“I’m not saying we drop our guard or start planning extravagant vacations or anything just yet, but I think we can afford to loosen the reins a little bit. Take a step or two back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Do you agree?”
“Honestly?” I ask and she gives an enthusiastic nod. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She stares at me for a minute and then bursts out laughing. “Wow, okay, I suck at this.” Her hand squeezes mine before she drops it and flops back on the couch. She sits up again immediately and pats her hair, smoothing the luxurious waves. “I think we need to hire more people at the café. Business is picking up and it’s only going to get busier with the holidays coming. I know the idea freaks you out because you’re worried we can’t afford it and you also hate giving up control, so I suggest we hire a couple of people on a trial basis for the rest of October through December. If I’m right and this works out, I guarantee by January you’ll see we can keep our new employees and maybe even hire more.”
It takes me a moment to process everything she said. While I excel at the creative aspect of the business—fresh ideas for food and drinks, social media, ways to bring in customers—Marisol’s area of expertise is the actual business side, so I trust she knows what she’s talking about. Even if she’s right about it scaring me.
Before I can speak, she says, “You have to stop being afraid of success, Will. Allow good things to happen. Youdeserveto have good things happen. Stop pushing it away because you think things‘should be’a certain way. I know money has been tight and you’ve been struggling, but I also know your mom has offered to help and you won’t let her do more than little things here and there. Well, my abuela has offered me some money. I’m going to accept it and put a chunk of it into the business.”
She says all of this quickly and emphatically. When she pauses to suck in a deep breath, all I can do is blink at her. I guess I haven’t been doing as good a job at hiding my money issues as I thought. I also have a sneaking suspicion Marisol and my mother have been talking without my knowledge, considering she knows Mom has offered to help.
“We’ve both been eating, sleeping, and breathing the business,” Marisol says. “I know that’s common for people who are just starting out, but it doesn’t have to be that way for us. We can have lives outside the café.”
“You’re right,” I say faintly.
Marisol opens her mouth and then shuts it again quickly. She clearly expected me to argue and was geared up with her rebuttal. “Come again?”
“You’reright.” I poke her in the arm and she grabs my hand and holds it once more, laughing. “And you’re right about me getting caught up in thinking things need to be a certain way. I wanted us to succeed on our own, you know?”
“I get that, believe me. Having people lessen our financial burden doesn’t make us any less successful, though. We’re still the creative forces behind Cravings and we’re still the ones doing the work.Butwith a little help, we can do the workandhave a life. And you can eat stuff other than leftovers from the café.”
“You’ve noticed that, huh?” I ask, scrunching up my face.
“No judgment here, I do it too. It’s one of the perks of owning your own café.” She winks at me as she pushes to her feet, smoothing her dress over her hips and then making ‘gimme’ hands in my direction. “Now give your best friend a big kiss and wish me luck with Ted.”
After standing and hugging her tightly, I kiss both of her cheeks, then place a noisy kiss right on her lips, making her squeal with laughter. “Good luck with Ted. You look gorgeous, and I hope you have a fantastic time.” I walk with her the short distance to the front door, where she slips into her flats. Knowing her, she has a pair of sexy heels in the car she’ll change into later.
After undoing my many locks, she hesitates with her hand on the door, giving me an appraising look. “You good?”
“I’m great,” I assure her. “I heard everything you said. I’ll do my best to loosen the reins and enjoy this whole ride more.”
“And to allow good things to happen,” she prompts. “Because you deserve it.”
“Yes. That too.”
Her expression tells me she’s not quite sure if she believes me, but she nods and opens the door anyway. “We’ll work on it. Andyoudon’t work on café stuff all night. Love you.” She kisses my cheek again and steps into the hallway.
“Love you too. Have fun.”
I return to the living room and contemplate the organized chaos on my floor. While planning may be considered part of work, it’s also a creative outlet for me, which is therapeutic. When I was working at the café in Toronto, they appreciated my creative input and used most of my suggestions. Some of the ideas I came up with didn’t work with their overall aesthetic, so I kept those to myself with the hope of using them ‘someday’. That someday has arrived, and now that I have the freedom to take Cravings in any direction I want—as long as Marisol agrees, of course, which she always does—I can finally start implementing some of these plans.
I settle into my pile of cushions on the floor and pick up where I left off, jotting down ideas for events, menus, decorations, and social media posts. When my phone rings, I assume it’s Cami calling from Cravings to check in, so I’m surprised to see Gwen’s name on the screen.
“Hey, is everything okay?” I ask, skipping over pleasantries since she never calls me.
There’s a beat of silence and then she laughs. “Yeah, yeah, fine. Sorry, I know you hate talking on the phone, I just figured it’d be quicker this way.” Her voice is low and there’s a bit of an echo in the background.
“Are you in a bathroom?”
Another pause, another soft laugh. “Yes. I don’t want to be overheard, so I’m in Evan’s and my bathroom at home.” She shifts around and I picture her either sitting on the closed toilet seat or the edge of the tub. “Jasper asked if he could come to town for the weekend and I said yes, not knowing Evan had a date planned for us tonight. I don’t want to make Jasper feel bad, but Evan and I couldreallyuse the time alone.”
“Did Jasper forget the farm trip got moved to next week?” I ask.
During dinner at last week’s Fall Festival outing, Gwen mentioned to everyone what the young woman from Nansom Farms had told her, and asked how people would feel about doing the next event mid-week instead of on the weekend. I said I could, and so did Jasper, Ivy, and Hugh. Lina asked if we minded if she skipped the farm since she’s not very outdoorsy and was struggling with a deadline for her publisher. Following that, Hadley reluctantly confessed she was leaving in a few days for an impromptu trip to Europe and would be gone for the next outing, as well as Thanksgiving the following week.
“No, he remembered, I think he’s just…well…” There’s more rustling on the other end. When Gwen speaks again, her voice is even quieter than before. “Jasper’s going through something right now. He’s taken all this time off work to ‘figure some things out’, but he hasn’t opened up about any of it yet. I also think Hadley’s abrupt departure and the fact she’ll be gone for Thanksgiving has shaken him. This was going to be the Perrys first proper Thanksgiving together in years, and Jasper was really excited.”
“Poor Jasper,” I murmur. He told me last weekend he’s used to Hadley taking off without much notice. He’s happy she’s doing something she loves, and he’s used to being on his own most of the time anyway, although he enjoys having her around when sheishome. I understand him being disappointed about her missing Thanksgiving, though, especially after what he told me about still feeling emotionally distanced from his siblings.
Marisol’s words from earlier pop into my head. I know how to have fun and enjoy life, yet I haven’t made space for much of it since moving back to Bellevue. Jasper, on the other hand, has all this free time, but the concepts of relaxing and having fun are still fairly foreign to him.
Marisol’s voice whispers through my mind: ‘Allow good things to happen’. Despite my best efforts, I’ve thought about Jasper a lot this week. I was looking forward to seeing him on Tuesday for our farm outing, but the opportunity to see him sooner—and have him to myself—basically just landed in my lap.
“Ask Jasper if he’d like to hang out with me tonight.”
