by Dylan Newton
“It’s not all bad, I’m sure.” Imani snagged the last clean towel from the cabinet and dampened the edge with hot water from the faucet. She positioned Kate in front of the mirror, dabbed at her face, then put the towel down. “Tell me about it while we get you cleaned up.”
Kate caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and groaned. Her makeup looked like she’d slept in it. For a month. And her hair! She frantically tried to collect the snarled mess in both hands and then realized she didn’t even have a rubber band to pull it all back.
“Oh my god, I am a walking nightmare. You should fire me. Right now before something worse happens.” Kate turned from her reflection to snatch at the doorknob, but Imani blocked her escape, stepping neatly in the way while unbuttoning her trench coat and reaching into an inside pocket.
“I think you might be exaggerating.” Imani pulled out a black hair tie with two fingers, and Kate reluctantly took it and began wrestling her hair into submission.
“I can’t believe I blew it. You seriously won’t hurt my feelings if you take me off the launch. I’ll go in and apologize and then help you find someone else.”
Imani rolled her eyes. “Don’t be weird. It can’t have been that bad—you’ve only been here, what? A half hour? Forty minutes, tops. I’m sure we can salvage this…just as soon as we clean you up. Here. Let’s trade—your skirt is ripped so far up the back, I can almost determine when you had your last Brazilian.”
Kate released a stream of profanities under her breath, her hand automatically clutching the skirt closed, even though they were still in the bathroom. She allowed Imani to help her out of her wet, dog-stamped, buttonless jacket and into her friend’s burnt-orange trench, cinching it tight to cover her exposed bits.
Imani folded the bad-luck jacket, setting it on the closed toilet lid. Her red lips curved into a smile. “There. Now you look like the Kate Sweet we all know and love. The best event planner in the business. The gal who puts the pro in professional. The Queen of Happily Ever Afters!”
“Not today.” Kate shooed away the pep talk. “Look at me! I wore the only black suit I owned because I read online that he prefers black. This suit was too tight, so my buttons popped off, and then I accidentally stabbed him with my heels—”
“Wait. You stabbed him with your heels?” Imani’s face was taut with concern. “Were you defending yourself? Drake has always been a perfect gentleman. I’ve never even heard of him being disrespectful of anyone, but if he touched you, I’ll make sure he never—”
“No! He didn’t touch me!” Kate soothed, patting the air between them with both hands in a calm-down gesture. “Well, except when he had his hand on my bottom in his yard when I was trying to get away from his dog. He wasn’t being unprofessional, though—it was the only place he could hold on when I climbed him.”
Imani squinted, shaking her head. “I can’t figure out what you’re telling me, Katie. You…climbed Drake Matthews? Because of Sasha?”
She nodded, miserable. “Saturday afternoon when we were on the phone, the connection cut out as you were trying to warn me about something terrifying. When I heard Sasha bark at me from the bushes, I thought you meant his Doberman—the one from the YouTube video. So, I panicked. I scaled him like a freaking koala on a eucalyptus tree!”
“Wow. That was disturbingly specific.” Imani chuckled. “I’m sorry—I didn’t realize you hadn’t heard me. All I said was watch out for the fans who gather around his house—they’re like stalkers and can be terrifying in their zeal to get an autograph. His Doberman, Cade, passed away a few years ago. Look, I’m sure if we go back and talk with him, we can—”
Suddenly, there was a knock at the powder room door. Kate’s heart leaped in her throat. Had Drake heard her whole whining fit? Had he been witness to even this embarrassing moment?
“Ladies?”
Worse than Drake. It was Evan. The man who held her future EVPLEX in his proverbial hand had likely just eavesdropped on her meltdown.
Kate wanted to die.
Imani put a hand on Kate’s arm. “Sorry, Evan. Give us one more second here, and we’ll be out to join you both.”
“No rush. No rush at all, because I’m afraid to say that he’s left. And, erm…” Evan cleared his throat again, and Kate could envision him giving a nervous twirl to the ends of his mustache. “…he fired us.”
“He fired us?” Imani spluttered, throwing open the powder room door. “All of us?”
