The Caterer

Chapter 4

T ABBY DRUMMED HER FINGERS on the railing in the elevator while it made its slow crawl to the seventh floor. Three days. Three days and the WlkmNt would be live, and then she could breathe. The party Friday night had been what she needed to refocus her attention. Nothing would derail this moment. Failure was not a word Tabby understood. She had never failed at anything. Her mother taught her how to work hard and plan for every contingency. Never get caught off guard. She didn’t ask for the hype around her website, but was not going to shy away from it.

TabiKat’s offices shared the floor with an investment firm and a real estate agency. Both had glass doors leading to their offices, while TabiKat looked like the entrance to a closet. People missed it all the time. She asked the landlord if they could paint the door red or put their logo on it. The man had yet to get back to her, which was fine. Fine. Just a few more days and TabiKat would be the talk of D.C., and they could move somewhere better.

The office featured an open floor plan with cubicles in the center. She had an office, Mo Mo had one, the head of finance had one. A conference room and break area backed up to the inside wall. She humored the impersonal off-white paint and a sad bluish-gray carpet. After the launch, she’d spruce up the place. Until then, every dollar went into hiring the best coders and marketers. No point having a gorgeous office space if their products didn’t do what they needed to.

She’d pulled her best two coders off WlkmNt to help with BackDoor, unwilling to let the press die away before launching her second project. It took all her restraint not to jump into BackDoor full-time, but as Mo Mo reminded her—she needed to keep her eye on the prize.

“Spying on my sister again?” Tabby walked into her office where Harry stood at the window, Alice’s food truck barely visible at the end of the street.

“Have you ever eaten there?” he asked.

“I don’t like cilantro. Why are you here?”

“Just wanted to check in…”

“Harry, you’re a silent partner. Silent. Isn’t there some college girl in Miami you can be hitting on right now?” She sat and turned her computer on.

“Now I know why your sister hates me.” He parked in the chair across from her, putting his left foot on his right knee.

“My sister is discerning without my help. Why are you here?”

“We want to talk about going public—”

“We’re not going public! For the love. I didn’t do all this work to turn control of my company over to a bunch of stock people.”

“This could be the biggest opening since Priceline. The revenue, Tabs…”

“I don’t care about the money.” She stopped and took a deep breath. Yes, the idea of making an easy couple million did appeal. It would restock her family’s budget, get Paul to stop worrying about their lack of a rainy day fund. It would set the firm up to do what she wanted. But it would also be losing control of her company. She didn’t want to muddy the waters more, or worse, risk someone else buying them out .

“I think you’re being shortsighted,” Harry said. “The attention we’re getting…”

“And I think you see my company as a way to bypass having to be an adult. If you hate being a lobbyist, put that law degree your dad paid for to use and go be an ambulance chaser.”

Harry scoffed. “You’re not the only voice in the company, Tabs.”

“I am the majority one.”

“The three of us together out own you and I think we should get a say in our future.”

She only owned 46 percent of her company. The other three held 18 percent each. Maybe she should take Mo Mo up on his offer, at least get over the 50 percent mark. But this was her paranoia sneaking up again. She was the brains behind things, The Stooges knew that. Without her, TabiKat did not exist. What incentive did they have to oust her?

“Give it a year,” she said. Harry groaned. “We’ll launch the apps, increase revenue and work on other projects. We get $100 a share now, give me a year it could be $200, easily.” She leaned into the desk. “Have you thought about what going public means outside of the money? The hassle of shareholders and more voices? We wanted this company to build apps that help people. You think a bunch of money-hungry investors care about quality over what makes a quick buck?”

Harry studied her. The wildcard. Paul told her to think long and hard about bringing Harry on. But he brought access to his father, and endless money. The fact that Mr. Clarks funded her at such a level and his entitled son only held 18 percent of her company was a stroke of luck.

“So you won’t even discuss it?” he asked.

“I didn’t come this far to let someone else take all the credit. If you want to sell, give me six months, and I’ll buy you out for what you paid.”

“My shares are worth more than that now.” He gave a slight laugh .

She shrugged. “I’m not selling my company.”

Harry stood and walked to the door. A GQ model to the core down to the messy light brown hair, full lips, coffee-brown eyes. It drew her to him in college. Now she knew looks only went so far and after she met Paul, the dimwit before her didn’t spark much of anything.

“I’m going to go see if I can reason Alice into helping you see the light.”

“Please, my sister is even less impressed with you than I am.” She turned her attention to her computer.

“World must look pretty nice from your glass castle. I hate to think what happens when you can’t dictate those around you anymore.” He left. Tabby kept herself from calling after him. G et through the launch and buy him out. The less control he held over her company, the better.

To take her mind off the encounter, Tabby went to work with the coders. She reread every piece of feedback from the beta testers and tried to test for every contingency. Please let this thing work on a larger scale.

Moe and Carrie walked across the office toward the elevators together, Carrie waving hello. Tabby raised her hand, finding it odd they were going to lunch. Mo Mo probably wanted to vent about her. Men and their feeble emotions. If only Alice got how much Tabby understood double standards and sexism. If Tabby wanted a Bloody Mary lunch to vent about her meeting with Harry, she’d be emotional. But for Mo Mo to do it with Carrie was just letting off steam. She’d take the kids to the pool after work, get a cucumber mojito and vent to Alice. Her mother taught her discretion in who one let into her inner circle. After twelve years together, Paul should know where her deep-seated mistrust came from. Try having a mother who controlled the House with an iron fist for seventeen years .

MO MO CAME BACK two hours later. Maybe it was time to patch things up. Paul told her to get through the launch, but after Harry’s comments and Carrie’s surprise appearance, Tabby needed to get a hold on things. Mo Mo saw her coming and tried to leave the cubicle he stood in. Tabby followed him into his office and closed the door.

“I thought about your offer,” she said. “I’ll buy part of your shares.”

“That offer is gone.” He fidgeted with the pen in his hands.

“You made it to me Friday.”

“And you told me to take my boyish insecurity to a bottle of whiskey. So I did.” He shook his head, seeming to debate something. “And you were right, I looked a year into the future, and losing shares is not what I’m interested in.”

“That’s great. You can enjoy that position with 13 percent as much as 18.”

Moe chuckled sadly. “I know you’re the vision behind TabiKat, no one will deny that. But maybe Carrie’s right, and there’s something about keeping you in line that feels good.”

“What does that mean?” She told herself to not overreact. Her best friend could be catty when she needed to feel better about herself. Take out her fears as a single mother with three failed marriages out on Tabby instead of doing some basic self-reflecting. Tabby was about to give Carrie access to a whole new world of wealthy men and Carrie chose to bash her reputation. What had Carrie done but marry well to deserve the benefits of Thursday?

“We know we’re a means to an end for you. But you still need us.”

“As long as we’re in this together.” She stressed the last word. Moe held her gaze and nodded once.

“Together,” he said slowly. Tabby scoffed and walked out of the office. Let Paul tell her she was being paranoid now.