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“Hey cutie.” Mia waves to the screen as Candice presses into the frame. It’s just as I imagined, they are both beaming, filled with love. Both in a place I’ve always dreamed of reaching yet never achieving. Having a supportive, loving partner. I wave at the screen.
“Can we forget that last part and focus on the Legendary?”
“Not a chance in hell.” Candice grins at me. The two of them have been waiting for over a year to dig into my love life. I don’t have much of one in Indiana, so I’ve always disappointed them. “Tell us about this kiss.”
My traitorous face must have reacted because Mia reacts immediately.
“There it is. That’s what I wanted to see. Boom.” She raises her hand in a fist, palm down, and flexes as if dropping a microphone. “So is this competing bid a form of foreplay between the two of you or have you already sealed that deal.” Mia is not subtle, I’ve yet to come across a topic that she doesn’t approach with both barrels blazing.
“The kiss was fake. Everything about him is fake, so I’m finding out.” My response halts Mia’s laughter.
“Fake? Help us understand,” Candice asks.
“Palmer…”
“Your douche ex?” Candice recalls.
“Yeah, he was giving me a dressing down at the Legendary about me coming to a wedding without a plus one. Single for the rest of my life, no man will ever have you, yada yada. It was brutal.”
“What a…” Mia fumes, she has a history of bad breakups and an ex-boyfriend who had challenges moving on.
“Hunter was working at the Legendary, so I played as if I was meeting him, we kissed in front of Palmer and…”
“Fake boyfriend!” Candice screams into the phone. “I’m loving this so far. Tell us about the kiss. Did it rock your world? Were you dreaming about it all night?”
I roll my eyes having forgotten who I was speaking to. Of course, Candice would focus on the kiss. Her first kiss from her husband Ryan sent her on a spiral that she’s yet to come down from.
“It was fake,” I scream into the phone, more to distract myself than the two of them. Hunter’s kiss was all of that and more. But I can’t tell them this. Not to two women in love. If I even hint that I’m still dreaming of that kiss, that it rocked my world off its axis and I’ve yet to recover, I’ll never hear the end of it. “And I came to find out everything about him is fake. He was only working at the Legendary to gather insider information to help adjust his bid.”
“That’s actually kind of brilliant.” Mia shrugs her shoulders.
“He moved into a shitty apartment and drove a beat up used car to hide his money.”
Candice snickers. “Hate to say it but Mia is right. That’s kind of smart too. Did he pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a paper bag and bring it in as lunch too?”
I shake my head, knowing the girls are poking fun at me. They have my best interest at heart, and both know how intense I can get and need to be walked off the ledge. It’s the exact perspective I was seeking to pull me back from the angry clouds which fill my head. “Tonight, at the wedding, he showed up in a five thousand dollar suit with a BMW and told me what he’s been doing. That he’s been working on this for months. Has been some dream of his to buy the Legendary and restore it to its former glory.”
The girls exchange a strange look between themselves before Candice speaks up. “Just so we’re clear. Hunter came into town with a plan for what he wants, he’s executing on it and shared all of this with you, someone who I suspect he knows has an emotional connection to the Legendary and knows the owner personally and could tip the owner off before he accepts the bid?”
Mia piles on, “Have you stopped to ask why he’s told you all this before closing the deal? That maybe that fake kiss wasn’t fake to him. That this could be his way of saying he wants to be part of your life longer than a fake date at a reception.”
“He did say…” the words trail off as I reconsider my position and reaction to Hunter. I’ve gotten it wrong again. “But what if he’s not telling the truth? What if he’s here to take advantage of the Legendary, to low ball an offer and then flip it?”
Candice shakes her head. “That could be a possibility, but it doesn’t sound likely, not based on what you’ve shared. You said the son is running it into the ground. I’m sure the owner is aware. Businesses that have lasted that long know how to monitor their financials. I doubt the father is going to stand by and let the business go bankrupt. Selling makes sense. Here’s what we can do. I’ll look into lines of credits for you, Mia will look into the real estate valuation, and we’ll get back to you.
What we want you to do is consider what if Hunter is telling you the truth. How does that change your next step? When is your meeting?”
I bite my lower lip afraid to reveal the unrealistic time frame to them. “In about twelve hours.”
“Why didn’t you just call us on the drive over to the meeting in the morning?” Mia jokes. She shoots me a wink. “We got you Catherine. This is what we girls in Indiana do. You’ve been there for both of us. We got your back.”
Her reaction warms my heart. Candice’s face goes flat, and I already know her brilliant mind is at work. “You’re not just looking to place a bid but you’re going to stay and take over the Legendary, aren’t you? Hometown kid returns to save a community icon.”
Like I said, my friends are brilliant. I hadn’t connected all the pieces myself but hearing it from her lips merely confirms what I truly want.
“Wow,” Mia says. “You really suck at letting people know what you really want.”
Her statement throws me for a loop and my head fills with Palmer driving in the dark all night only to return with an ice cream flavor he thought I needed but didn’t. “What do you mean?”
