“Yeah, everything’s fine. Um … the painters are at the house. They’re covering everything in gray. It’s … blah.”
“Blah gray! I know that one well. I have it in my new commercial kitchen.” It was there when we took possession and it seemed pointless to spend money painting it. “It’s boring, but it’ll help sell the place.”
“Yeah, that’s what Tony said.”
“How is he?” Henry said Alex sent his best Philly agent to them.
“Yeah, he’s okay. Gramps likes him.”
“Well, that’s important.” Silence hangs over the phone for a few long beats. I wonder if she’s heard from Henry, but I don’t ask. There must be a reason for this call.
“So, I have this project for school. We have to design a business with, like, a whole plan.”
“That sounds like a big project.”
“Yeah, it’s thirty percent of my grade and I’m kind of behind on it, because of my mom and all that. Anyway, do you think I could ask you some questions?”
“Me?”
“Yeah. You said you had a company, right? Soap or something?”
“Yeah, I do, but …” I falter. “You know, Henry would be the better person to ask.” If anyone understands the business world, it’s him.
There’s a long pause and then, “You know what, it’s okay. I’ll find someone else—”
“No, no! It’s fine. I can help you with this. Or try, at least.” This is Henry’s daughter. She’s going to be my stepdaughter, a reality I haven’t wrapped my head around yet. The fact that she’s coming to me—that she hasn’t written me off as her father’s much younger fiancée—is something. “How much do you have done already?”
“Um … well, it’s kind of hard to say.”
I see where this is going. “You haven’t started yet, have you?”
“Define start.” I don’t know her well, but I’m sure there is a sheepish smile behind that voice.
“And when’s it due?”
“The first half, on Monday?”
I flop back in my chair. How am I supposed to fit this in? It’s already Thursday and I’ll be in this kitchen all weekend, preparing for next week’s launch. But it doesn’t sound like Violet has time to spare.
“I have tomorrow off school,” Violet says, as if that fixes everything. “I could take the train in and meet you somewhere?”
I don’t have time to meet her in the city, but I want to make this work. An idea strikes me. “Why doesn’t Victor pick you up and bring you to my office? You can spend the day with me and learn about what I’m doing.” We spend a few minutes planning and by the time we end the call, I feel like I might be able to help her.
But I’m still overwhelmed. “Come on, Miles!” I rest my forehead on my desk. I’m desperate to mark something off this stupid checklist.
A knock sounds.
“Come in!” I roll my head toward the door.
It creaks open and Annie pokes her curly blond head in. She winces when she sees me. “Hey, the photographer is here for that PR campaign?”
“What photog—oh my God.” The photo shoot. “I totally forgot. How did I forget I had that?”
“’Cause you have a lot on your plate right now?”
My phone chirps with the jewelry contact info from Miles, as if to punctuate Annie’s point. “Okay, can you tell him I’ll be there in five minutes? Ten at most. I need to make this call first.”
“Yeah, of course. I’ll get him to start setting up.”
“Thank you.” I afford my new assistant a tired smile. She’s a twenty-five-year-old college graduate and the last one I interviewed. We clicked right away. She, too, grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania with an overbearing parent—though, in her case, it’s her father. She started on Monday and already I don’t know how I’d live without her. “Can I ask your opinion on something?”
She cocks her head. “Sure. Shoot.”
I hold up the four invitation samples. “If you had to choose one of these for your wedding, which would you pick?”
She bites her bottom lip as her green eyes—magnified behind glasses—shift back and forth, scrutinizing them. “Definitely the second one. It’s modern but timeless.”
“That was Raj’s first choice too.”
“I don’t know who Raj is, but he sounds smart.” She grins.