I didn’t think she meant to. But when I wasn’t treating her to brunches and manicures, I noticed we didn’t hang out as much. Yes—The Dump Truck was doing well, but we still weren’t swimming in money. And it was successful because Liam and I worked our asses off. Almost non-stop.
Most days that Tanja didn’t have an audition, I saw her around town having lunch. Or getting her hair done. Or on a date. For the first time in our entire friendship, Elaina’s words of caution about Tanja’s work ethic buzzed in my ears.
My best friend offered me a blindingly white smile from the other side of the couch. “We just don’t see each other much anymore,” she said, earnestly. “I miss you. I was hoping to get you out of this house for a drink or something.”
Guilt immediately circumvented the unease I felt over her work ethic. I’m a shitty friend. She misses me and I was sitting here judging her for having a social life. In reality, maybe I was just jealous. “I miss you, too,” I said honestly. Owning and running a business didn’t leave a ton of time for friends and hanging out. Liam was right. The schedule working for a bakery was nuts. My sleep schedule was way out of whack, I was always tired, I ate meals at strange times…
And I’d never been happier.
I sighed and finished the final coat of buttercup yellow on my nails, holding them up for Tanja to see. “Not bad, right? I found these colors at the pharmacy and they were only eight bucks. We could save so much money doing this at home more.”
I said that like it was some sort of magical realization when in actuality, I hadn’t been to a salon since before Dan dumped me. Or did I dump him? I didn’t even know anymore… nor did I care.
Tanja scrunched her nose and examined her long, fuchsia nails. “I guess. But I just love when they do the paraffin wax thing on my hands at the salon. And the massage… oh, I miss the massage!”
I didn’t mention that I’d seen her at the nail salon with our other friend, Bridget, last week. It wasn’t like it had been months since her last visit. “Well, maybe that can be a nice splurge now and then.” I made a mental note that one of those at-home paraffin kits might be a good Christmas gift for Tanja. Then quickly nixed the idea as I saw the disdain register on her face at merely painting her nails at home. A gift certificate to the salon would probably be more appreciated by her, anyway.
“Tell you what. Why don’t we go to Nick’s for a glass of wine after this?” I owed him a visit to pay off last week’s vouchers. He’d even started selling some of our cookies and brownies at his pizzeria. Though he hadn’t exactly apologized for our run-in that day on the news, we had managed to repair our relationship and seemed to have a good rapport now.
Tanja’s face lit up. “Then maybe Greico’s for dinner?”
I sighed and shook my head. “I’m taking Liam out to dinner tonight. He had a rough morning—”
She deflated and slowly screwed the cap back onto the bottle, her mouth twisting into a frown. “But you see him all the time.”
She wasn’t wrong. I saw Liam literally every day.
I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. I’d barely seen Tanja in over two months. “Why don’t we do brunch this weekend?” I offered her instead. I did some quick time math in my head. If I was up at four to help bake, I could slip out of Beefcakes by eleven and have a mimosa in hand before noon. I could make that work, even though I’d be exhausted. I should still even have time for a nap before we took the truck out that night.
I texted Liam, letting him know to pick me up at Nick’s rather than at my house for dinner, and ten minutes later, Tanja and I were sitting at the bar, each cradling a glass of wine between our freshly painted fingers.
We fell into our easy banter, laughing at her latest crazy stories about men she’d met while in Boston on auditions. It felt good to be with a girlfriend again. With Elaina gone, it truly had just been Liam and me consistently. And while I loved spending time with him, it didn’t change the fact that it was good to have other friends to lean on.
Nick slid over to us, leaning against the thick, lacquered bar, and topped off our wine.
I quickly covered the opening of my glass with my palm. “No more for me,” I laughed, trying to soften the edge to my voice. Going out to dinner was already a splurge tonight. I didn’t want to blow the rest of my budget, especially if Tanja and I were doing brunch on Sunday, too.
