Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Can I offer you a refill, my lady?”
Andrea lifted her head from her Crumpet-shaped pillow and found Lainey hovering over her, wine bottle in hand.
“My guardian angel,” Andrea replied, lifting her half-empty glass.
Lainey giggled and filled the glass with a generous pour. “I consider myself more of a fallen angel. I’m still plotting devious ways to overthrow Paige and William.”
“I thought you were turning them into toads.”
“That was when it was just William. Now that there are two of them, we need a plan B. They can’t both be turned into toads. They’d probably just go off and have a bunch of tadpoles and live happily ever after, and we can’t have that.”
Andrea snorted into Crumpet’s fur and the dog wagged his tail as if it tickled. “And to think, you’re so innocent looking. No one would suspect an evil mastermind lurking behind that pretty face.”
Lainey took a playful bow before settling into her seat on one of the two circular chairs positioned across from the couch.
The last bits of daylight streamed through the wall of windows in her chic condo that overlooked the south side of Hecate’s Kitchen, near the district’s gardens.
Anyone who spent more than fifteen minutes with Lainey probably pictured her living in a cozy bungalow-style house, tucked inside a hedge maze of flower beds and fruit trees.
The industrial-style condo building was more than a bit at odds with her personality, despite the multitude of greenery she’d squashed inside it.
“I don’t know,” Andrea said as she pushed up to a sitting position and crossed her legs.
Crumpet stood and stretched before readjusting himself and lying down again.
She reached over to stroke the dog’s fur back into its proper place now that her cheek was no longer resting upon it.
“Maybe I should be sending her a fruit basket or something. I mean, she was right about William and me, wasn’t she?
” Andrea paused, looking to Lainey for confirmation.
Lainey swirled her glass of wine thoughtfully for a long moment.
“Listen, Andi, you know William was never going to be my favorite of your paramours, but I thought you were more or less happy, and I didn’t want to risk our friendship over my misgivings.
From what I could see, he treated you well, had a stable job, and seemed more or less like a good guy.
You know I wouldn’t stay quiet if I thought you were dating a scumbag. ”
Andrea nodded, a prickle of guilt in her chest. Lainey wasn’t placing the blame on her, but her words were a reminder of just how insulated Andrea had become in recent years—so focused on the business and the work.
“My quibbles seemed petty at the time,” Lainey added.
“He wasn’t always the kindest to waitstaff.
I thought maybe he drank a bit too much, but then, he’s in the foodie scene, and I figured it more or less went with the territory.
He rarely asked other people about themselves, and somehow always managed to turn the conversation to himself.
” Lainey paused and hitched one shoulder.
“He wasn’t my cup of tea. But as I said, I truly thought you were happy, so I kept my mouth shut. ”
Andrea shook her hair back and tipped her face up to the tall ceiling. “I was happy. For the most part. Happy enough, I guess.” She scoffed and smiled a bit at her own hollow words. They seemed especially thin in contrast to how Wes made her feel. “I guess hindsight really is 20/20, huh?”
Andrea sighed, her mind rewinding through the day.
She’d spent most of it at Sunset Sweets, working with Tyler to get things back in order.
Eventually she called Lainey and told her the full truth, and ten minutes later, Lainey arrived at the bakery to pick her up and take her home, refusing to let Andrea spend the night alone in a hotel.
Lainey tilted her head and offered a sympathetic frown. “You don’t have to give up on Wes, you know.”
“I don’t see what choice I have,” Andrea replied. “It’s like I said before, our lives are in two different places, on two different ends of the country. Now … with everything going on, I know I have to be here.”
Lainey exhaled. “Have to or want to?” she asked, arching one perfectly manicured brow.
Andrea’s brows drew together as she looked up at her friend. “I don’t see why that matters. It just is what it is. Tyler’s already agreed to take the promotion to manager, but it’ll take time to get him up to speed and fully immersed in his duties.”
Lainey smiled gently and shook her head. “You’re still thinking with your business head,” she chided Andrea. “I’m not talking about the logistics or the schedule or the day-to-day. And I certainly don’t want to talk about anything involving spreadsheets. You know I’m deathly allergic.”
