the options.”
Mandy nodded. “That’s good. A beach buffet will be much more manageable for a party that size. I’ll go check with Paul now. Stay tuned.”
Mandy headed into the kitchen and a few minutes later Gina returned with Mia’s eggplant parmesan. It was steaming hot, so Mia let it cool for a moment before digging in. She loved the way Mimi’s Place made their eggplant. It was sliced really thin and lightly pan-fried with just a dusting of flour before it was layered like a lasagna with cheese and baked until bubbly. She’d just taken her first bite when Mandy returned with an excited look and slid into her chair.
“Paul says we can do it. He’ll just staff extra people that day to make sure the restaurant is covered for their regular service. For the weddings, he does as much of the prep work as possible ahead of time. And of course, I’ll be there to help coordinate it all, too.”
“Perfect. It will be fun to do this wedding together. We make a good team.”
“We really do,” Mandy agreed. They’d done four weddings together so far over the past year and had two more booked in the next six months. Mia liked Mandy as a friend, but really liked working with her, too, because they had similar styles. Both were very organized and planned well, so no details were overlooked, and things generally went smoothly.
“Do you want to put a proposal together and I can go over it with Angela?” Mia suggested.
“I’ll get something off to you tomorrow. We have some new menu additions that might be fun for her to consider.”
“Oh, like what?” Mia never tired of discussing food.
“Well, we just did this at a recent wedding, and it was a huge hit. Paul made tiny cheeseburgers on those melt-in-your-mouth brioche buns. They’re snack size and they bring them out along with fries towards the end of the night.”
“Oh, that’s a great idea!”
“It really is, especially if people have been drinking or didn’t eat much earlier and danced up an appetite.” A moment later she asked, “How’s Izzy doing? I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“She’s good. I’m not so sure about her boyfriend, though. I’m not a fan,” Mia admitted.
“Oh, no. I thought you liked him?”
“I never spent much time around him until recently when I stayed there for a few days right after the fire.” She told Mandy about Rick’s moodiness and his temper.
“Hm. That doesn’t sound promising. Your sister is too sweet to have to deal with that.”
“I know. She says she loves him, though, and wants to try to make it work.”
“That’s a tough one, then. There’s not much you can do, except be there for her.”
“Right. I just worry about her.”
Mandy smiled. “Of course, you do. Why don’t you see if she can come out with us on Friday? I should be able to get a sitter. I’ll let you know for sure tomorrow.”
“That sounds good. I think she’d probably love to join us.”
Chapter 11
Mia woke the next day feeling unusually blue for no apparent reason. It wasn’t until she was sitting downstairs at breakfast enjoying her first cup of coffee with Lisa and Rhett that she realized what the date was, and her eyes immediately welled with tears. She tried to fight them back, to compose herself before Lisa noticed, but she wasn’t fast enough.
“Mia, honey, what’s wrong?”
Mia took a deep breath. “It’s nothing. I’m fine. I just…well, I just realized what today’s date is. It was Mark’s birthday. I still get caught off-guard sometimes, especially on the holidays. I thought I was almost past this.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. Grief doesn’t have a timetable. It’s different for everyone. My first year was the hardest, like everyone says. But I still have occasional pangs of sadness on those dates—birthdays, anniversaries, when his favorite song comes on the radio. It all depends how you’re feeling at that moment, too. Sometimes it just hits you harder.”
Mia nodded. “Thanks. It helps to hear that.”
Lisa was quiet for a moment. “Have you ever talked with anyone? A therapist or a bereavement group?”
“No. No one. Izzy suggested I talk to someone, but I never did. It’s funny, Kate just mentioned a bereavement group the other day. A friend of hers told her about it. She gave me the information, but I haven’t done anything about it yet.”
“Maybe you should. I went to a group like that. None of my friends had gone through it and even though