“Please, Ms. Muriel?—”
I was about to start begging her to come today when she interrupted me.
“I do see here your past inspections have been satisfactory. I may be able to squeeze you in at the end of the day.” The utter desperation in my voice must’ve gotten to her. “I can come out around four. Does that work?”
Today would be a wash, but at least I still had a chance to do the festival. My head felt hot from the panic of the last five minutes.
“Yes, sure. Four is fine. Thank you.” I kept my voice cordial when I answered. Staying on this woman’s good side was a top priority.
“Okay, I’ll be there then.”
I ended the call and turned to see Jude and Carmen walking toward my car. I opened the door and got out, noticing Jude’s face was red and that he looked furious.
I slumped against the car as he approached me. “Someone filed a complaint against the truck; they said my food made them sick. I can’t open until the inspector comes, so that means no lunch service and possibly no festival. Fuck.” I stopped talking because I was about to cry from sheer helplessness.
Jude moved closer to me, then looked at Carmen. “See, I told you she’d pull something. God she’s unbelievable.”
Carmen looked pissed, too.
“Please tell me this isn’t about Misty.”
Jude shook his head like he was figuring out where to start. “We just stopped by the truck to tell you about the meeting with the board and found Ari and Yin looking frazzled. They said you were talking to an inspector about an issue with the truck.” He looked so heated, even in this moment of panic, seeing him this pissed off on my behalf made my chest all warm.
“So why do you think any of this has to do with Misty?” His mouth flattened at the mention of her name.
“She was in rare form at the meeting today, especially after Martha shut her down for being horrible about my presentation. She was all smug and cryptic afterwards. I knew she would do something like this. I’m going to tell Martha.”
I tried to keep my cool, because I had a long day ahead and I didn’t want to add a fight with Jude to an already shitty situation.
“Jude, please, I don’t want you getting involved in this. I don’t want this affecting your job. This has nothing to do withyou.” As soon as the last part came out of my mouth I knew I’d made a mistake. Jude’s back went up, and he looked mortified.
Fuck.
How was I supposed to be rational when my entire future could be riding on this weekend?
I sighed. “Babe, I’m sorry I snapped at you, I’m just a little bit on edge right now.” I felt wrung out from the stress of the last ten minutes. I noticed that Carmen’s eyebrow shot way up when I called Jude “babe.” I guess it wasn’t only my people who could see right through our “just friends” charade.
I went for a change of subject before Carmen ran with my momentary slip. “I didn’t even have a chance to tell you, but I got a call from Harold Sheridan, the local businessman, and he’s interested in talking to me about OuNYe.”
At this Jude’s face softened a bit, but he was still not talking.
Carmen’s eyes widened when I mentioned Sheridan. She spoke up, sounding impressed.
“Coño, Nesto, ese hombre es poderoso aquí. He’s a big deal. Sheridan’s the biggest real estate developer in the region. His company just built the new engineering building on the Cornell campus that cost like fifty million bucks.”
My heart leaped and then sank at the information. I had no clue the guy was at that level, or how big this opportunity could potentially be.
“This is bad,” I said, running my hands over my face. “He’s coming to the festival to meet me and try the food. I know it’s a long shot, but I really want it to go well, and if this inspection isn’t good, I’m fucked.”
Jude still looked wary, so I moved to take his hand, and to my relief he let me. “Why do you think it was Misty? The inspector said it was a food complaint.”
After a second he seemed to relax and squeezed my hand. “Okay first, the Sheridan thing could be potentially amazing. Heowns like half the town, and he’s known for investing in start-ups and partnering with up-and-coming entrepreneurs.”
Carmen nodded in agreement. “He’s legit.”
“About Misty, I don’t know.” He frowned as if figuring out what to say. “She came up to me after the meeting and was being her usual shitty self, but then talked about your truck, and mentioned bad food, in a way that just made all the hairs on my neck stand up. Now suddenly there’s a complaint about your food.” He inhaled as he shook his head. “She did it, she knows people everywhere, and she’ll use the influence she has to do stuff like this.”
Carmen was seething next to him, when she spoke she sounded angry. “She’s a fucking bully. She has connections in the city and at the state trooper’s and she totally uses them to fuck with other people.”
