Part 19 (2/2)
”What's going on?” Heidi asked in a small voice.
”A temporary glitch with the bank,” Samantha said. ”Don't worry. We'll be fine.”
She said the same thing to Elena a minute later.
”No me digas mentiras, chica. We have troubles, don't we?”
”We have troubles, yes, but we're going to pull out of them,” Samantha insisted. ”Hang in there with me, okay?” It was asking a lot. Elena needed both the money and the health insurance.
She nodded. ”You know I will.”
Samantha's throat tightened and her eyes stung with tears. ”Thanks,” she managed to say, and shut herself in her office.
The rest of the day was torture. More than one employee came to her wearing a worried expression.
That night she tossed and turned and stared at the ceiling. When she finally slept, her dreams took her to the factory, where she stood alone on the a.s.sembly line, trying to gather a million chocolates off the conveyor belt as they scooted by and put them in boxes. Above her a giant grandfather clock began striking the midnight hour. With the final bong the factory door shot open and the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz swooped in. One s.n.a.t.c.hed her up and out the door they flew. Over a frozen Wenatchee River, it let go and she began to fall.
She woke up right before she hit the ice, her heart pounding. And she'd wanted to go to sleep? What had she been thinking?
She called a meeting with her employees the next day and a.s.sured them that Sweet Dreams was not closing its doors, all the while hoping she didn't end up a liar. ”With Waldo's death we've had a few challenges to work through.” Yeah, and the great flood of Genesis was just a rainstorm.
”But what were those men doing here?” Heidi asked.
”Snooping,” Samantha said.
”I heard one of them was from the bank,” said Chita Arness, a single mom who worked the production line. ”Are they trying to close us down?”
None of Samantha's business cla.s.ses had prepared her for this. She took a deep breath. ”No one is closing us down. My family owes them money and they were checking on their investment. It's that simple.” And that ugly. She didn't have the heart to tell everyone that if they didn't pay up, Cascade Mutual would be selling Sweet Dreams to the highest bidder.
But Chita obviously wasn't fooled.
”What if you can't pay the bank?” she asked. ”What about our jobs?”
”If we were to get bought out, I'm sure you'd still have them.” Trevor Brown would keep everyone employed, wouldn't he? Samantha's stomach churned. ”Don't worry,” she said as much to herself as her employees. ”We're restructuring and, as you all know, we're gearing up for a lot of business the weekend of the chocolate festival. We have no plans to shut our doors, no matter what you may hear to the contrary.” That was her story and she was stickin' to it.
She went back to her apartment drained and ready to do nothing but stare at her TV like a two-legged squash. But vegging out wasn't an option. It was Friday and she had to go to Mr. Dreamy Night-the brainchild of her sister and Charley-which was taking place in the bar at Zelda's. And, according to Cecily, the face of Sweet Dreams needed to be there for the big contest kickoff.
”Well, you'll have to find another face,” she'd said when Cecily had first asked her to attend. ”I'm not going.”
Then Cecily had caught a bad cold. She was still in bed, slurping Mom's homemade chicken soup and watching old movies on her computer and guess who was going to Mr. Dreamy Night.
Samantha pulled her hair into a sloppy ponytail, put on a black skirt, her favorite V-neck gray sweater and a pair of boots and left it at that. No way was she freshening up her makeup or getting all dolled up for what could very well prove to be a repeat of the Bill Will incident. Cecily and Charley had promised her things wouldn't get out of hand, but she knew better. Her whole life was out of hand. Why would tonight be any different?
There wasn't much to eat in the fridge but that was okay. Since her confrontation with the vultures earlier in the week she'd had no appet.i.te, anyway.
She got to the restaurant at quarter to eight. The dining area was almost empty with only a few older people and one or two couples. From the noise drifting out from the bar, it wasn't hard to figure out where all the customers had gone.
”Everyone's raring to go,” Charley told her. ”Go on in and order a drink. I'll be there as soon as I can get away.”
Samantha entered the bar. It was so packed with people both standing and sitting, she could hardly see the vintage pictures of twenties gangsters and flappers that hung on the wall. Laughter and loud talk rolled over her like a tidal wave. This was going to be a zoo. No one under the age of forty had stayed home tonight; they were all here, slurping huckleberry martinis and chowing down on hot wings and pretzels. Samantha looked around and saw that most of the tables were occupied by couples, but there were also plenty of singles. Four women sat at one table, clearly out hunting for their own Mr. Dreamy. They were dressed to the max in outfits designed to show both cleavage and leg and wore full makeup. At another table she spotted a couple of grocery checkers from Safeway, probably new Mr. Dreamy contestants.
Rita Reyes, looking hot in her simple black shorts and s.h.i.+rt and requisite flapper headband, came over to Samantha, bearing a sheaf of papers. It was impressively thick. ”New entries,” she said.
”Just from tonight?”
”Yeah. Oh, Charley said to ply you with booze. What would you like?”
The way her week had been going? a.r.s.enic. ”I don't know.”
”Your sister had Hank invent a drink for the night-a chocolate kiss. They're pretty popular. Want to try one?”
What she really wanted was to go home and feel sorry for herself but that wouldn't help, so she said, ”Sure.”
”Charley will be here soon. We're about done out in the restaurant.”
Samantha was about done in here and they hadn't even started.
”The s.h.i.+rtless-man parade's in twenty minutes. She'll be MCing it.”
s.h.i.+rtless-man parade. Oh, Lord. Cecily had conveniently neglected to tell her about that. ”Hurry up with my drink,” Samantha said weakly.
She tried her best to shrink into the shadows, but failed. Several women dragged their boyfriends over to schmooze and a couple of guys offered to buy her drinks. And then-oh, no-here came Bill Will.
”Samantha!”
She held up a hand. ”No singing.”
He grabbed a chair from the other side of her little table and set it next to her, then slid onto it and slipped an arm around her shoulders. ”Oh, come on,” he teased.
Rita arrived with her drink and she grabbed the gla.s.s and took a swallow. ”Wow, this is good,” she said in surprise.
”What it needs is a Sweet Dreams chocolate in it,” Bill Will said, going for shameless flattery.
Actually, though, that was a good idea.
Red Ralston, who worked on the guest ranch with Bill Will, came over and seated himself in a chair on her other side. ”Hey, is Bill Will trying to bribe you?”
”I can't be bribed,” she said. ”Anyway, the compet.i.tion isn't tonight. You both know that. This is just the kickoff.”
”We know,” Red said amiably.
”And I'm not the only judge.”
”You're the most important one,” Bill Will said, giving her a playful b.u.mp with his shoulder.
<script>