One of Hollywood’s most famous film producers stared back at them—his face and shirt wet, and his mustache drooping, stuck to the sides of his face. He looked like he’d been out in the rain, but only the front of him was wet, and he smelled like whiskey.
He fingered his damp mustache, and then dropped his hand, nodding with a sigh.
“His exact words were, ‘There will be no next book, no movie, and no book launch. I’m done with all of you. Let yourselves out, and don’t come back.’”
Chapter 5
All right, I don’t know about you, but after that debacle, I’m in dire need of a coffee and something decadent.” Imani tugged Kate out of the hotel where, after depositing Evan in his suite, Kate had changed out of her bad-luck suit and into a Tiffany-blue sweater and a pair of jeans. Imani had called the office to talk to her boss—Trisha Cabot, the head of sales and marketing—so she could explain what happened. But she learned that Trisha had to go in for an emergency root canal and would be out all day.
Kate had never been so thankful for tooth decay in her whole life.
“You’re one of the most clever, resourceful people I know,” she had reassured Imani. “And I’m sure we can come up with something to fix this.”
Imani gnawed at the inside of her lip. “You’re right. If we can figure this out before Trisha is back in the office tomorrow, then my update will be simple: we had a crisis. It’s managed. And if we can’t fix it…”
“Then, I’ll call Trisha myself and explain it was all my fault. I’ll step down, get you someone else, and still help you in the wings. For free. No way am I letting my best friend be fired.” Kate hugged Imani to her, planting a loud kiss on her cheek.
Now, three hours later, if Kate hadn’t been so jacked up with adrenaline from their brainstorming session, she might’ve done like Drake Matthews and fainted from nerves as she trailed Imani out of the hotel. How did she screw things up so royally? She was the responsible one. The one who created detailed plans to avoid failure at any cost, and here she’d blown it so spectacularly, she might have cost her best friend her job!
“What kind of arctic wormhole did we enter?” Kate asked, shivering as they trotted down the uneven sidewalk, headed away from their hotel and toward the four blocks that composed the entire “downtown” area. “It’s only the first week of October, and this place might be shoveling snow by tomorrow? It’s ridiculous.”
Suddenly, Imani’s phone trilled. When she checked the readout, she halted so abruptly, Kate faltered on the icy sidewalk, almost falling for the second time that day.
“What is it?” Kate asked, gripping her friend’s arm to steady herself as she peered over her shoulder.
Imani used her teeth to pry the glove off her hand to activate her phone readout. “Drake replied to my apology email.”
Kate’s heart thudded in her chest. “What does he say?”
Imani’s brown eyes darted back and forth as she read, her cherry red lips moving silently. When she finished, she exhaled, tipping her head to the sky, letting the snow melt on her face.
“It says he’s sorry he kicked us out, and he didn’t mean to say I was fired. He said there’s a past with Everstone I couldn’t have known about, and he’s willing to listen to my ideas for a launch but will no longer promise to commit. And…there’s some other stuff. But the point is, he’s willing to discuss things with me. Isn’t that great?”
“Oh, thank goodness.” Kate hugged her friend so tightly she squealed. “What time will we meet him tomorrow,
then? I want to have several ideas, so in case he kills the haunted house, we’ll have a few solid backup plans.”
Imani pulled away, fidgeting with her impressively messy-yet-every-hair-in-place bun.
“Well, here’s the thing…Drake didn’t exactly say he wanted to…um, I mean he sort of alluded to…”
“To what?” Kate asked, moving out of the way as a woman carrying a huge pink bakery box passed them on the sidewalk. The smell of vanilla and baked goods wafted out, but Kate was too focused on her best friend’s face to care.
“He said I’m not fired. He didn’t say anything about Evan. Or you.”
Kate blinked in astonishment. “What? Are you saying that he reconsidered firing you, but he doesn’t mean to un-fire me?”
Imani’s face took on a queasy expression—the look she always got when put in a position where there might be conflict.
“Well, I think he might need some time, Katie, before we bring you back on the project. Thing is…” Imani winced as if expecting a blow, and Kate braced herself. “Drake is still ‘undecided’ about having a launch at all, after hearing your ideas. He’s…well, he’s going to call his agent to see if he can get out of the launch part of the contract altogether.”
“Oh.” Kate’s heart sank to her toes. Although it stung her ego to be fired from the project, it gutted her to think her best friend’s job working with Cerulean’s top clients might be in serious jeopardy. All because of her.
Noticing Kate’s expression, Imani tugged her hand, steering them both down the town’s tiny Main Street toward a promising sign that read PattyCakes and Coffee.
“Don’t freak out. I’m sure Drake will come around. Give me a couple of days with him. Maybe a week. Then he’ll be back on board with the best event professional in the business.”
Her best friend grinned with confidence, but Kate saw a glimmer of doubt behind her expression.
“I’m so sorry I’ve put you in this position,” Kate repeated for the millionth time since leaving Drake’s Victorian. “I’ll do whatever it takes. He doesn’t have to know I’m helping you.”
Imani pushed open the door to PattyCakes and Coffee, releasing an aroma of baked goods so heavenly, both women paused to inhale deeply, saying “Mmmm” in unison.
“It’ll be fine, Katie, I promise. Let’s treat ourselves to something sweet enough to put us both in a sugar coma for the rest of the day. What do you say?”
Kate gave a wan smile, swallowing the bile in her throat as they approached the front counter. The café wasn’t as small as she’d expected from the street, extending far enough to allow for several tables. The bakery had a cute 1950s décor, with black and white tiles done on the floor in a diagonal, as well as vintage-inspired red Formica tables and chairs. It looked like something from that old sitcom Happy Days. Lining the walls were vintage photographs of various people and buildings—presumably things from Wellsville’s past.
They headed to the back to order, and Kate’s mouth watered at the selection of treats in the curved, glass-encased counter. The smell of cinnamon, vanilla, and sugary goodness made Kate’s stomach rumble, reminding her she hadn’t eaten in hours.
“Welcome to PattyCakes,” said a woman with snapping blue eyes and salt-and-pepper hair done in a straight, chin-length bob. She stood in a frilly pink apron behind the counter, giving them a sparkling smile. “I’m Patty, and this is my place. Are you two from out of town? Would you like me to go over my specials for fall?”
Imani nodded, and after listening to the myriad of options, they both decided on chai tea lattes and a pumpkin-and-ginger–spiced cupcake called the “Pumpkin Maniac.” They took a table at the side of the mostly empty café to wait for their order, and just as they’d wrestled out of their coats and sat down, Imani’s cell phone dinged.
“It’s Evan,” Imani said, standing up. “He bought a flight out of Buffalo to LA tonight and needs a ride to the airport. I’m summoned to come and pick him up. Now.”
Kate groaned. “But we need to finish brainstorming a few more ideas for this launch. Isn’t that a bigger priority? Can’t Mr. Everstone rent his own car and drive himself?”
Imani barked a laugh. “First, Evan is my boss’s VIP, and if I screw up that relationship too, I might as well resign. Second, the guy is constantly on his phone, working. He’d never willingly give up two hours of productivity to do something as mundane as driving. Besides, I can use the time to smooth things over with him and Drake before either of them quit on the movie adaptation of Halloween Hacker. We can’t lose Evan Everstone—his name is like Hollywood gold, as you very well know, my EVPLEX-seeking friend.”
Kate blew out a breath, sagging into her seat. “Fine. But I’m eating your cupcake.”
Imani laughed, sliding on her leather gloves.
“It’ll be late by the time I get him on his flight, so I think I’ll crash in Buffalo and drive back early tomorrow. I’ll call you once I’m checked in, and we’ll button up our approach options, and I’ll send them in an email to Drake tonight. Then, if we haven’t heard from him by morning, I can swing over to his place on my way back into town and…”
“Offer me as a willing sacrifice?” Kate gave a grimace-smile.
“Drake is a reasonable guy, so I’m sure he’ll come around about the launch and about you.” Imani rolled her coffee-colored eyes at Kate’s skeptical expression. “Trust me. I’ve known him for a while and I can tell: he’s one of the good ones.”
Kate waved Imani off with a smile. “Don’t worry about me. Focus on saving yourself from the mess I got you into. Drive safely, and I’ll talk to you later.”
