Chapter Seventeen
As she came into the house after talking to Abe, Naomi felt comfortable, relaxed. “I know why my sister adores you,” she said to Batya.
Batya’s reaction was very much the kind that came from someone who’d never heard those words before, from anybody. “She does?”
Naomi nodded. “She loves chatting with you, and I’m glad I’m getting a chance to myself.”
Batya nodded, words clearly failing the other woman. “I’m glad to chat to you too,” she managed. “I wanted to know how you were after…”
She shrugged; the story of Ida was a story she’d been telling for three days—to Tom Walker, to Max Parker-Roth and now, apparently, to both Abe and Batya. But if anybody deserved that honest truth, it was Batya., someone who’d been a target of Ida’s ire.
“The whole thing took me by surprise,” Naomi said honestly, admitting her feelings for the first time. “I didn’t hear from her; I heard it from Samuel. And that I probably won’t…deal with all of the feelings that came from the surprise until after my cousin’s wedding.”
Batya nodded, extended a hand. “I’m sorry.”
“In one way I am, too,” she said with a smile.
“But in another way I’m not. She was a horrible person and hard to work with.
She treated people terribly, and so much of my time was spent cleaning up after her.
Reminding clients I was working with that their choices mattered, even when behind the scenes Ida was laughing at them.
Finagling meal choices from caterers the clients didn’t choose because Ida decided her personal choices were more important. ”
Batya nodded. “I can see that about her,” she said.
“And the unspoken question was why I stayed with her for so long. The first answer is the most important: she gave me a chance. She’d been given a chance when Jewish women weren’t allowed to have businesses.
Having her for a mentor at the beginning was an unbelievably exciting experience; the stories she could tell were absolutely mesmerizing. The history she had was inspiring.”
“And then what happened?”
“I think it got to the point where I continued to stay because I thought that I wasn’t ready to leave and so it was better to have a horrible boss than no boss.
But also, in the back of my mind, there was some part of me that hoped she’d give me the business.
That,” Naomi finally said, “or all of those.”
Batya nodded. “I’m sorry.”
Naomi shook her head. “No,” she said. “I know you might be using the empathetic sorry, but I’m the one who should be sorry. She was horrible to so many people, including you.”
“Naomi,” Batya said, “it isn’t your…job to make apologies for someone who threw you away like yesterday’s bathwater.
You weren’t actively a part of her garbage; you did your best to…
create an oasis, for lack of a better word, in the middle of her trash heap.
And now you’re free of her. You know what you need to do? ”
“What?” she asked.
“Write your own story, fix your cousin’s wedding. Be the kind of event planner you want to be, and honor people’s choices. Create your own legacy—you’ve already made fans in my husband and me. And there’s something else,” she said with a smile.
“What?”
“I have it on good authority that Charlotte Liu is going to take pity on you.”
And if that wasn’t a mind-blowing thing, she hadn’t seen one. Ever. “What?”
“Come,” Batya said as she ushered Naomi into the living room. “Let’s get comfortable and I’ll tell you the story.”
Naomi followed her, across the hardwood and the carpets, into a very, very cozy space. “So…”
“Right,” Batya said. “Charlotte Liu is one of the sweetest people I know, and she will absolutely take pity on you.”
“Why take pity?”
“Because if she agrees to help out, she’s going to have to basically do the equivalent of crashing a wedding cake.”
Which, Naomi realized as she thought about the time between now and the wedding, was absolutely true.
She’d talked to Abe about potential alterations to the menu, but not once had she thought about how difficult it would be for a celebrity chef on Charlotte’s level to find the kind of time needed to design and create the kind of wedding cake Judith would want.
“Charlotte is actually my cousin’s dream cake maker/designer, so my cousin will be thrilled with whatever she’s willing to do—in any capacity.”
“Really?” Naomi asked. “Did you do some kind of cake tasting?”
Naomi shrugged, pulling out her binder and flipping to the pages of notes she’d written on cakes. “Sorta? She did a tasting at the wedding expo last summer, and I have her preferences.”
Batya nodded, reaching over and taking the notes, paging through them as Naomi watched. “This is fascinating,” Batya said when she looked up. “Very detailed. But in a boundaries way, if that makes sense?”
Naomi nodded. “That’s my cousin. Judith knows what she wants and what she doesn’t.
