Tasteless (10 page)

“I just thought of something,” she whispered, despite the fact that no one could hear them in the confines of their SUV.  “I want to have my wedding up here.  At Somerville Diner.”

Chapter 6

“Three weeks?” Warner exclaimed, laughing as Sam and Rye finished their proposal.  “They want us to plan a whole wedding for one-hundred and fifty guests in
three
weeks.”

“They already cut more than half the guests to do this,” Rye explained.  “And they’re not asking for much.  Just some light decorations, some food, and the venue for one day.”

“Don’t they know we’re in the middle of major changes and renovations here?” Warner shook his head.  Sam watched as he continued to flip through the papers that he had typed up and printed to demonstrate how they would go about Gavin and Zoe’s wedding.  He waited, knowing it was only a matter of time before Warner would see how much they were willing to pay.  As soon as Warner got to the number, his eyebrows lifted and his incredulous laughter was replaced with a happy one.

“As you can see, they’re willing to compensate for the quick turnover,” Sam smiled.

“I see that,” Warner said.  “And we could really use that compensation to help with the renovations.”

“Exactly,” Rye said.  “I think it’s a win-win.”

“Alright, kids,” Warner replied.  “You’ve convinced me.  As long as it doesn’t take your attention away from the menu changes we were scheduled to make these next few weeks.”

“It’s actually beneficial to us,” Sam said.  “We can use some of those recipes we had planned and test them out at the reception.  They’d be like beta tasters that are actually paying for us to experiment.”

“I see,” Warner crimped his mouth as he nodded.  “You’re a smart kid, Laurent.  I’m glad to have you on board.”

“Great,” Sam smiled.  “I’m heading back to the city as soon as we’re done here and I’ll have the paperwork set up for Zoe and Gavin to sign tonight.”

“Fantastic,” Warner said.  “I’m actually on my way to the city, myself.  I can give you a ride.”  He got up from the table and packed up his papers, slipping on his briefcase before giving a happy Rye a hug goodbye.

“I thought you were staying for dinner?” Rye asked, frowning as her father gave her a quick kiss atop her head.

“I know, I just didn’t think this whole thing would run so long,” Warner said.  “I’m sorry sweetie, I just can’t miss my flight.”  He apologized again before hugging his daughter one more time before heading out the door.

“Aren’t you excited?” Sam asked, putting an arm around Rye’s shoulders.  “This is going to be a fun way to test out the menu and get some press for the place.”

“Yeah,” Rye smiled.  “I’m really glad he agreed to it.”

Two honks of a car horn sounded outside.  Sam looked out to see an impatient Warner waving for him to leave.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Sam said.  He turned to face her, debating for a second if they were at a point where hugging goodbye was okay before just going for it.

“Bye,” she said, her voice muffled into his shoulder as he gave her a quick squeeze.

For the first half of the drive, Warner was rather quiet.  Sam was fine with it, not being one who enjoyed pointless small talk, preferring instead a mutual understanding that mindless chatter was unnecessary.  By the time they had gotten to the Bronx, Warner finally decided to speak.

“You know, I had an accountant come in earlier this week who looked over our existing bills for the diner,” he began.  “And a huge chunk of it comes from keeping the space heated or cooled.  There also seems to be quite a bite of electrical leaking, whatever that means.”

“What should we be doing about that?”

“There’s not a whole lot we can do in our current situation,” Warner continued.  “It happens a lot with old buildings.  Most of the stuff is barely up to code and the infrastructure just doesn’t jive very well with keeping the bills down, especially with all the new appliances that we’ll be bringing in.”

“Okay,” Sam nodded, not knowing where this was all going.  He hoped Warner wasn’t suggesting a pay cut.

“The week after that wedding, we’re actually planning on knocking the place down.”

“What?” Sam exclaimed, louder than he had intended.  Warner ignored him.

“It’s cheaper to just start over rather than trying to fix or reinforce the existing thing.”

“Is it really necessary? I mean, it’s going to cut into our work time significantly and we’ll probably have to push off the launch.”