Andrea laughed softly and nodded. “I do.”
“Listen, since we’re doing this whole circle of truth thing,” Lainey continued, adjusting herself to mirror Andrea’s posture, her legs crossing beneath her, before leveling Andrea with a warm, but firm, look.
“This might be harsh, but I sometimes think the business is something you do to fill the time because you don’t know what else you want to do. ”
Andrea frowned. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“Back when we first met, you were just getting things off the ground at Sunset Sweets, and when you talked about your plans and dreams, your eyes would light up like a little witchling who just learned her first spell. You had this wonder and glow about you. Remember your grand opening?” She paused after the question long enough for a series of memories to drift back to Andrea, encircling her with warmth she hadn’t felt in quite a while, at least when thinking about anything work related.
“You lived and breathed the bakery, and you were always bursting with ideas and magic. You were exhausted but you were happy. Then came the TV show and the success and the cookbook deals—” Lainey tilted her head from one side to the other, measuring her next words carefully.
“And I’m not saying those were bad things, of course, that would be ridiculous.
But they were unexpected. Things you didn’t plan for.
Things you couldn’t have possibly seen coming.
And they changed everything, whether you wanted them to or not.
“You went from being the one in control to being subject to the deadlines and expectations of so many other people. You already put so much pressure on yourself to be perfect, but the fame just sort of dialed everything up to eleven. It was like you were in a competition with everyone. Or maybe just yourself?” Lainey paused, but Andrea couldn’t offer a counterargument. Everything Lainey said was correct.
“Every season you had this compulsion to come up with bigger and better ideas, because you felt like everyone’s eyes were on you, waiting for you to do the next big thing, and it seemed like somewhere along the way you wound up doing everything for other people and not for yourself.”
Andrea’s throat felt thick and she swallowed hard as a tidal wave of emotion rose once more within her chest.
“I’m not saying it can’t be fixed. Or that there’s anything wrong with you staying here and pouring yourself back into work.
But at the same time, I’m not sure that’s what you really want.
And it’s not just because you met a guy—wonderful though he may be.
I think the time away changed you a bit.
And I think it would be a shame not to see if you want to follow a new path, at least for a little while. ”
Lainey paused, her mouth open, but then she closed it and smiled, raising one hand in the air to signal she’d said her piece.
Andrea leaned back against the sofa, as a whirlwind of memories stirred in the back of her mind—glimmers of her grand opening, the initial phone call from the TV producer who recruited her for the reality show, to the day she found out she was the show’s winner.
She remembered signing her publishing contract, seeing her first cookbook in bookstores.
Getting the keys to her dream house. The first day she met William when he came to interview her for his column.
There were the long nights where she pored over seasonal menus, untangled staffing issues, and rebranded.
On and on and on. The memories swirled faster and faster until they were a blur of colors and emotions.
And then suddenly Wes’s face appeared in her mind and everything stopped.
Everything went quiet, like an early morning filled with fresh snow.
She lifted her eyes to Lainey’s. “Well. That was a lot.”
Lainey smiled. “I’m sorry. You know I’m not usually the kind of friend to boss you around or tell you what to do, but I’m also rather unfiltered, and I’ve had a bit too much of this,” she lifted her wine glass and swirled the contents.
“In vino veritas, as they say,” she added with a giggle.
“I think Wes was good for you. Vermont was good for you. And though I would be reluctant to lose you, however temporarily, I think you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t at least follow your heart for a little while longer and see where it might lead you. ”
Andrea sat with the words a bit longer, and she wasn’t sure how much time passed before she reached her decision, but when she nodded at Lainey, a silent understanding passed between them.
Lainey pulled her phone from the front pocket of her oversized knitted cardigan sweater. “Should we look at flights?”
Andrea smiled. “I do have an invitation from a certain ten-year-old to be the third teammate for a gingerbread house competition.”
Lainey pumped her fist through the air, sloshing wine over the side of her glass, though she hardly seemed to notice. Then she set down the glass and began typing, booking the accommodations before Andrea could change her mind.