The Caterer

Chapter 47

D ELANY RAISED HIS HAND and weaved through the tables toward Collins. Collins folded the paper, asking Delany about his weekend. What to say? Helene was with her mother for the week, giving him time to figure out what to do. He unfroze the account, needing to keep Nadia in the dark. His financial guy knew to call him if anything happened.

“Mr. Clare?” Tabby Black walked toward his table. “I thought that was you.”

He stood. “Mrs. Black. This is…” He started to introduce Collins.

“I don’t particularly care. This won’t take long. Are you proud of yourself?”

“Mrs. Black, I want to apologize again…”

“It’s not what you did to me. It’s how you treated my sister, strung her along. You opened your Rolodex and then slammed it shut when she demanded better from you! ”

“That’s not what…”

“No, it is. Both of us went against your crony and lost. Both of us dared to take a stand against the irrefutable Bobbie Dunn and have nothing left to show for it. My sister—she pours her heart and soul into every dish she makes.” She talked over his objection, Delany deciding to just go silent. “She worked hard to get to the top of Cornelia’s kitchen, and when he died…” She stopped. “You men are all the same. I’m glad my sister still owns her company. I guess she’s the lucky one.”

“If you’re talking about Bobbie’s…”

Tabby laughed. “Do you know, I can’t get an interview because of Bobbie. He told firms not to hire me because I stood up to you. He’s lied and said there is a non-compete clause or if they hired me, he’d freeze them out of the area. I don’t understand how someone who is so connected into the community and longs to help the little guy as much as you pretend to can tolerate someone like him. Surely the bro code doesn’t go that far. I’m sorry Alice lost her food truck. She might need it at the rate Bobbie is going.”

“What happened to her food truck?” Delany asked slowly. Tabby crossed her arms.

“There was a fire at the place she stored it, burnt to a crisp. She’s devastated.”

There had been a text on Bobbie’s phone from an unnamed number about something burning. He felt ready to throw up, only wanting to hit a wall from what he had been so blind to.

“Mrs. Black, I didn’t know…”

Tabby laughed. “Save it. My website, the business you stole—it was my Hasty Pudding. Bobbie Dunn cut me out, lied to keep Moe in line. Your little takeover never would have happened if Moe could have done what he wanted and let me get over 50 percent.”

“I never meant to hurt you or your sister.”

“That doesn’t mean much now, does it? Enjoy your lunch.” She walked away. Delany paused for a moment before he sat down, apologizing to Collins.

“She’s right, you know. Bobbie called to tell me to back out. I guess there was some guy you grew up with he wanted at the hotel. He said he’d hate to see me move my family from Miami for nothing.”

Delany knew who Bobbie was thinking of and wouldn’t hire him if his life depended on it.

“Well, thank you for saying no.”

He got outside the restaurant before slipping his trilby on. He looked down the road, the city feeling different. He called Katy and asked her to set up a meeting with the head of finance and Macon’s chief lawyer at an off-site location. It was time to do something about Bobbie Dunn.

#

TABBY SET HER BAG on the bench and slid off her heels. She looked at where Alice usually put her bike, missing her sister. In the kitchen, her mother helped the twins with their homework. She thought getting to say everything she wanted since losing TabiKat would make her feel vindicated. She thought seeing Delany’s guilt over her jabs at his integrity, being able to call out his henchmen, making him look her in the eye as she told him what his acquisition did to her, would liberate her from hating him, instead she just felt hollow.

“Am I holding onto things?” she asked when her mother came to say hello. Her mother leaned against the counter and loosely crossed her arms.

“You’re mad over losing your company, fine, but be mad at who you need to be mad at. Call Carrie and tell her she’s a self-involved snot. Go see Harry and hold him to account. You’ve been firing cannonballs at everyone around you instead of facing what happened and finding a way to move on. ”

“I worked so hard on that website.” She looked at her mother.

“I know you did. No one will deny you made that business. I get it. I poured my heart and sweat into bills that died for political convenience. I gave my district twenty-seven years, and the party nominated a man I cannot stand. It’s part of being in the fight. But you need to learn to separate your disappointments from those around you. You need to start letting what’s bothering you be what bothers you, and stop making it about Paul’s job or your sister’s career or the PTA.” Maryanne put her hand on Tabby’s cheek. “Alice should have told you. We told her to tell you. I won’t excuse her actions. But she is not the issue here, is she?”

“How do I let go, Mom?”

Mac got Annie laughing at something, their homework forgotten.

