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“Thiswas your ‘minor mishap’?”
“Now don’t you worry about the cabinets or the sink,” Sandra said as she clacked over in her heels to stand beside Joselyn, but just enough behind her to put a hand on each of Joselyn’s shoulders, like she wanted to direct where she looked. “Those things can be replaced.”
The way she said it made Joselyn realize there were things that couldn’t be replaced so easily. “And the ice cream machine? Is it fine?”
“It might’ve been if it hadn’t fallen where it did, and if the delivery man hadn’t been quite so hefty. They had to take it back, but they think there’s a chance they’ll be able to get a new one here before opening day.”
“We need itbeforeopening day,” Joselyn said, “because we’ll have to have all the ice cream ready to go.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Marcus said.
“We will,” Sandra said. “We’ll figure out that and the problem with the flooding and the electrical.”
Confusion hit Joselyn for a fraction of a second before panic did, and she ran toward the opening in the hallway that led into the kitchen. The flooding was so much more significant in the kitchen area. Pipes were broken and exposed and the sub-flooring and the bottom several inches of the sheetrock were both soaked. Giant, industrial-sized fans were blowing through the area, trying to dry everything out. The cords to the fans, though, weren’t going to the wall outlets; they were headed out the back door, to where she was now sure that she was hearing the sound of a generator.
And that was when Sandra’s comment about the wiring sank in. “And the electrical?” she croaked.
Marcus scratched the back of his neck, a look on his face like he was having to admit to a neighbor that he hit a baseball through their window, even though none of it was his fault. “These pipes broke, and before we could get the water turned off, it kind of sprouted into the air right toward the 220-volt outlet for the cooktop, which was also delivered today. We had plugged in the cooktop to make sure it worked, but the plug wasn’t in all the way, and, well, it got fried.”
Joselyn ran her hands over her face. One little stumble by one person and so much damage had dominoed its way through their shop. Marcus wrapped his big, strong arms around her and she leaned into him, soaking in what comfort she could take.
Then, before she had even had his arms around her long enough to slow her breathing, her phone rang, and she shifted out of his hug to answer.
After saying hello, she just listened as the very apologetic man from the sign company said that they were packing up the With a Cherry on Top sign they had made for the outside of the building, and it had been dropped and couldn’t be repaired. They were going to have to start over and make a new one, and although they were going to try, they couldn’t guarantee that it would make it before opening day.
In a calm voice that sounded eerie even to her own ears, Joselyn thanked the man, hung up the phone, and then said, “The Main Street Business Alliance meeting started four minutes ago. We better get over there. And we might be minus an outdoor sign on opening day, too.”
* * *
The events during the week kept taking swings at Joselyn’s confidence in being able to run a business, and they seemed to hit each time they swung. Now, she and Marcus were about to step into a room filled with successful business owners. She had hoped that they would be able to slip into the back, unnoticed, especially since they were late.
But the moment they walked through the door, the elderly Ed and Linda Keetch who were at the front, conducting the meeting, saw them immediately.
“It’s the couple of the hour!” Ed Keetch called out.
“Everyone,” Linda said, “I would like to introduce you to Nestled Hollow’s newest business owners on Main Street. No, no, no, don’t sit down. Come right up here to the front so we can all say hello.”
Joselyn’s cheeks burned as they went up to the front, and she gave a little wave.
“I’m sure we probably all know you,” Ed said, “but in case anyone doesn’t, tell us your names and about your business.”
Joselyn looked out at the crowd of a couple of dozen people, all of whom she had great respect for, and her mouth went dry. She had never felt like such an imposter in her life. She didn’t belong there.
Luckily Marcus knew her well enough to interpret the look on her face, so he talked for them. “I’m Marcus Williams and this is Joselyn Zimmerman. We are leasing the old hardware shop. Nate Elsmore is doing construction on it now, and we plan to have the grand opening of our ice cream shop, With a Cherry on Top two weeks from Saturday.”
Whatever unstable look she wore on her face must’ve been visible to everyone, based on the looks of question and pity they were throwing her direction. She should say something, or somehow get that expression off her face, or at the very least, run. But, thankfully, the Keetchs seemed to know what to do.
“Two weeks,” Linda exclaimed. “Ed, remember everything that went wrong at Keetchs Burgers and Shakes two weeks before we opened?”
Ed took a few steps toward Linda and wrapped one of her wrinkled hands in two of his. “Only the parts I didn’t successfully repress.” Everyone in the room chuckled. “Of course, those parts could still fill a book.”
The Keetchs always seemed to know what to do, but Joselyn seriously doubted that they had as many struggles as Ed made it sound. Even though he was likely embellishing by leaps and bounds, it still made her heart calm down a little. Enough that she was pretty sure she’d successfully relaxed her face a teeny bit.
“Those were definitely some tough times. We were young, like you two, and made so many mistakes.” Linda looked at Ed with such fondness that it made her wonder if they had figured out all their relationship stuff long before they tried to create a business together. “Well, we all plan to give With a Cherry on Top the kind of welcome Nestled Hollow is famous for. Ed and I will get with you over the next week to see what you need and finalize the plan, then we’ll discuss it more at next week’s meeting.”
That entire discussion was supposed to take place at this meeting. As frazzled as Joselyn was, she was grateful that Linda recognized how bad that would be right now. She and Marcus took seats in two of the empty chairs, and the meeting continued in the way Joselyn guessed it usually did by planning ways to celebrate with the town and to bring in tourists.
As she sat next to Marcus in this room full of success stories, she couldn’t help but wonder if this partnership was ill-fated. So many things had gone wrong this week, culminating in a firestorm of things going wrong. That couldn’t be normal, and it couldn’t be a coincidence. Maybe it was a sign that joining as partners was a bad idea.