“Let me worry about that stuff,” Warner said.  “I want the best possible end result and I’m willing to do what it takes to get there.  All you need to do is the creative and social stuff you’ve been doing.  Besides, you’ll have an easier time running everything in a brand new space.  You can’t possibly be having an easy time cooking your food in the kitchen we have now.  And that month we take to do the new construction is going to be like a paid vacation for you.  What’s there not to like?”

“How about Rye?” Sam asked.  “Does she know? She loves the place.  She’s been fighting every change I’ve suggested.”

“Oh, yeah,” Warner replied.  He thought for a moment, before letting out a laugh.  “It’s times like this that I’m happy I have you working for me.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to be the one who tells her.”

ZOE MERCURY PULLS DEPOSITS FROM WEDDING VENUES

Celeb-O-Matic

July 10
th

Is Zoe’s engagement on the rocks?

Actress and former D Network star, Zoe Mercury, has reportedly pulled the dozen or so deposits she made at popular city wedding venues earlier this week.  Her engagement to sports publicist, Gavin Hunter, is a mere several months old and their rush to tie the knot had people speculating over a possible pregnancy.  But now, with Zoe’s abs still perfectly flat and a sudden change of mind about locking down a location, could it be that the wedding’s being called off?

Sources say that the star has also canceled meetings with florists and caterers and when our reporters found fashion designer Gemma Hunter (sister to Gavin) at her Meatpacking studio, she was busy zipping away a large white gown, assumed to be Zoe’s wedding dress.  The designer and best friend to Mercury declined to comment.

Work had definitely been easier since Rye and Sam made the decision to get along. Letting go of the resentment she had left for Sam and accepting his personality for what it was had been freeing, leaving their days together work-focused and even enjoyable.

But since they began working on Gavin and Zoe’s wedding, Sam started acting strange.  He kept to himself in the corner booth, calculating and planning and making orders silently.  Rye even gave Sam the chance to engage in his favorite pastime of making fun of her, going as far as putting on the ugliest t-shirts she owned.  To her surprise and dismay, he didn’t seem to notice, not even when she wore one of Basil’s old and faded Pokemon shirts.

With less than a week left until the wedding, Rye was really beginning to feel the distance that had been growing again between them.  She was sad to know that the friendly working relationship that they had developed was beginning to slip backwards, and worst of all, at a time where the two were under such stress.  She wondered if it had to do with the hush-hush nature of the wedding.  Keeping a secret was always emotionally taxing, even if it wasn’t your own.

To their credit, they had done a great job keeping it due in part to Sam’s idea of not even telling the guests where the wedding would be.  With the short notice, formal invitations seemed like a hassle so Gavin and Zoe decided it was best for efficiency and confidentiality if they called everyone personally, gave the date, and got the RSVPs right then and there.  They were to be in the city on the wedding date with further information of the location given later.

Rye found it all to be very exciting.  There was something about their covert wedding efforts that made it that much more interesting.  She wanted desperately to talk to Mariana about it all, but she was no longer a part of the Somerville Diner circle, making it off-limits to discuss the secret event with her.

So she settled for sitting in the space and imagining it being transformed into the subtle celestial theme that the planner had been sketching in the pages of her giant binder. Rye was never the type of girl who daydreamed about weddings.  She had never thought about what type of dress she would wear or how many tiers would be on her cake.  In fact, she had always been slightly resentful of the idea that her wedding should be considered the most important day of her life, as so many people had said.  But she had gotten swept up in the frenzy of helping plan Zoe’s wedding in just three weeks and the excitement was almost enough for her to consider, for a moment, what her own wedding day would look like.

She loved that Zoe and Gavin would be having their ceremony outside in a garden that was designed and planted in the dirt field between the restaurant and her house.  She was amazed by the two-day transformation as gardeners and landscapers worked quickly to roll out fresh sod and trim their makeshift aisle with rows of rose bushes.  It had brought old memories of their once lush farmland to the surface of her mind.

She loved that the cocktail hour would be served under a long stretch of cream-colored silk, draped like a tent between their remaining apple trees.  In the shade below it would be oversized ottomans, big enough to comfortably seat four at a time.  The guests could sit casually, chatting and catching up as waiters came around with serving plates of all the hors d’oeuvres.