With Imani gone, the whole weight of her idiocy crashed in on Kate, and she stared at the tiny boomerang shapes on the vintage, chrome-lined table, racking her brain for ways to fix this debacle.
“Did your friend have an emergency and have to leave?” asked a woman’s voice at her side.
Kate jumped as Patty deposited two steaming cups of fragrant tea and two cupcakes, each on a beautiful chintz plate, in front of Kate. “I can put the tea in a to-go cup and box up that extra cupcake, if you’d like?”
“Oh, thanks, but she’ll be gone for the night.” Kate sat up straighter and blinked away the tears she hadn’t realized were right there. “Wow. These smell delicious! What a great name too. Who doesn’t want a ‘Pumpkin Maniac’ cupcake in their life?”
A smile wreathed the woman’s pink-cheeked face.
“They are Drake Matthews’s favorite cupcakes, after all, so we figured they ought to be aptly named. Next to snickerdoodles, it’s the only other baked good he eats. He always says it’s the salty snacks that are his downfall, not the sweet ones.”
Kate pasted a smile on her face, although the mention of the author’s name brought with it a wave of anger and despair, in equal measure. “Is he in here often, then?”
The woman tilted her head, considering. “Hardly ever. But his picture is everywhere, so it feels like he’s here more often than he actually is, I guess.”
The woman’s gaze had drifted to a framed photo on the wall a few feet above Kate’s head. Looking up, Kate was surprised to see she’d been sitting underneath a photo of Drake, smiling and posed next to a full bookshelf. Summoning a pleasant expression, Kate cleared her throat.
“Must be a pretty fantastic cupcake to pass muster with Drake Matthews. He seemed very particular about what he’d give his approval to when I met him. I assume you know him, then, being that he lives a few miles away?”
The woman smiled, her right eyebrow raising a fraction. “Of course. Everyone here knows Drake. Or at least, they think they do. You met him recently?”
Kate nodded, unable to keep the grimace off her mouth.
“I sort of made an idiot of myself earlier today while in his presence. Accidentally, of course, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Anyway, I’m sure the cupcake is going to be a bomb dessert if he’s approved it. Thanks so much!”
Kate meant the last to be
a subtle dismissal of the shop’s owner. But instead of taking the hint, she sat in Imani’s seat, cupping her chin in her hands with the manner of someone settling down to hear a good story.
“I can’t leave until you have some,” she finally said. “I hardly ever get anyone new in here, and I like to know I haven’t lost my touch. Besides, nothing in this world is so bad that a good cupcake can’t fix it, if only for a while. Go on, try it!”
When it became clear the woman with her frilly pink apron wouldn’t leave until she’d witnessed a bite, Kate peeled away the wrapper and nibbled at the mountain of white frosting. Her mouth flooded with the decadent taste of thick cream cheese—not the buttercream she’d expected—and Kate moaned, opening wider for the second bite.
“Mmm!” Kate closed her eyes to savor the flavors of pumpkin and spices on her tongue. The cake was the perfect consistency—not too dense or too moist—and the smooth frosting provided enough cream cheese goodness to cut the sweetness. “This is outstanding!”
Patty clapped her hands in pleasure.
“All right, I’ll leave you to finish in peace. Did you want me to box this up for your friend, then?”
“Nah. Leave it,” Kate managed around another mouthful of pumpkin cupcake. “I’m going to finish hers, too. This is literally the best thing that’s happened to me. All. Day. Long.”
The truth of the statement hit her hard then, and even with a lump of delicious dessert in her mouth, her chin began to wobble. The day’s stress chose that time to unload its baggage, and first one tear fell from her eye, then another, and before Kate realized what was happening, she was bawling right in the middle of the café, all over her dessert.
“I’m so s-s-s-sorry,” Kate stuttered through her tears, finally swallowing down the mouthful of cupcake before she choked, as the mass of it battled the lump in her throat. “I don’t know what’s gotten into m-me. I don’t mean to cause a scene!”
She snatched napkins from the table’s dispenser, burying her face in them so the woman wouldn’t see her cry. Other girls could pull off crying and still look lovely.