“Oh, come on.” Tanja cried and rolled her eyes, draining her glass before holding it out to Nick. “Liam won’t be here for what? Another fifteen minutes? We used to be able to polish off a bottle in that time.”
My gaze flicked to my wristlet, resting beside me on the bar. Yes, The Dump Truck was thriving and we were finally making money… but I was still playing catch up on my credit card balances that I had racked up when we first started the food truck. We were doing well, but my business classes had taught me that this wasn’t a time to get careless.
“This pour’s on me,” Nick said quietly. “My way of saying sorry for being an ass.” He wiggled the bottle at me as if to say… well? The wine sloshed along the sides of the bottle and I smiled, giving him a small nod.
He grinned—well, for Nick, it was a grin—a small twitch of his lips as he filled my glass to the brim with the deep burgundy wine. I sighed, relieved that I wouldn’t have to worry about footing the bill for another glass and thanked him.
“No problem. In fact, I was planning to give you a call. Hoping we could meet up soon.” My brows jumped as Nick filled Tanja’s glass as well. “You do marketing, right?”
“And PR. Are you in the market for a new publicity manager?”
“New?” He snorted the word. “Try first. Business is still good, but what you said was spot on about the pizza delivery chains opening up nearby.” He rubbed at the back of his neck with a chagrined smile that looked more like a grimace.
Ah, yes. I saw that one franchise opened about ten miles outside of town. “Has business been hit because of that?”
He nodded and tapped a calloused finger to the stack of vouchers I had dropped off today from the food truck. “Thank God for your referral service. It balanced out the loss. Even still… I’d like to not have any loss.”
“What made you think of hiring me? Other than my comment about the delivery chains?”
“Look what’s become of your food truck? It’s the talk of the town… hell, the state. Plus, I saw that Beefcakes and The Dump Truck have now branched out and are offering delivery options all around the country. It just… it seems like you know what you’re doing.”
My heart slammed rapidly against my chest. Nerves and excitement collided in my belly. I loved this part of the job. Nick would be the first client of mine who wasn’t a friend. In fact, Nick was the furthest thing from a friend… if you had asked me a week ago, I would have said the man hated and resented me.
Beside me, Tanja gave an impatient sigh and spun in her barstool, perusing the male patrons sitting at the other end of the bar while she took a long sip of her wine.
I got a business card from my wristlet and slid it across the table to Nick. “Why don’t we have lunch in the next couple days? I’ll draw up some ideas and a contract with my fees and we’ll go from there.”
“Sugarlips Public Relations & Marketing,” he read from my card. “We’ll sweeten up your brand in no time!” He flicked a finger to the card before sliding it into his back pocket. “Catchy.”
I smiled and shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
When he walked away, I grabbed Tanja’s arm and squeezed it with an excited squeal. “A potential client!”
Tanja swiveled back to face me and looked bored, her half-hooded gaze drifting from Nick to me. “Your first client,” she said. There was something in her tone; a biting edge that bruised my skin.
“Not really… I’m doing a ton of work for Beefcakes. I’ve grown their revenue by forty percent—”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she interrupted. “Your first client who doesn’t want to sleep with y
ou.”
My hair bristled and I shook my head, shocked at what she was saying to me. “That’s not why Liam hired me.”
She rolled her eyes, but softened it with a small smile. “Come one, Chloe. You got a job because he was into you and wanted to spend more time with you. It’s fine. We’ve all been there.” She lifted her glass and tapped the edge of it to mine. “And now you can leverage that position you had with Beefcakes for more clients and more work.”
Is that what people thought? I wasn’t sure which was worse—the idea that people would think I was sleeping with Liam for the work, or that people thought I only got the job because Liam was trying to get into my pants. Both options were so degrading. And the fact that it was coming from my best friend made it so much worse.
I paused, watching her from over my glass that was still almost entirely full. Hers was already half gone. How had we drifted apart so much in the last few months? Wasn’t she supposed to have my back?
