Chapter 14
chapter fourteen
nesto
“Mr. Nesto! Did they call you?” Yin shouted as he ran into traffic trying to get to my car.
“Yin, watch out,” I yelled as I dropped the crate full of cups and napkins I was pulling out of the passenger seat and jogged to meet him at the corner. He looked completely freaked out. When I got to him, I saw he was holding his phone out to me like he wanted to show me something.
“The lady said we couldn’t open the truck until she saw the inside. That someone made a complaint about our food, and she needs to do an inspection.” His face was splotchy like he’d been crying and his voice wobbled on the last word.
“What complaint? Yin, I haven’t talked to anyone about an inspection. Can you start from the beginning? Who came? