Fixer-Upper

by Linda Seed

  “That’s the wedding day!” Sofia said. “Not the bridal shower.”

  “Well. If we’re taking the word shower literally—”

  “Don’t be funny,” Sofia said. “Not right now. I swear to God, Patrick—”

  “All right, all right,” Benny said before the two of them could start to fight—which they never did, really. “Do you want me to call around and cancel it, or do you want to toughen the hell up and make the best of it?” From Benny’s tone, there was clearly only one viable option.

  “When you put it that way ...” Sofia sniffed.

  “It’s early,” Martina said. “There’s still time for the weather to clear up before people from LA or the Bay Area get to the Central Coast. You go and ... I don’t know. Take a shower or something. I’ll call the restaurant and the bakery and make sure everything’s still a go. We’ve got this. Go on, now.” Martina put her hands on Sofia’s shoulders, turned her toward her bedroom, and gave her a little shove.

  When she was gone, Patrick was still standing there, looking concerned.

  “Don’t worry,” Martina told him. “She’s just thinking about Mom and Dad. She’s going to be okay.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Pfft.” Benny made a dismissive noise and waved her hand as if to shoo away a fly. “Of course she is. What’s she going to do, get in her car and drive to Mexico to avoid marrying you?”

  Patrick looked as though he worried she might do exactly that.

  “Maybe Patrick’s the one who needs that whiskey IV drip,” Martina observed.

  Martina still had a feeling of buoyant optimism about the shower despite the weather—until she called Neptune to confirm their reservation.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.” The woman who’d answered the phone sounded aggrieved.

  “About what?”

  “There’s been a leak. We have to close.” At first Martina wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “I’m sorry.... What?”

  “When the prep crew came in this morning, there was two inches of water on the floor in the dining room. We can’t open.”

  “But I have reservations.” Martina said it as though that very fact, in itself, could reverse the effects of the weather.

  “I know, and I wish there was something we could do, but we have no choice. Even if we could get rid of the water that fast, it would be a safety hazard to open, not to mention a health violation.”

  Martina looked at her phone as though it had somehow malfunctioned. “But ... two inches of water? It didn’t rain that much. How ...”

  “It wasn’t the rain. A pipe broke. We’ve got a plumber here now, but it’s going to be days, maybe longer.”

  “We’re having a bridal shower! People are coming from LA and the Bay Area! They’re already on their way! What am I supposed to do?!” Martina felt nearly hysterical.

  “I don’t know. I can offer you a different date if you want. I can—”

  “They’re already on their way here!” Martina repeated.

  “I’m sorry. I—”

  Martina didn’t want to hear again how sorry the woman was, so she hung up. She looked around for Benny and found her in her room sorting through a basket of dirty laundry.

  “Psst!” Martina hissed at her from the doorway.

  “What is that noise you’re making?” Benny asked irritably.

  “I need to tell you something, and I don’t want Sofia to hear it!” Martina said in a stage whisper.

  “Then come in here and close the door, and just tell me. Unless you want to send it in Morse code.”

  Martina closed the door, went to Benny, and said in a low voice, “Neptune’s underwater. Literally. They’re closing. We don’t have anywhere to hold the shower.”

  Benny stopped what she was doing, rubbed her eyes with her hands, shook her head to clear it, and looked at Martina. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Martina explained about the pipe, the leak, and the two inches of water. Then she said, “We’re going to have to call everyone and tell them to come here instead.”

  “Oh, shit.” Benny put a hand on her hip. “We’ve got, what, thirty people coming? We don’t have room for that many people here. Plus, Sofia’s going to say it’s not part of Mom’s plan. It’s not in the binder, so …”

  “I know it’s not in the binder! But the binder never said anything about a broken pipe at Neptune!”

  “Okay. Okay. Let’s think.” Benny sat down heavily on the side of her bed. “The binder never said Neptune specifically. It just said the bridal shower should be someplace special, someplace elegant.”

  “Right. So …”

  “So, we just need to find someplace special and elegant,” Benny said.

  “For today,” Martina reminded her. “For thirty people. With pretty much zero notice.”

  “Well, I didn’t say it was going to be easy. I just said it’s what we need!”

  “Okay. Okay. We’ll start calling places. But in the meantime, we need to make sure Sofia doesn’t know about any of this until we’ve got it fixed. She’s already freaking out because of the weather.”

  “Right.” Benny went to her bedroom door, opened it, and called out, “Hey, Patrick? Could you come in here a minute?”

  Patrick came in, looking a bit nervous about being in Benny’s bedroom, as though her delicate unmentionables might spring out of their drawers and attack him.

  “Here’s the deal.” Benny told him about the Neptune situation, about their plan to find another venue, and about the necessity of keeping Sofia in the dark until they had a workable solution to present to her.

  “We need you to get her out of here,” Martina said. “Take her to the movies. Take her shopping. Take her … anywhere. Preferably somewhere with no cell phone service. Or WiFi. Or any other possible way for her to hear the news about Neptune.”

