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She promised she'd give a glowing reference to any potential employer who called looking for one.
I hit Thomas' contact and wait while the phone rings. "Dani, holy shit. Where are you?"
"I'm in Virginia. What's going on?"
"Abby is on the warpath. She's calling everyone to find out where you are. She wants to talk you out of working for Franklin's."
I relax. Maybe Abby knows something I don't about Franklin's. Maybe it's a terrible place to work. "I'm not taking the job, but what's going on? Why would she fire you for saying nice things about me?"
He sighs. "I really don't want to be the one to tell you this. You love Abby so much, or you used to. I don't want to be the one to pop your rainbow-colored bubble."
My chest feels hollow and I almost let him off the hook. I'm not sure I can take anymore bad news at the moment.
I suck in a deep, fortifying breath. If I can't take the bad with good, I can't become the successful person I want to be. "I'm a horrible baker? And a terrible boss? I've been deluding myself?"
"Damn, Dani. Abby really did a number on you, didn't she?"
"Just tell me. Burst my rainbow-colored bubble."
"I don't even know where to start. Do you want to meet in person? No, you're in Virginia, right?" He sighs heavily, or he's smoking. It could be either with Thomas. "Babe, Abby's been gas lighting you."
"About my baking." I'd suspected, but it feels good to have someone else say it.
"She wanted you out of the business so she could take all the profits. Everyone who worked at Starshine knew you were the genius behind the bakery and we heard the things Abby said to you. She was lying. I'm sorry I never spoke up, but I thought you knew. I figured she'd be the one out on her ass, not you."
"What all exactly did she lie about?" I need to hear him say it.
Thomas groans. "Seriously? You haven't even figured that part of it out, yet? When she told you she had complaints from customers about your baking, she was lying, Dani."
I'd believed Abby when she told me about the complaints. No one can please everyone all the time. "No one complained?"
"No one complained about your baking. All anyone ever said was how damn good it is. And no one thought you were an awful boss. Most of us preferred dealing with you rather than Abby. She knew it and it pissed her off. Abby knew she was the expendable one, and it bothered her."
A tear rolls down my cheek as relief fills me. I never doubted my baking abilities, but I had believed I could have been a better boss. "This bakery was our dream. How long was she planning to cut me out?" I ask, more thinking out loud than expecting an answer. Starshine had actually been my dream. Abby had just wanted to be her own boss and had loved the idea of opening a bakery when I suggested it.
"I don't know what to tell you. I just know what I and the other cashiers saw and heard."
Maybe they heard wrong. Or maybe they misunderstood. But I know better. I've been trying to convince myself I was part of the problem at Starshine, because I don't want to admit how wrong I was about Abby. I'd actually thought she was a good person, someone I could count on, and I'd been so, so wrong.
"What do you know about Franklin's?"
"Right." Thomas lets out another puff, definitely smoking. "Clarissa overheard Abby talking to Franklin's about you." He snorts. "Abby has no idea how her voice carries when she's in the office."
He's right. Starshine is a small space with little room for privacy.
"Anyway," he says. "Abby was talking all this trash about you we knew wasn't true and at the end of the call, she said, Dani Weston is not a good fit for Franklin's."
I press a hand to my chest, trying to stifle the ache there. "She said that?"
"She did. Clarissa got really mad, because Abby's been a disaster since you left and rude to all of us, so Clarissa called Franklin's and told them everything Abby said about you was a lie. A few weeks later, they called me and asked what I thought of you. Then, I guess they offered you the job."
"A few weeks? Why did it take them so long?"
"No idea. Maybe they were verifying Clarissa's version of the story? Franklin's has been around for decades and they have connections with just about every small business owner and baker in Atlanta."
It's sinking in slowly that my best friend not only betrayed me on every level, she tried to destroy my career.
It hurts.