She’s also aware that not everything—whether it’s fabrics or dishes, or the specific kind of sauce ingredients or flowers, is available at the price she’s willing to pay, so she has backup plans and backup plans for backup plans. ”
“Backups for days,” Batya said with a laugh. “Speaking of, do you have a backup plan if Charlotte says no?”
“I have a few,” Naomi said. “I’ve always had at least one backup plan for an event.”
“Good. Woman after my own heart.” Batya grinned and folded her arms. “As we speak, Abe’s asking Jason to help him with the wedding, in exchange for something only he knows.”
Naomi grinned. “I knew that was coming.”
“Silent as a rhinoceros, that one,” Batya said with a grin. “But because I adore you, and you’re in a tough spot, I’ll pass you some information.”
“Please,” she said. “Thank you. For anything you can offer me.”
“Charlotte Liu spends most of her weekdays at the bakery in Rockliffe Manor, on Long Island. She likes it better out there, for whatever reason especially as we head into summer. She also likes me. I’ll text her and tell her to expect you. Can you get there tomorrow?”
Naomi nodded. With or without Jason, in a car or by public transport or by rideshare, she’d get there. “Yes,” she said. “Absolutely. What time?”
“The earlier the better,” she said. “Obviously don’t break any land speed records, but if you can get there before noon, we’ll say, that would be best.”
Naomi nodded. “I can do that,” she said. “Absolutely. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Batya said. “You deserve people who do you solids on a professional level in this stage of your career. You deserve to be reminded that you’re a good person and a good event planner, making your own name.”
“Thank you,” Naomi replied. “I really appreciate it.”
“And now,” Batya said, “I think I hear footsteps.”
Which meant dinner was on the way, and the night was heading toward its end. Of course, that still meant there was food and more conversation on its way. Definitely barbecue of some sort, some yummy smoked meat and then the sides.
And by the time she was done, she practically needed to be rolled out of the house. She was happy and sated and so very lucky.
“I’m excited to cook in a kitchen with him,” Jason said, echoing the sentiments she was feeling as they were leaving, making Naomi sure that Abe had approached him about helping with the catering for the wedding.
“Me too,” she said as she got into the car. “I’m kinda glad Artur and my sister ghosted us all.”
“Oh,” Jason said with a laugh. “Batya told me she and Abe told them they shouldn’t come after they said they were going to be late.”
“I’d speculate about whether my sister actually planned to show up another time,” she said with a laugh as she buckled her seatbelt. “What I do think is that we had a really great night. Aside from the contract.”
“Really?”
Naomi nodded. “I can see why, and how, really, Abe and Batya are people that Artur is close to. They’re such good people.”
“It was interesting chatting with them for sure,” Jason returned. “And I don’t mean in a bad way.”
“Really? How so?”
“Well,” he returned, as he pulled out of the driveway, “Batya’s just really easy to talk to, you know?”
“The conversation was deep, I take it?”
“It was,” Jason replied. “Surprisingly so. I kinda just went along with it, because I’m going to have to be public about my brother, about my family and about my own journey, at some point, right?”
“Yep,” she said. “At some point you’re going to be asked about it.”
“Anyway, we had this whole deep conversation about everything, some of it I’ll get to later, and at the end of it, I realized where I knew her from.”
“Where?”
“Meal Network. She hosts a show about Jewish food journeys; I didn’t recognize her that way at first.”
Naomi nodded. “She’s really good at what she does,” she said. “It’s a great show and she gives a ton of really good information.”
“My brother absolutely loves that show too,” he said. “It’s really insightful and fascinating. Anyway, she and I finish this conversation and then?”
“Yes?”
“She tells me that she’d love to do an episode with my brother and I.”
“That’s amazing,” she said. “Batya’s just really smart.”
“She is,” he said. “She’s been fascinated by the way the business is transitioning from the New York family to the Michigan branch, and also that she really wanted to talk to me tonight because she saw that godawful article the New York family saw.”
“That’s just lovely,” Naomi said. “I think she gets the ridiculousness of certain tabloids more than most people because of the fact that she’s out there, on television, you know?”
Jason nodded. “Yeah. Putting yourself out there in any form can be hard.”
“In fact,” Naomi continued, “it turns out Ida made comments that got back to Abe about how she thought the show was airing dirty laundry. Which led to him not wanting anything to do with Ida.”