  To his credit, Patrick didn’t panic. He simply nodded, got a grim look of determination on his face, and said, “I’m on it.” He left the room, and about twenty minutes later, Benny and Martina heard him and Sofia leaving the house.

  “All right,” Martina said when they were gone. “Let’s work the problem. Start calling restaurants. I’ll take letters A through L, you take M through Z.”

  They started calling, and they got in touch with Bianca so she could help. They assigned Bianca out-of-town venues in case they couldn’t find anything in Cambria, but they all hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  By the time Martina had contacted five restaurants in the A through L category, she had already begun to lose hope. Most of the restaurants in Cambria were fairly small, so absorbing a last-minute party of thirty was next to impossible. The ones that did have larger rooms offered a little more hope, but it was a weekend and therefore a big tourist day. Everybody expressed sympathy when Martina told them what was going on, but so far, nobody had been able to help.

  She was starting to think they would just have to cram everyone into their own house and feed them food from the freezer section at Albertson’s when Chris called.

  “Hey.” He had a smile in his voice, as though Martina’s world were not currently coming apart. “How’s your day going?”

  She unloaded on him. “My day? It sucks, thanks. My day totally sucks. And Sofia’s is going to suck, too, when I tell her that her shower isn’t happening.” She was on the verge of tears, and she struggled to tamp them down.

  “Oh, no. What’s going on?”

  She told him about Neptune and the water leak and about her failed efforts to find an alternative location for the event. The part about the weather, he presumably already knew.

  “She’s already freaking out because Mom and Dad can’t be here to see her get married. This is going to send her over the edge.” Martina, herself, felt pretty close to the edge at the moment.

  “Why not have it here?” he asked.

  Martina was silent while the surprise of that hit her. “What, you mean at Cooper House?”

  “Sur
e. Why not? There’s plenty of room, and it’s different. It’s not the same old, same old.”

  She thought about it. Cooper House was a local legend. Sofia had never been there, so it would be new to her. The place was like a mini Hearst Castle—the guests would likely be awed.

  “Are you serious? Really?”

  “Of course I’m serious. You could have it in the ballroom.”

  “You have a ballroom?” She’d never seen the full house; there was an entire wing she’d never had occasion to visit.

  “A small one.”

  Who had a small ballroom in their house that their significant other had never even seen? Chris, that was who. No one else, probably.

  “Oh, my God. That would be ... That’s great. Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver.”

  “No problem.” He sounded pleased to have made her happy, and that lit a little fire in her chest that made her want to hold him, to kiss him.

  “Oh.”

  “What?”

  “Well ... there’s still the issue of food. Neptune was going to provide the food, and now—”

  “That one, I don’t have an answer for,” he said.

  When Martina told Benny about Chris’s offer to use Cooper House, Benny pumped her fist in triumph. “Woo! That’s awesome. I’m surprised we didn’t think to ask him.”

  “It’s good, right?” Martina asked. “People will like it.”

  “Aunt Louisa will crap her pants. She will literally crap her pants.”

  Martina wasn’t sure that was a good thing, but Benny said it as though it were.

  “But there’s still the issue of the food,” Martina said. “I mean, Neptune was going to do that. And now ...”

  “We’ll make it work,” Benny said. “If we have to serve everyone Swanson’s chicken nuggets and Saltines, we’ll make it work.”

  29

  The chicken nuggets and Saltines didn’t turn out to be necessary. Instead, Bianca offered to make a big meal for the invitees.

  “But you’re pregnant!” Martina exclaimed when Bianca made the offer.

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “I just meant ... are you up to it? You’re huge.”

  “I won’t take offense, even though you said that as though I’m a carnival freakshow exhibit,” Bianca said.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  Bianca proceeded as though Martina hadn’t spoken. “I’ve got less than a week until my due date. I need something to keep my mind off counting the days until the baby comes. Besides, I’m not running a marathon. I’m just making some pasta.”

  “Okay. Thank you. Oh, but ...”

  “Yes?”

  “The kitchen at Cooper House is in the middle of renovations, so you’re going to have to do as much as you can at home.”

  Bianca was silent for a moment. Then: “The way things are going, that figures.”

  “There’s a functioning oven and stove. And there’s running water. It’s just kind of a mess because the countertops and the cabinetry are being redone. Oh, God. Is this a bad idea? Should we just cancel?” Martina was starting to panic.

  “No, we shouldn’t cancel. If there’s running water and a stove and an oven, we’ll be fine. Oh, wait. Is there a refrigerator?”

  “Yes! A big one.”

  “Fine. We can do this.”

  “Okay. I’ll let Chris know.”

  Martina also had to alert the baker, who had been told to bring the cake to Neptune. With that done, she and Benny started calling the guests to let them know the change of venue.

  They were able to reach most of the guests on their cell phones as they drove. But a few people weren’t reachable, maybe because their cell phones were out of battery power, or maybe because they were on the road in a part of the state that didn’t get good cell service. Martina called Neptune and asked them to put a sign on the door telling shower guests to go to Cooper House instead and giving them the address and driving directions.

