Chapter 28
EVERETT
“E verett, you have a minute?” someone called out behind me. I turned around, still keeping my arm over Jahnvi’s shoulder.
I couldn’t be any prouder. It was one of the hardest tournaments of the season, and Jahnvi had just won the entire thing in our shared category.
I’d gotten fourth, which was disappointing, not going to lie.
But the look of pure excitement on her face and the way her hand rose up to cover her mouth when they’d announced her name on stage had made me forget my bitter feelings pretty quick.
It had made me suddenly want to run across the stage, grab her waist, and pull her close.
Now we were making our way off the stage. “Yeah, Mr. N.?” I blinked, waiting for him to talk. Mr. N. was our head speech coach. Jahnvi and I had done speech all four years and we worked with him enough that he was more of a friend than a coach.
He seemed to be expecting me to follow him somewhere more private, but I really didn’t care that Jahnvi was with me. Whatever he said to me he could say to her. Plus, I really didn’t want to let her go. I just stood there with my arm tightly around her.
“I thought you two hated each other.” He motioned to both of us.
Jahnvi smiled, playfully. “Maybe I still do, Mr. N.”
“Whatever, as long as you two are finally not at each other’s throats. Listen, Everett, I wanted to ask, why haven’t you signed up for that DC tournament yet?”
He sure knew how to spoil the mood.
Jahnvi gave me a questioning glance as I pulled my arm off her shoulders and put my hands in my pockets. I sighed. How was I going to explain this? “I have...plans.”
“ Plans? ” Jahnvi and Mr. N. both said at the same time. Mr. N. looked lost for words and Jahnvi gave me a smack on the arm.
“Hey!” I said while rubbing my arm.
“Everett,” Mr. N. started with a low voice, “cancel your plans. This tournament is only with the best of the best, and winning a trophy there is an insane opportunity. I really think you have a chance, so get your butt there.”
“Listen, these plans are the kind that I can’t just ignore!”
“What are they?” Jahnvi asked.
I sighed, not wanting to go over it again since I’d done nothing but stress about it for days.
I was seriously behind with the wedding order—not the cooking part though.
The wedding itself was in a week and a half, so I’d start meal prep about two days before.
I was behind on the planning, which was mostly figuring out what type of ingredients I needed and how much.
I also needed to figure out the logistics of the flowers.
I’d done food multiple times, but flowers?
The bride and groom keep asking me questions like: “How much do you think we need for this number of guests?” or “How much would such and such be?” I couldn’t tell them that I was just learning about flowers.
Plus, more and more people had been walking into the restaurant each day.
That one night where I had handed out coupons was a smashing success, but now the problem was that it was getting to be too much.
I hired other people, but they were new at this.
They didn’t go as fast as I needed them to go, which meant I was still the one running around trying to get checks and food to people.
It was...exhausting.
I’d even skipped school a few days to cope with it all. Pretending to be someone else for the bride and groom, running at breakneck speed every night, and auditing all I had in my storage room had led me to one conclusion: I just couldn’t do the tournament.
We’d leave for DC in two days and return two days before the wedding, which meant I still had time to do it. But that also meant I’d have to figure out everything in my supply, train the newbies more, and figure out flowers in just two days.
And I just wouldn’t be able to do that.
When I explained it to them, Jahnvi nodded understandingly. She knew exactly how these orders were, even if she’d never actually done one herself.
But my coach frowned. “Can’t you get someone else to do it for you?”
“I could, but I need to be there to make sure everything goes well. If something isn’t smooth, it could ruin the whole reputation of my shop.”
“Well, I bet you could phone in from DC and check in regularly. And couldn’t you get someone to help you out with your restocking so it goes quicker?”
I smiled. It was nice that he was trying so hard to get me to this tournament. “Mr. N., I need to be here. I’m sorry.”
“Just, just think about it some more. If you could find any way to make yourself available then do it,” he told me and walked away. Jahnvi turned to face me, and I knew I was in for another round of rapid-fire questions.
“There really is no way you can get yourself to that tournament?”
“Nope.”
“Because you have to do restocking and making sure everything goes without a hitch?”
“Yes.”
“You have new people working for you?”
“Yup.”
“They good?”
“Very.”
“Just not experienced?”
“Yes.”
Jahnvi crossed her arms and looked down in concentration before looking back up. “Okay, I have a solution.”
“That right?”
“Yeah, let me help you. I’ll help you audit and train for the next two days so you can get yourself to the tournament.
And also, you’re forgetting an important part: This is a group project.
” She motioned to both of us. “You and my dad are both working on this. Let him know you will be out of town for the next few days, and he’ll make sure everything goes smoothly. ”
“I can’t—”
“You will .” Jahnvi nodded and looked away before speaking again. That way, I knew something big was coming. “Everett?”
“Yeah.”
“You have some big idea that you need to do everything by yourself, don’t you? That somehow, you’ll be able to graduate with honors, own a restaurant, and take care of everything just by yourself. I hate to tell you, but you just can’t.”
“Well, I seem to be doing just fine right now,” I said, a bit defensively.
“Don’t lie to yourself, you’re barely managing. I’ve seen you running around your restaurant with that crowd you get.”
I smirked. “Oh? So, you’ve been watching me?”
“That’s not the point! I’ll show up tonight to help you, and that’s not a question!”
When she said it like that, who was I to object? She was a hundred percent right; I needed help.
I nudged her with my shoulder jokingly. “Jeez, Pickles, I think you’re doing the wrong thing. I think the debate team would really appreciate you.”
She gasped dramatically, “Oh! How dare you!”