to the point. She was quitting effective immediately. Her work phone and tablet were delivered by messenger the next morning.
In between dealing with the board members and our lawyers and my uncle, who’s been suspended, I have tried everything to get hold of her. She’s not responding to her personal phone, email, texts, singing telegram…yes, I sent a singing telegram. Or I tried. Quinton refused to let the singing telegram guy into the building. I have also been banned from the building, and no bribe is large enough to overturn it. I get the impression that the entire Kitchen Krew threatened Quinton with dire consequences if I put even a toe over the threshold. For some reason, he seems to be especially scared of Edna.
“The pizza will work,” Nico assures me.
“For sure.” Renata nods enthusiastically. “Nobody can resist our pizza.”
Yeah, their pizza is like crack with cheese on top, but I think this situation is going to take considerably more than a really excellent pizza.
Nothing else has worked, though. Bouquets of flowers, some of them including boxes of Summer’s Eve; I hoped that might make her smile. Boxes of quirky pajamas. A single beautiful gown. A dozen gowns.
Everything has been promptly returned to the store, with scrawled notes in handwriting that is not Winona’s, suggesting I do various anatomically impossible things with my apology gifts. I gather she’s recruited her friends to intercept anything I send to her, and also her friends apparently think I can, or should, fit three dozen roses and a vase in a part of the body where the sun never shines.
A heavy mantle of gloom has wrapped around me, and it clings like a cloud that never stops raining. I hurt Winona, and I hurt her family, and the need to make it right – the need to hold Winona in my arms again and see that look of love and sparky humor in her eyes – is burning a hole inside me. I’m barely sleeping. I’m yawning my way through emergency meetings with our company’s lawyers. Xena’s picked up on my horrible mood, and she’s moping around the mansion.
Since nothing else is working, I might as well try pizza.
It’s Saturday afternoon, and the Kitchen Krew website says they’ll be holding a fundraiser in the courtyard, to raise money for back-to-school clothes.
When Nico, Renata and I walk into the courtyard, however, we find it empty. A flyer posted up on one of the courtyard trees announces that the meeting has been shut down and they’ve relocated to Clarita’s apartment. It even gives the address.
When we get to her building, someone’s just walking in. The guy glances at Nico and Renata with their pizza boxes and lets us follow him through the door.
Clarita’s apartment is on the first floor, and her door is ajar, with strains of salsa music drifting into the hallway. I hold the door open for Nico and Renata.
We walk into a bright, happy room, the walls and bookshelves chock-a-block with religious paintings, family photos, framed posters of vintage cars, and candles dedicated to various saints. The room is crowded, with maybe twenty people in there, which is a lot in an apartment the size of hers. We make our way over to the buffet table by the wall, and Nico and Renata set down their pizza boxes next to a jug of lemonade.
I spot Ariel and Marshall standing in a corner. They’re very clearly together; they might as well be the only two people in the room. Ariel is chatting up a storm, and Marshall’s gawking at her with dazed happiness, like she’s an oasis in a vast, parched desert.
Well. Glad someone’s happy. No, seriously. I truly hope that this is a love-match for them and they’ve both found what they’re looking for.
But as I scan the room, Winona’s nowhere to be seen. My heart sinks like a leaden weight.
“Excuse you?” Clarita’s icy voice slices into me. “I do not recall inviting you here.”
She wheels her way towards us, the crowd parting to let her through.
I try for a winning smile. “We just brought some pizza for your fundraiser. You’re not meeting in the courtyard anymore?”
“We’re not allowed to. We would need a permit. And this party is for the Kitchen Krew and their friends.” She narrows her eyes at me.
An idea suddenly strikes me. I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me before. “I might have a solution for the whole permit thing. And a lot of other things you’re dealing