She loved that the dining room would have their ceilings trimmed wall-to-wall with hundreds of strings of tiny frosted globe lights, mimicking the stars right above them.  Pale blue peonies would line the room and sit on every table and counter as the guests chattered about which dish they had picked – the duck confit, the buttered Chilean sea bass, or the Chateubriand? And when the entrees arrived, they would trade pieces of their meals until everyone had a chance to try everything.

Rye couldn’t actually think of what her own dream wedding would be like.  After all, it seemed that Zoe and Gavin had already planned it.  She felt so lucky and happy to have a hand in it that even Sam’s persistent grumpiness couldn’t get her down.  For the first time ever, she was finally able to see how bringing in some fresh new ideas could liven up the space she had grown up in and grown used to.

There was definitely room for the old and the new.

~

If it weren’t for how packed his schedule had been, Sam would have probably lost his mind over the guilt that had accumulated every day that he didn’t tell Rye what was about to happen.  Every time she smiled or laughed, he felt a pang in his heart.  Every time she told him how excited she was for everything to come, he felt like he was dying inside.  Every word she spoke to him was an opportunity for him to just tell her what Warner had burdened him to tell, but every time it happened he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Sam had never seen Rye so happy in the time that he had known her.  He reasoned with himself that telling her the bad news would bring them both down in a time where neither could afford to be anything but laser-focused.

When the guests came in by the literal busload on the day of the wedding, Sam couldn’t be more thankful for the team that he had hired and just how much of the pressure they were taking off of him.  They had managed to be transported from the city to Dutchess Plains without arousing suspicion and after waiting a solid twenty minutes to confirm that they hadn’t been followed, began the ceremony.

The event felt surreal to him.  He had never seen a project of that magnitude through in just three weeks and it had exhausted every hardworking bone in his body.  It was also quite the challenge to switch between wedding guest and wedding staff while suffering from sleep deprivation.  But he trucked on, fueled by adrenaline and double espressos, sending out his delicately presented smoked salmon canapés,
croquetas de bacalao
, and paper-thin slices of
jamón ibérico
for the cocktail hour.

He had yet to spot Rye, though he was later told that the flash of pink and gold that had run by at some point was and her which he trusted to be true.  Though he felt like he could benefit from having her support more accessible, Sam realized that it would be more stressful than anything in actuality.  Every new moment with her was a reminder that he was failing her.

By the time the guests had moved into the dining room and put in their orders, Sam was just about seeing stars – not because of the spatter of celebrities in the crowd or the space designed to look the night sky – but because his body could tell he was drawing closer and closer to the last possible moments he could tell Rye what he needed to tell her.  When the entrees finally started to leave the kitchen, Sam decided he needed to too.  He followed Damian’s Chateubriand to his table before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him towards the back door.

“Holy shit what’s up,” Damian said as he struggled to get on his feet.  He excused himself from the rest of the table before following Sam into the kitchen and out to the patio where Sam confessed to everything that Warner had told him, what he has tasked him to do, and how he was pretty sure he couldn’t do it.

Damian listened, nodding quietly as he did so.  In the silence of his ramble’s conclusion, Sam grew nervous.  He was hoping that Damian would jump back with the perfect solution or perhaps a suggestion of how to word the bad news in a way that made it more palatable.  But instead, he furrowed his brows and shook his head, covering his mouth as he thought.

“That’s fucked up,” he finally muttered.  Sam frowned, fully realizing the magnitude of the situation now that he told someone else.  Damian wasn’t really the cursing type.  He tended to reserve the harsher words for when it was truly necessary.

“I know, I know,” Sam said.  “I really screwed up this time.”

“No, not you,” Damian replied.  “Warner.  Warner Somerville is one fucked up man.”

“I mean, he has a point I guess?” Sam shrugged.  “Like, it would be better maybe, I don’t know.”

“Why the hell wouldn’t he tell his own daughter that? You could see how much this place means to her. 
Any
of the hundred or so guests who are strangers to her in there could see how much this place means to her.”

“I know.”

“It shouldn’t be your responsibility to give that kind of news,” Damian continued.  “No amount of zeros on your paycheck makes that okay.”

