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Farha turned to Sofia and put a hand on her arm.
“I can’t thank you enough for taking on this project. I know it’s kind of hectic with the show, but you’ve been so great to work with. When Jake showed me the pictures of the chandelier, I just fell in love with it. Thanks for taking our style into account with the design plan.”
Her mind stuttered. Why was Jake encouraging Farha to change the design plan in the middle of the project? She kept her show face on, and smiled through her reply.
“Every good designer makes the plan with the client in mind. I’m just sorry that the production schedule on this is twisting things around. Normally, we’d have had this conversation back when we did the initial consultation. But it’s okay. We are going to give you a beautiful home no matter what. I promise.”
“Okay! Come on in!” Trina’s voice cut into their conversation.
“Ready?” When Farha nodded, Sofia pushed aside her concerns and turned on her TV voice. “So, tell me about the furniture in here.”
* * *
After the walk-through was done,Sofia asked the production crew members to help get the TV cabinet packed into the back of the van. While they broke down cables and figured out how to carry it out, Sofia called her cousin Seth.
“Hey there, cuz. How’s it going?”
“Great! I’ve got a project for you.”
“Oh no. You’re using that fake perky voice you use when you want me to do something I’m not gonna like.”
There was no use denying it. She was asking a huge favor.
“Listen, it’s for the show. I’m at the Shah house, and they’ve got a TV cabinet that I want to turn into their kitchen island.”
“What?”
“No, really! It’s a sideboard they were reusing, so it’s got a ton of drawers.”
“What’s the catch?”
“I need to add two legs to support the overhang of the marble countertop for the breakfast bar, and I need to add two deep storage cabinets with doors on one end to make the dimensions work for the section under a butcher block countertop. Oh and we need to sand down the old paint, and repaint it all to match and look like weathered paint.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad. I can get it to you in…two weeks.”
“I need it in two days.”
“Sofia Amelia Regina Valenti. Have you lost your damn mind?”
“Please? I need to cut costs and stay on schedule, and the only way I can see to do that right now is to return the island I bought, and repurpose what she has. And I might need you to donate your labor…” She trailed off into a mumble.
“What? Are you kidding me? I get why you need it fast, but you can’t not pay us. That’s not right, and you know it. We’ve got bills to pay too, and this is a rush job.”
“Family discount, then?”
“Fi…”
“Think of it as an investment in your business. If the show takes off, we’ll get more business through our doors. More business equals more money. I can’t afford to screw this up on the pilot.”
“Well, whose fault is that?”
“This stupid filming schedule! I had to submit plans for this before I even got to see the inspection report, so I overpromised, and now I’m scrambling. Adrian kept finding more problems behind every wall and floor he opened up. You know how that goes.”
“I do. Don’t you? Why didn’t you plan for this?”
“I thought I had. Do you really want Dad’s retirement to get screwed up because I messed up my first project budget in three years? Come on, Seth. I need your help. What will it take?”
Her cousin was silent, and Sofia’s nerves began to twitch. She really needed Seth to come through on this one. She could ask Adrian to delay by a day, but she couldn’t put him off much longer than that without tipping off the production team that there was a problem. She had no doubt that he would be able to pull this off, but she was wary of what it would cost her in return. She also knew he loved nothing more than busting her ass. He knew the quiet was killing her. Finally, he spoke.
