“That woman is a piece of work. I don’t know if she’s a bigot, or just bored, but I’m going to lose my patience with her one of these days. Yesterday she stopped by right in the middle of the lunch service to interrogate me on whether I got my ingredients locally.” He shook his head, his mouth flattening. “I laughed in her face, because seriously. I told her, ‘Lady, I source locally as much as possible, but I would have a hard time finding plantains and yucca at local farms don’t you think?’ And the fucking nerve, too. Her son buys his shit at Costco and she’s coming to my business when it’s full of people to try to show me up. You’d think she’d leave me alone now that her son has the Ergos gig, but no.” Since they’d asked Nesto to stop coming, we’d seen the grilled cheese truck there on his regular nights. “It’s like she won’t be happy until I close up shop and leave town.”
Nesto worked so hard, and he was so good at what he did. As I looked at him, leaning on my counter, his usually happy face ashen with worry, I felt dread, too.
I didn’t want him to leave.
I walked over to him, put my arms around his waist and tried to keep my voice steady when I spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me about that?”
He lifted a shoulder. “I don’t want you getting into something with her and then her coming for your project even more than she already has. I can handle it, Jude.”
I wanted to push, beg him to let me help him with this. “I wish you’d let me tell our director about what she’s doing. She already asked me once if Misty had a problem with me.” He opened his mouth to say something, but I held my hand up. “I didn’t say anything to her.”
He exhaled loudly and closed his eyes for a second in a gesture I now knew was his way of grounding himself when he was exasperated.
He leaned his hands on the counter for a few seconds, then lifted his head and sighed. “I’ve got to get going and talking about Misty will just get us both worked up. But I’ll see you tomorrow, right? You have to come and tell me how the meeting goes. Even though I know you’re going to kick ass.”
“I wish I had your confidence. I’m a wreck in front of people.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe you. You’ll have them eating out of your hands like you did to me when you told me about the project the first time.”
I pulled back a little and narrowed my eyes. “That’s because you wanted to get into my pants.”
He touched his tongue to his top lip, and it was all I could do to not go in for another kiss.
“Okay, that might’ve been a part of it, but I also think your project is legit and it will be an amazing resource for the kids. There’s no way the board won’t see that, too.”
“Unless Misty decides to hijack the meeting and wrecks the whole thing.”
He grimaced at that. “I’m sure they’re not that gullible. Besides, I know you can stand up to her.”
chapter thirteen
jude
“You’re cut off. No more caffeine for you.” Carmen grabbed the coffee mug on my desk and walked away with it. It was only seven-twenty and I’d already had three cups, which was not a good move on my part. Too much coffee and I were not a good mix.
Carmen shook her head at me. “Hon, you totally got this. I’ve never seen someone prepare this much for a presentation. You got great feedback from the board when you sent them your proposal. I know it’s nerve-racking, but you’re going to do great.”
Rationally I knew she was right, but I was still nervous. “I feel like if I screw this up, I won’t get another chance.” I sat at my desk, trying to slow down my mind. Above my head I heard Carmen sigh and walk quickly to close the door to our office. She didn’t say a word, letting me work on calming down.
After a minute I opened my eyes and felt more relaxed. Carmen was right. I was prepared. All I could do was go in there and do my best at making a case for my mobile library. Just as I was about to gather my stuff to start walking to the conference room, my phone vibrated with an incoming text. A message from Nesto popped up on the screen.
Good luck in your meeting. You got this!
I sighed and smiled as I quickly texted back a thank you then I stood up, feeling a thousand times better.
Carmen laughed as she walked with me. “So I get up at the crack of dawn to go get you the good coffee and a sandwich, and you’re still a mess, but one text from Nesto is all you need to get your head in the game,” she scoffed. “Malagradecido.”
I laughed as we walked into the conference room. “How am I ungrateful? I said thank you like ten times!”
“Just saying, my sandwich didn’t get you smiling like that.”
“Duh. Here, help me put out these packets with the handouts in front of everyone’s chair. I’ll set up the PowerPoint. People are going to start to come in any minute now.”
“Fine, but I’m going to have to talk to Nesto about this.”
I rolled my eyes at her and pointed to the table indicating she needed to get to work. We got everything arranged and were sitting down as the first board members andMartha walked in with Misty not too far behind.
As soon as Martha saw me, a big smile appeared on her face. “Jude, I’m so excited for this presentation.”