“Don’t make my mistake and lose sight of your real legacy.” Her mother kissed her cheek and started to load the dishwasher. Tabby watched her children laugh. All along she’d been denying these four walls held what mattered. Paul’s absence and her children learning to function without her made her realize she did not want to become replaceable. Growing up she wished her mother would give the girls half the attention her district got. They were second, or tenth, behind poll numbers and backdoor deals. Tabby felt overlooked, desperate for a crumb of her mother’s day. How had she repeated the mistake with her own children? Nothing was worth doing if her family—the four of them—weren’t in it together.

“Can you stay for a little longer?” she asked her mother, who told Tabby to go. Tabby thanked her and went to the garage. She got into her car and drove into the District. Fear threatened to stop her, but she refused to listen to it anymore. Nothing—not her pride or her need to be right or the grief that felt like a noose—was worth it if Paul wasn’t with her. She hated the idea of pouring her soul to some nosy nelly counselor, but maybe her family had a point.

She knocked on Alice’s apartment door, praying her sister was at an event. Paul opened the door in jeans and a Wizards T-shirt.

“Can I come in?” she asked, having no idea what to say. He stepped back and she moved inside, the TV on, Paul’s work spread across the dining room table. “Is Alice here?” she asked. He reached to mute the TV and shook his head. Tabby nodded. The updates looked good. Her sister would never have gone for boring colors, and hardwood was a good choice. Her mother picked out the furniture. She glanced in the second bedroom, unmade twin bed, Paul’s suitcase open on top of a generic light brown dresser. Paul said her name, impatiently.

“You were right,” she said. Paul crossed his arms and waited. “I have been using you as my punching bag. I’ve been wallowing and seething, and it’s not healthy. I let my company become the most important thing in my life, assuming you and the kids would run on autopilot. Then I lost everything. I kept thinking you all could exist on fumes.”

“You haven’t lost everything yet, Tabby.” He shook his head and looked towards the ceiling, sighing.

“That’s what I hadn’t figured out. I let myself become wrapped up in TabiKat. I let it tell me who I am and that I was doing something worthwhile. I took you for granted. I took what we have for granted.” She stood before him, her hands on his arms. “Europe should have told me that all I need is you. If you and the twins are there, things will be fine. Alice should have told me the truth. But you were right, I wouldn’t have heard anything positive in it for her. I was jealous and took all of that out on you. I am sorry, Paul.”

He hugged her and pulled her in. Tabby rested on his chest, able to hear his heartbeat .

“I’ve let it go.” She looked at him. His lips were pressed, his eyes full of doubt. “It’s true. There’s something else out there for me, and what good does hating Delany Clare do? Maybe he’s just as duped by Bobbie as Mo Mo was.”

“And what about Alice?”

She drew in a deep breath. “I’ll come see her, let her tell me what happened. I can’t believe she’d lie to me, but I can see why she did. I’ll talk to someone, but will you go with me?”

“Of course.” He kissed her, Tabby grabbing the front of his shirt. “I’m with you, you know that, right? I’m in your corner, and I believe in you. I’ve hated seeing you in this much pain.”

She studied the blue eyes that had come to mean safety and love. She would look into those eyes after the twins were grown and all they were doing now ceased to be important. Let them sit together and hold hands like her parents did. Let her never take the love in those eyes for granted again.

“You got a great little setup here by the way.”

“What? It works for me.” He glanced over his shoulder into the bedroom.

“I never did see your bachelor pad, did I?”

“No.” He laughed. “And for good reason. Man, you would have walked away if you had seen the near squalor of that place.” He held onto her forearms when she reached to hold him.

“Come home.”

“Gladly.” He kissed her again.

TABBY LOOKED AROUND THE RESTAURANT, unsure why she was there. Delany’s admin called that morning and asked if she was available. Really, what else needed to be said? Tabby wasn’t going to cower before his version of events, and she didn’t care about his justifications or how Bobbie spun things for him. She was over hating him and blaming Bobbie and caring if Array failed or not. Letting go of her hatred toward Delany opened her eyes to the host of other options—like Annie’s game. Ideas swirled in her head, but this was her little girl’s project. They were working on a presentation for an event at her school later in the week. Who knew, maybe she’d get into gaming after all.

Delany pulled out his chair. Tabby sat up more and pressed out a line in her skirt. He ordered a sidecar when the waiter arrived, Tabby asking for a cucumber mojito.

“Alice did one of those for an event, put vodka and frozen honeydew balls in it. It was good.”

“Why am I here?” Tabby asked. “Surely after our last encounter…”

“You were right, Mrs. Black, I’m an idiot.”

Tabby sat back and tapped her foot hanging over her knee. She was going to enjoy this. “About what, Mr. Clare?”