My thoughts were interrupted by Liam entering the bar and rushing toward us. His cheeks were flushed and his green eyes were wide and bright with excitement.
“Hey guys,” he said and slid into the stool beside me. His greeting was quickly disrupted by Tanja’s scoff beside us. I took a deep breath.
Maybe she’s just in a bad mood, I thought. Give her some grace.
“Liam, you remember Tanja, right?”
She gave a little wiggle of her fingers and he nodded at her. “Yeah, of course. Hi, Tanja. How’s it going?”
“Girls night was going well,” she snapped. Liam’s eye slid to mine and it took everything in me not to roll them into the back of my head.
“Girls night? We don’t have to—”
“It was an impromptu girl’s night,” I said. “We’re just finishing up our happy hour.”
“And you’re ten minutes early,” Tanja added. Though she smiled, there was venom in her words.
“I’m sorry.” Liam seemed a little startled by Tanja’s reaction, and frankly, so was I. Countless girls’ nights and brunches in the past had been disrupted by her dates. I remembered one day in particular where she spent the whole lunch literally Facetiming her boyfriend who was in Atlanta shooting a film. Not to mention the amount of nights she would leave early for a booty call or run off to the VIP section with some guy she met at the bar.
“I can come back in a few minutes,” Liam said.
I clutched his arm as he moved away, tugging him back into me. “No,” I said. “It’s fine.”
Tanja’s reaction to Liam was perplexing… to word it nicely. She never acted this way around Dan. Then again, he rarely ever invaded girl time.
“You sure?” Liam asked.
“Of course. Right Tanja?”
She gave us both a smile and for a moment, I thought it was genuine.
He leaned in, lifting my wine glass and sniffing it. “Guess who just hired me to help with his marketing?” I whispered.
“Who?”
I flicked my eyes at Nick, pouring a draft for someone at the opposite end of the bar.
Not very subtly, Liam craned his head, searching for who I was gesturing to.
Tanja rolled her eyes. “For God’s sake. It’s Nick.”
“What’s up?” Nick called to us, having heard his name.
I froze, feeling caught red-handed for talking about him. But Liam, ever casual, held up a hand in a quick wave. “I’ll take a pilsner,” he said, not quite warm and friendly, but also not overtly aggressive either. Once Nick seemed occupied once again, Liam leaned into me. “Is that a good idea? You two weren’t on great terms after that news broadcast.”
I waved Liam’s concern away. “Seriously, if it doesn’t bother me, it shouldn’t bother you. Besides, he apologized.”
“He did? When?”
“Today,” I answered, sipping the apology wine.
“With wine,” Tanja clarified, wiggling her brows. “Any guy that plows me with wine is okay in my book.”
I giggled at that, but instead of correcting her mistake, I said, “Any guy who plows you at all, am I right?”
She lifted her glass. “Here, here!”
“That’s exciting for you… a new client. Just be careful,” Liam said.
I pinched his chin, dipping my finger into his chin dimple. “I will, grandpa.” I wasn’t worried. I could handle Nick.
He scowled at me over-dramatically, his forehead wrinkling like a cartoon of an old man, and he gave me his best shaky, old man voice. “Now listen here, little lady…” He slapped his hand on the bar top, and clutched between his fingers, was an envelope.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Oh, this?” He dropped the old man act and waved the opened letter in front of my face. “Just a little invitation to an exclusive New Hampshire Entrepreneur networking event.”
His eyes went wider than his grin.
“What?” I reached for the letter, tearing it from his grasp and skimming over it. “This could be huge for Beefcakes! Congratulations!”
But as my eyes read over the words… it wasn’t for Beefcakes.
“It’s for us,” Liam said. “For The Dump Truck. And…”
“… for Sugarlips PR & Marketing.” I was rendered speechless. “Tanja, didn’t you go to this last year when you were working with that talent agency?”
