”
Thinking about her recent run-in with the rental market, she agreed with Erik’s point. “How do you know so much about this? I knew rent was expensive, but not all that.”
“Once upon a time I used to work on those projects, on the corporate side,” Erik said with a somewhat regretful sigh. “Butnow, I mostly work with older buildings. Fixing what’s already there.”
“Do you like it?”
“Oh yeah, no doubt about that. I mean, it doesn’t pay the same, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Cierra smiled, thinking about her own job.
“What about you?” he asked. “I mean, I guess you kind of have to say you like it. But pretend I wasn’t me. Now go.”
Cierra laughed. “I love my job. I’ve always loved cooking. Really, that’s the truth. I actually used to work in corporate, too. So, I feel you on the pay cut,” she chuckled. “This event tonight, what’s it for again?”
“Well, our major renovation business has been so profitable, my business partner and I were thinking of ways we could give back. Last year, we started our first partnership with a housing development that needed upgrading but couldn’t afford to do so on its own.”
