Carmen was practically pulling her hair at this point. “She’d done this before, too. A few years ago, she almost ran a guy out of town who was teaching one-on-one yoga, because she decided it was taking business from her daughter’s studio.” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Her kids don’t even talk to her.”
A surge of fury filled me. How could this woman fuck with my business? My livelihood, because she decided it was stealing the spotlight from her kid’s hobby?
Jude’s brows dipped in a furrow. “It had to be her. Why would she say that today and not an hour later you’re getting a call from sanitation? She’s pissed my project might get funded and she can’t fuck with my head anymore. And she’s pissed her son’s truck is a total disaster and yours has only been in town a month and is already getting all kinds of buzz. She’s horrible. I’m sorry, Nesto.” He squeezed my shoulder, his blue eyes dark with worry.
“If that woman does anything else to mess with my business. She’ll be sorry.”
Jude put his hands on my chest. “The inspection will be fine. As soon as the inspector walks into your truck, she’ll see no one has higher standards than you do. This is a distraction. She won’t win.”
He hugged me in silence and after a few minutes headed back to his office, leaving me to figure out what to do while I waited for the inspection, which could make or break me.
I tried not to lose my shit with the inspector still in the truck, but it was really fucking hard not to walk over to that library and blow up on Misty. The only thing keeping me in check was the fact Inspector Muriel looked like she wanted to be doing this even less than I wanted it to be happening.
She’d been in the truck for about thirty minutes and so far hadn’t asked a single question. I was trying not to track her every move with my death glare, so I kept updating Jude over text to distract myself. He said Misty had been walking by their office and smirking until Carmen told her to get her bony ass out of her sight.
I laughed out loud at that.
One point for the Dominicans.
I was still a ball of nerves though and was about to go in and see how much longer this would take when the inspector stepped out of the truck.
She looked at me with a bewildered expression. “Mr. Vasquez, your truck, your food, and everything surrounding it—including the trash can—are immaculate. Frankly, unless someone sold you something off, which I’m sure would’ve resulted in more than one person getting sick, I can’t imagine these conditions causing anyone buying your food issues.”
I sighed, dizzy with relief. “Does this mean we can open again?”
She nodded. “I don’t see why not.” She looked around and said in a low voice, “You didn’t hear this from me, but I think this whole thing was just a higher-up putting pressure on one of the supervisors. There is no reason anyone should’ve come out here just from one random call.”
Misty’s stunt had cost me an entire day of profits. I’d had to turn people away and watch them go across the street to get lunch somewhere else, because Misty decided she wanted me gone from town. I wasn’t in a position to lose money like that. The reality was a few more days like today could put me out of business.
But what could I do? I couldn’t actually accuse Misty of trying to shut me down. She’d just laugh in my face and tell me I was being paranoid and scary. What I needed to do was get back to work.
I turned to the inspector again, grateful that she came on such short notice. “Thanks for your help, I’m glad you found everything in order, and for being so flexible about coming today. Having this truck closed for the weekend would have been a serious problem for me.”
I extended my hand and she shook it, chuckling as she looked at the truck. “It was no trouble at all. If everyone kept their spaces to the same standards you do, my job would be a lot easier, not to mention a lot less cringeworthy. Take care, Mr. Vasquez.”
“Thanks, Inspector Muriel.”
As soon as she was in her car, I turned around and called Yin and Ari, who I tried to send home after explaining what happened, but refused to leave me to deal with this on my own. They’d sat around all day and were now at the picnic table we kept by the truck with concerned looks on their faces.
I clapped my hands and gave them a thumbs-up. “Okay, guys, we’re back in business.” They both perked up and stood at attention, ready to work. Their faith in me made me vow to do whatever I needed to make OuNYe succeed. This was not about just me anymore. There were people counting on me, people who loved my business as much as I did.
“We lost today, but tomorrow we have the festival. Let’s get the truck back to Trumansburg and get to work getting ready for that.” They both nodded, as I tossed my car keys to Ari.
“I’ll get the truck and I’ll see you guys at the kitchen.”
“You got it, boss.” Ari gave me a short nod before they both started walking to the car.
chapter fifteen
nesto
“Nesto, you didn’t say your guy was a smoke show.” I glanced over to where Milo was pointing and spotted Jude on the other side of the festival grounds walking toward us in the red OuNYe t-shirt I’d given him a few days ago, paired with very well-fitting navy shorts. He also had on a green baseball hat with the library logo, and sunglasses perched on his nose.
The stress of the last twenty-four hours had taken a toll on me, and I’d been on edge all morning. Fussing about everything needing to be perfect, but as soon as I saw him walking up the path, the tension in my shoulders seemed to melt away. It was hard to stand there and not just hurry to where he was and kiss him. I tried to keep my cool though. The guys ragging on me about my thirstiness in front of Jude would not be fun.
I winked at Milo, who was still staring in Jude’s direction. “He’s not my anything, and I don’t need to dish about how he looks to you. What are were fourteen?”
Patrice, who was working on filling the fridge with the desserts just shook his head and laughed. “You know Camilo, he needs to turn it into a fairytale.”