“So what do I do?” Sam asked, feeling his desperation tighten his throat.  “I can’t… I can’t imagine how she’s going to react and I really don’t feel like seeing Rye hurt.”

Damian furrowed his brows, cocking his head slightly as he looked at Sam.  He looked back, wondering what was particular about his words.

“Okay…” Damian nodded, finally.  “You know.  I was going to say that you should call Warner now and tell him that it’s not in your job description to break bad news to his daughter.”

“But?”

“But the more I think about it, the more I feel like maybe you’re the better person to see her through this,” Damian explained.  “I know you guys haven’t known each other for
that
long, but this news should come from someone who actually cares about her.”

“That’s exactly it – shouldn’t Warner care enough to tell her?” Sam asked.  “It’s gonna be horrible out of my mouth.”

“What’s horrible is that she can’t rely on her own family,” Damian exclaimed.  “You and I might not know that feeling because we’re lucky to have great families that support us and love us and are there for us – that actually care for us.  You can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed that Rye’s love for her family is a little one-sided.  So maybe you can take the fall for Warner just this once, so she can keep her dad in that idealistic protective bubble she’s built for herself for a little longer.”

“Ugh.”  Sam tipped his head back and covered his eyes.  “It must be so exhausting to be an upstanding guy like you.”

“Not if you want to be,” Damian laughed.  “And it seems like, right now, for whatever reason… you want to be.”

Sam let Damian lead him back into the dining space.  Most of the guests had finished eating and the live band out on the front lawn had switched from ambient music to something more upbeat.  Cocktail servers were out there with them, handing drinks to those who needed a little encouragement before dancing.  Damian gave him an encouraging pat on the back before returning to Gemma’s side.

Without needing his orders, the kitchen had already begun preparing the dessert platters.  Sam managed a smile, nodding in appreciation to the pastry chef that was now heading the team.  He decided he could sit down for a bit and get his thoughts together before rejoining the party.  But before he could, he saw the pink and gold blur running towards him.

Rye made a running leap into his arms, laughing as she nearly toppled him to the ground.  He didn’t have to ask to know that she was very much drunk.  Sam looked up at her.  Her hair hung like a fuzzy blonde curtain in front of her face.  All he could make out was the rosy smile that peeked out beneath it all.

“You do know it’s unprofessional to be this plastered at work, right?”

“Yes, but you see, I am also a guest, and therefore I have this right to be drunk and all.”

“Okay,” Sam smiled.

“But honestly, okay, so…” Rye giggled.  “Sam. 
Sam
, I’ve
never
been this drunk before.”

“How much did you drink exactly?”

“I don’t even know!” she exclaimed.  “They just keep refilling and refilling and I can’t even count!”

“Are you at least having fun?”

“Oh, yes,” she replied.  “So much.”

Sam lowered her slightly so he could be face to face with her.  He could feel her legs slip around his hips as he did so, securing herself to him as he held an arm around her waist.  With his free hand, he brushed the hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear so he could look at her.  She smiled sleepily at him, leaning forward to kiss him on his nose.

“I am very happy to have you back,” she sighed.

“We’ve been in the same room everyday for the last three weeks.”

“I know,” she said.  “But you weren’t
really
there.  You were all mentally preoccupied and stuff and it’s okay because I was too, but now that it’s over, we can be a team again.”  She snaked her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder.  Her breathing became steady against his skin.

“Do you need to go home?” he whispered.  “And maybe be in your bed?”

“Yes, maybe,” she whispered back.  Sam smiled, holding her close to him as she watched the rest of the room slowly empty onto the front lawn.  With everything going smoothly, he reasoned that he could afford the time to walk her back home.  He could lock up the restaurant on his own later.

As he made the walk across the field, he thought about what Damian had said.  Sure, it was no real secret that the Somervilles were terrible people but for some reason, Rye never got the memo.  In her head, they were still the wonderful people who worked at that wonderful restaurant and were all one happy family.  He understood now why she fought so hard against him in the beginning.  Sam was the needle that would break her little bubble.  He would be the reason she started to see things clearly.

By the time they made it up the stairs, Rye had woken up from her little nap.

“Noo…” she moaned, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.  “I wasn’t ready to go home!”