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“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Brielle said, dunking her tea bag a few times and then removing it.
I held my own cup of herbal tea. It was meant to be soothing, but it wasn’t having the desired effect.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” Jazz said.
“Hey, before you start fighting with each other, don’t,” I pleaded. “We’re all we’ve got right now. Besides, Jazz isn’t wrong. Wedoneed a kitchen. A big kitchen. A commercial-sized kitchen.”
“So, we’re definitely not bailing on the wedding,” Brielle said. “Good.”
“Hell no, we’re not bailing,” I remarked. “Aside from actually liking Imogene and wanting to make her wedding beautiful, bailing on her wedding would be it for the catering company. We’d crash and burn without even getting off the ground.”
“That fucker,” Jazz seethed.
“That fucker—oh, you mean Kurt?” Brielle asked.
I nodded. “Let’s not go down that road. I’m handling it.”
“You’re handling it? What’s that mean?”
I sighed. “It means I’m taking it to Slash.”
“No shame in admitting you need help,” Brielle said quietly.
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “Back to the kitchen issue.”
“Want me to talk to Seb?” Brielle asked. “He might let us use the kitchen at the restaurant at night after they close. We could bake during the night and sleep during the day? We could swap our hours.”
“It’s a clever idea, but it won’t work,” I said. “We need commercial walk-in refrigerators. We need space that isn’t going to be taken back by someone else in the morning. We need a commercial kitchen space that’s truly ours if we’re going to get this done. And we need to be able to come and go as we please. We can’t really work around a restaurant’s service schedule.”
“We can rent a commercial kitchen,” Jazz said, pulling out her phone. She opened her screen, and after a few minutes, she said, “Jesus, they want two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty an hour to rent a kitchen. And we need a place for a week, twenty-four hours a day?”
“Out of the question,” Brielle said. “Even though Imogene’s budget is substantial, we’d be in the red.”
“There’s a solution,” I said. “I know there is.”
“What is it?” Jazz demanded.
“I don’t know yet; I’m still thinking.” I glared at her and then took a sip of my tea.
There was a knock on the front door.
The three of us looked at each other.
“Did we actually order the garlic bread and cheese pizza?” Brielle asked.
“I thought that was just an idea. I don’t think we followed through,” Jazz said.
“It’s Mia!” Mia called through the closed door. “I know you’re home—your car is out front!”
I got up from the couch and went to open the door. Mia, along with all the Old Ladies, was standing on the steps.
“I’m having a very big sense of déjà vu,” I remarked, but immediately stepped back to let them in.
“We tried to stay out of your business by giving you some space,” Joni remarked. “But clearly, we failed.”
“Thanks for failing.” I smiled, my lip trembling. “I think I’m about to lose my shit.”
“Who wants tea?” Brielle asked, hopping up from the floor.
