lotion. Maybe you go in this direction but also get a crowd-pleaser dessert, too?”
Candace jumped in. “Can I have yours then?” I looked over and she had polished off all three of her minicakes. She swapped boxes with me and finished mine, too. “Final trimester,” she muttered with a mouth full of whipped icing.
A tiny elderly woman dressed in head-to-toe black swooped away our bento boxes. Our cake hostess pulled open the curtain from the kitchen and brought us three more cake samples. Rosewater Honeycomb, Orange Blossom Twist, and Coconut Cream Chiffon. Great, more spa lotion. And the coconut one smelled like sunscreen.
My phone buzzed twice in a row and I looked at Jane for permission to check it. She nodded.
Two messages from Nolan. One saying, Here are final versions of the newsletter and website, for your records. I’m pushing the website developer to do two versions that we can A/B test. The next message was images of all the things Nolan had been working on.
Jane leaned over to read my screen. “Wow, those look really good.” Looking up at my face, she added, “I haven’t seen your face light up like this in a long time, and I don’t think it’s just the photos. You’d think I’d invited you to a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake tasting instead.”
I didn’t hide too much from my girlfriends, but there were things I kept tight to my chest, like my dream job of being a radio DJ. My inexplicable love of Crocs clogs. And my desire for a relationship with an MBA intern that was not destined to be.
Jane continued. “You’re blushing, lady.” She looked over at Candace. “Maybe she’s going to be walking down the aisle next!”
With a hard shove, I pushed my bento box halfway across the table. “He’s just a friend. Nothing’s going to happen between us. Plus, he’s looking for a job, in case you have any leads.”
Candace pulled my bento over to her and finished all my untouched samples. “That’s too bad,” she said with cake-filled chipmunk cheeks.
Jane pensively tapped her lower lip with her index finger. “We have a strategic analyst position opening up at my company. If you don’t have any feelings for him”—she paused to take a quick drink of water—“then I can email you the job description that you can pass on to him. But the job is in New York, so he’d have to relocate.”
My stomach sank as soon as she said the words “New York.” This job was perfect for Nolan, but it was over two thousand miles away.
Before I could ask any more questions about the open position, the hostess reentered the room with one more sample. “Chef’s special, custom-made for you, dear.” Hibiscus-cardamom sponge cake with lychee puree on the side.
Jane took an eager first bite. “This is it.” I hadn’t even tasted it, but it’s not like Jane and I saw eye to eye on any of this anyway. I passed my small plate over to Candace, which she gladly accepted.
The bride-to-be announced to the hostess, “Yes, we’ll take this one, and I’d like to add a Belgian chocolate accompanying cake, too, for my guests who want something more”—she searched for the right word—“familiar.” She smiled at me and squeezed my hand. For the first time ever, I’d convinced Jane to change her mind about something. Life achievement unlocked.
Chapter Twenty
Asher moved to a different floor so he could be closer to his development team. Au revoir, bro! I didn’t hold my breath, though, because I knew that any day I might have to share the office with someone else, or something else, like those stupid Kaizen Five life-size cutouts again. But I appreciated the temporary reprieve.
Thanks to the team putting in extra hours in the evenings and on weekends, with just two months left before the big launch, we were still on track for our release. My tight-knit incubator team had found our stride after a bumpy start. Processes became more streamlined, the designers worked well with the engineers, and Kedra the receptionist (moonlighting as our production coordinator with Nolan’s assistance) had done a great job with keeping our tasks organized and on schedule.
Every morning I brought doughnuts to our daily team meeting. The engineers usually dove in first, taking the chocolate glazed with custard filling, our designers went for the seasonal flavors, so after a few days of collecting doughnut data I could predict the crowd’s favorites. No one would have to consume second-tier doughnut calories. Not under