“Everything, apparently.” He leaned into the table. “I am hoping for some trust on your behalf. I have no right to ask for it, but I hope it shows I’m serious.”

She studied him, her curiosity piqued. “I’m listening.”

“We screwed up the acquisition of your company. I screwed up the acquisition of your company. I wanted to come to you directly.” He paused while the server put their drinks down and took their orders. “Bobbie met Carrie at a party, got talking about TabiKat. She told him about the app and your other ideas. He told me. We just acquired Chip-Pixel and wanted another tech company to merge them with. I thought you'd run Array. I was going to talk to you about it at the party, then Bobbie told me he had it. As things went further along, something shifted in how he talked about you. I kept asking if you knew about the sale, he kept saying you did. I should have asked more questions. I should have talked to you before the merger, and I apologize for not.”

“Thank you.” She cleared her throat. She had been too nervous to take a drink while Delany talked and now took a bit more than she should have, having to focus to swallow without coughing. If Delany realized, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he sipped his drink, keeping his hand around the glass on the table.

“I let Bobbie fool me into thinking this was a simple merger, and it wasn’t. I got into this to help people not amass an empire.”

He sat back and waited while the server put their meals down. Tabby finished her first drink, ordering another round. To hear the words she’d wanted for months, to have him acknowledge that losing her company meant something. Part of her brain told her to remember he was a scoundrel, and this must be a ploy. But she didn’t believe that anymore. Her parents were excellent judges of character and only had the best things to say about him. She’d asked her mother about what was going on with him and Alice and it sounded almost storybook. She chose to believe he was telling her the truth. She forgave him for what happened, realizing in some small part that hating him only allowed Bobbie to keep him in the dark for longer.

“Why am I here, Mr. Clare?”

Delany put his sandwich down and wiped his mouth. “I want you to come be my new Chief of Initiatives.”

She laughed before she could stop herself. Delany let her, reaching for his water.

“You’re serious. Why?”

“Because what you did at TabiKat is remarkable. You care about the little guy, and something tells me you have an eye for finding that diamond in the rough.”

“What about your current chief of initiatives?” She had only heard that stupid term once. Men and their need for titles that stroked their egos. Delany dropped his gaze and shook his head. “Oh.” She was taking Bobbie’s place. Adrenaline flooded her body, her skin tingling. She didn’t know whether to laugh with joy or faint with disbelief. She put her fork down. “What happened to Bobbie? ”

“He won’t be working at Macon much longer. That’s the piece I need your discretion on.”

“Of course,” she said, slowly processing. “One condition.” She leaned into the table. Delany reached for his sandwich, his gaze telling her to go on. “I want to oversee the projects for Array.”

“Of course. I think Mr. Manuel will be relieved.” He put his food down. “I never meant to imply I did not believe you could code. I was given bad intel and…Work on whatever makes you excited like Welcome Note did.”

Tabby smiled, able to think of one project already. “I do have one more question.”

“Just one?” He reached for his drink.

“What are you going to do about my sister?”

Paul called her name when he got home that night. She pushed dinner onto a cold burner before going to see him. She kissed him and pulled her body close to his. He held her and breathed deep, a small moan escaping.

“What’s got into you?” he asked.

“Thank you for being patient with me.”

“How did the meeting go?”

“He offered me a job—Chief of Initiatives. I’d help determine what companies we take on and can oversee apps being developed.”

“And you said…” He slipped off one of his work shoes before pushing off the second.

“How can I not take this job? The salary is incredible. He said I could work at home sometimes. He gets needing to be out of the office for the twins. I want to do it.”

“I think you should.” He undid his tie.

“And that’s not weird, after everything…”

“Tabs, this is your chance to leave the mark you want. What does your gut say? ”

“I’d be an idiot to not do this.”

“There you go.” He kissed her again, Tabby smiling on his lips. Mac called her name. She went to sit with her kids at the island and help with their homework. After dinner, she worked with Annie on her coding. Her girl a natural.

She kissed her daughter’s head. They could be her legacy the same as a job could. What if she poured into them like she did her company? Maybe she’d offer to take Mac rock climbing or to a parkour gym. Once things settled, he could see Alice and cook. Both of her kids held passions she wanted to cultivate. They’d become their own people while she was busy trying to find her identity somewhere else.

“Hey, string bean,” she said. Annie looked up at her. “I’m sorry for being so mean and detached these last few months.”

Annie shrugged. “I’m just glad you’re back. I like having you around more.” She went back to her work. Tabby kissed her head. She would not lose sight of her family again.