I walked into the house and noticed the lack of personal touches, and I was already thinking of the rental astemporary.
“Fuck,” I muttered when I realized I wanted a house with Slash that was truly ours. A house where we could paint the walls whatever colors we wanted, design a nursery, a big kitchen three times the space of what I had now. Something we could be proud of that we didn’t rent and didn’t have to move out of.
Maybe the idea of a big house wasn’t such a terrible idea. Filled with kids, laughter, and love.
There would be plenty of time for all that later. For now I needed to focus on work. I set my purse down and kicked off my shoes. I put on the tea kettle to boil and then I opened my laptop.
My email notifications had gone nuts.
Email after email poured in for catering jobs.
I called Jazz.
“Hello?”
“You know that scene in Bruce Almighty when he gets to be God, and he opens his Yahoo mail account and it’s just a deluge of emails? Yeah, that’s me right now,” I said without greeting. “That tag on social has started an onslaught of potential business.”
“Yeah, I’ve already gotten some private messages through our Instagram account. I told them to fill out the website form, but this is crazy.”
“We’re not going to be able to take all these,” I said. “Not with Imogene’s wedding and the scale of what’s required to make sure it goes off without a hitch.”
“No, we’re not. Are we even going to be able to sleep?” she asked.
“Sleep’s not even the issue. There’s only one of me, Jazz. I mean, you’re amazing, but we’re going to need to hireat leasta couple of trained patisserie chefs.”
“So, we hire help a little sooner than we planned.”
I fell silent.
She sighed. “Tight on funds again?”
“Still. Tight on fundsstill. I hate this. I’m tired of playing catch up.”
So many businesses failed because they didn’t have the cash flow to grow. No matter how much I tried not to think about the future, it was always popping up in my present. I would have to go on maternity leave, and then what? Let the business I grew with Jazz fail because I wasn’t at the helm running the show? I realized I was going to have to hire someone to replace me, even in the interim. Someone who could do what I did without being watched or trained from scratch.
“I have an idea,” Jazz said.
“I’m not asking Slash. That’s too much.
“I wasn’t going to suggest that.”
“Oh, then what were you going to say?”
“We hire Brielle.”
“Brielle isn’t a patisserie chef,” I pointed out.
“No. She’s definitely not a patisserie chef. But we need help organizing and scheduling with all this new business. Brielle is great at that. She’s worked at her brothers’ tattoo shop scheduling their appointments. Not to mention, she’s got some money saved. She could be a cash investor, you know?”
“Is this how it’s done?” I asked. “We just keep flying on whims and hope for the best?”
“You got any better ideas?”
“No.”
“Besides, three is better than one. And isn’t it better to do business with friends—people you can trust?”
“Well, actually, no—”