  “Ooh. You’re having it at Cooper House?” The same woman Martina had talked to earlier now sounded both intrigued and impressed. “How did you swing that?”

  “Oh. Christopher Mills is my ... ah … friend.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to say the word boyfriend.

  “God, I wish I could see that place,” she said. “I don’t suppose you could add another person to the guest list?”

  “Oh. I ...”

  “Just kidding. I have to be here to help clean up this mess. God, life is fun, isn’t it?”

  Martina, Benny, and Bianca got to Cooper House early to organize things before the event. They toted wrapped gifts, plastic shopping bags full of decorations, and ingredients for Bianca’s meal, reasoning they could get more of whatever they needed once they realized what it was.

  When they arrived, Chris met them at the door. He ushered them into the living room—the room that would have been called the parlor when the house was built—where a small team of people was busy cleaning, setting up flower arrangements, and rearranging furniture to accommodate a buffet-style meal setup.

  “I thought about the ballroom idea, but Cynthia”—he gestured toward the woman who appeared to be in charge of the work being done—“thought we’d be better off doing it in here.”

  “More intimate,” Cynthia said over her shoulder as she straightened the linen on a large table that had been set up on one side of the room. “Plus, with the rain, it’ll be nice to have the fireplace.”

  At one end of the room, a fire was burning cheerfully in the hearth. Cynthia was right. It was nice.

  “You did all this?” Martina asked Chris. “Just in the time since I called you?”

  “I didn’t do it. Cynthia did.”

  “But ... how did you ...”

  “Alexis had a few parties here,” Chris said, as though he was embarrassed to be bringing up his ex’s name. “Cynthia planned them. It just happened that she was available today, so ...” He gestured expansively toward the room and all that was happening in it.

  “That’s amazing.” Impulsively, Martina threw her arms around Cynthia, who laughed in surprise.

  “What about me?” Chris asked.

  “You, I’ve got more than a hug for.” Her voice was seductive.

  “Oh, boy,” Benny said. “You two want us to leave so you can have the room?”

  “Shut up,” Martina said.

  Bianca had an easier time cooking in the half-dismantled kitchen than they had expected. Because all of the major appliances were in place and working, all she needed was a decent work space. Chris, Benny, and Martina hauled a table from the formal dining room into the kitchen, and that became Bianca’s command central.

  Benny, working as sous-chef, chopped tomatoes for sauce while Bianca browned Italian sausage and chunks of beef.

  “What can I do?” Martina asked them.

  “You can call Patrick and ask him how things are going with Sofia,” Bianca suggested. “Tell him we’re running on schedule but that he should not—I repeat, he should not—get her here early. If she sees this kitchen, she’s going to blow a gasket.”

  “Right. I’ve got it.” Martina went into the next room to talk on the phone because she didn’t want Sofia to overhear any of the chaos if she should somehow be the one to answer the phone.

  Fortunately, Patrick picked up.

  “How’s it going? Are you keeping her distracted?” Martina asked.

  “Mostly. But she keeps wanting to call you to check in. So far I’ve managed to put her off, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep her away from a phone. I’ve managed to lose hers between the car’s seat cushions, but she’s bound to find it soon.”

  “Well, if she calls, I’ll have a story ready.”

  “Good. And, Martina?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thank you. For everything. I know you’re going through hell to make sure this shower happens, and I ... Well. It just means a lot to me.” The sincerity in Patrick’s voice made Martina smile
. She was going to see that Sofia married him even if she had to force her down the aisle at knifepoint.

  Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

  “She’s lucky to have you, Patrick. Really. We all are.” She was starting to get choked up, and they couldn’t have that on top of everything else, so Martina ended the call before she started getting all sentimental in a way that would require tissues and a retouching of her eye makeup.

  Sofia really was lucky to have Patrick—so lucky. And Martina was wondering if maybe she was luckier to have Chris than she’d realized. Yes, they’d had some issues about his money and the relative power imbalance it created. But look what he’d done for her—for her sisters. Look at the trouble he’d gone through to solve their problem and make sure the day went well. He hadn’t had to do any of it, and yet he hadn’t hesitated. She planned to thank him properly later, when they were alone. Until then, she simply marveled at his easy generosity.

  She went back into the kitchen and reported to her sisters that all was well with Sofia for the moment. But Sofia was getting restless and wanted to check in.

  “Well, we’d better make sure that when she does, we’ve only got positive things to tell her,” Bianca said. “Here, Martina. Start making the salad.”

  30

  By the time the guests began to arrive, the rain had let up a little. The fire was burning in the fireplace, the room was warm and inviting, and Cynthia’s tasteful and understated decorations made the room festive and lovely.

  Patrick had waited to tell Sofia about the change in plans until they were on their way to Cooper House. At first she had panicked, Patrick reported, but once she arrived and saw the house, the decorations, and the food, she calmed down and began to enjoy the day.

  “I’m amazed,” Patrick told Martina, Bianca, and Benny as he looked around at the party preparations. “I can’t believe you managed to pull this together. And so well. This is probably going to be better than if it had gone according to the original plan.”