She glanced over at the letterhead, uninterested. “Oh yeah. They had shit champagne for such a fancy affair.”
“The fact that we’re both invited is huge.” I paused, turning the letter over as though the answers to my questions might be written on the back side. “How did they even know about Sugarlips PR & Marketing? I’m not exactly a household name yet.”
“Word has probably gotten around at how successfully Beefcakes has been doing since we signed with you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Word got around.” I threw air quotes around the sentence. “As in, you’ve been telling people?”
“Not just me. Neil, Finn, my mom. They’re all so impressed with how you’ve helped us branch out. And let’s not forget the most influential and most proud people in this town… your parents and sister.”
Was it cheesy that I wanted to keep the letter and frame it? It was. So cheesy. Even still, I smoothed the wrinkles with my palm before folding it and tucking it into my clutch.
Tanja gave another heavy sigh and put her hand up for Nick. “If you guys are going to talk business, I’m getting the check.”
Nick nodded as he came over with Liam’s beer. “One check or two?”
“Two—” I said, just as Tanja answered with, “One.”
My stomach tightened. Did she seriously expect me to pay for this round? It was one thing when I had the money, living with Dan. But this was different. I pressed my lips into a line. “Oh, do you just want to split it fifty-fifty?” I asked as calmly as I could.
She glanced quickly at Liam. “And pay for half of Liam’s beer? No thanks.”
“Oh, I’ll pay for my beer. It’s only $3 for happy hour, anyway,” he said and innocently grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket.
I could feel the heat of anger crawling up my neck until I thought I might look like a cartoon character with steam coming out of my ears. “So, then, when you asked for one check …” I paused, letting my words suspend in the air between us. Say it, I willed her. Admit that you expected me to pay.
To her credit, her cheeks flushed pink and she looked away from me, down at the bar. “I… I guess I wasn’t thinking. It was a force of habit.”
“I’ll get this one,” Liam said, lifting the check to look at it. “For crashing girls’ night early.”
“There,” Tanja smiled, pleased with herself. “All worked out.”
I slapped my hand down over his. “Don’t you dare,” I said to Liam. “You didn’t crash anything. You and I had plans and this happy hour was a surprise add-on to our manicure date.” I looked to Tanja. “We should split this.” I didn’t bring up the fact that she and I had alrea
dy gotten a free glass of wine from Nick, and I had gifted her the bottle of nail polish as a small surprise. With our wines being on the happy hour menu, the whole bill was less than $15.
She glared at me and shoved her stool back. “Fine,” she said, her scowl quickly shifting to a sweet smile. “You’re right. No big deal.” She pulled a few folded bills out of her wallet and tossed them casually onto the bar. “I’ll see you Sunday for brunch, right?”
It was like friendship whiplash. “Um… yeah.”
“Great! Bye Liam. Kisses!” She was already halfway across the bar, blowing us kisses from over her shoulder before disappearing out the front door.
“What the hell was that about?” Liam asked.
I sighed and grabbed the bills she had tossed onto the bar, unfolding them. Three dollars. Three dollars folded together that didn’t even cover the cost of her drink. “That’s just Tanja,” I said, feeling suddenly exhausted.
“That’s just Tanja?” he repeated, throwing air quotes around the phrase. “If anyone deserves the Tasmanian devil tag, it’s her, not you. She left here in a whirlwind.”
I tugged a twenty-dollar bill out of my wallet and tossed it down with the check. As his brows lifted, he put down some of his own cash. “I can only imagine the two of you in undergrad… all girls gone wild.”
I snorted. “Hardly. I was more known for my success in the beer pong tournaments. Tanja was the one collecting beads.”
He scrunched his nose. “I would have slaughtered you in beer pong, you know.”
“Oh really? Were there lots of beer pong tournaments over at culinary school, pretty boy?” My fingers twitched, aching to feel the silken strands of his hair again. “I think I know what we’re doing after dinner.”
Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2) Page 21