I could be overthinking, per usual. Pittsburgh might not be connected to that summer’s listeria outbreak at all, but my gut told me there was something there, and my gut was rarely wrong.
Driving was easier than booking a last-minute flight. Our family’s jet was under maintenance, and I didn’t want to deal with a crowded airport.
Thankfully, I’d driven to work that morning, so I didn’t need to go home to fetch my car. I texted Vivian to reschedule that night’s party-planning session and entered a new address into the GPS.
I was going to Pittsburgh.
CHAPTER 9
Sebastian
WHENEVER THINGS WERE GOING WELL, DISASTERinevitably struck.
Usually, bad news had the courtesy of waiting a month or two before it swooped in, but this time, it reared its ugly head a mere week after our collab announcement.
“I’m so sorry, Sebastian.” Derek sounded wretched, like he’d gone on a bender and hadn’t slept in days. Which was true, in a way. “I hate to leave you in the lurch like this, but I have to check into rehab tomorrow. I got my third DUI last night, and if I don’t go, I’ll end up in jail instead.”
A vein pulsed in my forehead. I gripped my phone, willing myself not to march over to his house in Jersey and shove it down his throat.
I wasn’t typically a violent person, but what. The. Fuck.
How could the clean-cut, perennially good-natured Derek havethatmany DUIs under his belt? Worse, how could I not have not known about them?
Being a chef was a high-stress job, and there was a significant rate of substance abuse in the industry. It wasn’t always obvious,but I should’ve dug deeper and investigated more before I tapped him to be the face of our new line.
We were already under the gun with the product launch, and now we were up shit creek without a paddle.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, sounding morose. “I really wish I could work on this new line, but I’ll have to be in rehab for at least a month.”
“It’s fine.”It’s not fine. “You have to do what’s best for you. I’ll figure this out.”
“Thanks. Listen, I had some ideas I was working on before, uh, you know. I can send them over in case they can help my replacement.”
His replacement. I had to convince a whole new chef to work on this project with an even tighter deadline than the first time around. Plus, Maya and I would have to brainstorm asecondannouncement that didn’t make us sound like we were in over our heads—which we were.
A throb of panic joined the pulsing vein in my forehead.
“Sure.” I forced a smile even though Derek couldn’t see me. Yelling at him wouldn’t change anything. I’d rather save my energy for convincing his successor, whoever that might be. “Email me.”
I hung up and immediately called Maya. We weren’t scheduled to meet until tomorrow, and she’d been ignoring my texts since she ran out like a bat from hell last week, but this was an emergency.
She picked up on the third ring.
“We need to move up our meeting,” I said without preamble. “We have a problem.”
“Are you joking? We lost our celebrity chef torehab?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” I watched Maya pace the lengthof our temporary office with tired resignation.
She was taking the news about as calmly as I’d expected, which was to say, not at all. She’d blown through the denial stage and jumped straight to anger.
“Okay.” She stopped pacing long enough to take a deep breath. “It’s fine. The optics will be bad, but we’ll just find a big enough replacement to overshadow the Derek news. You know, like, every chef in the world.”
There’s the bargaining stage.
“Knowing them isn’t the same as convincing them,” I said. “I already called the other names on my original shortlist. They all said no.”
“Then add other names.”
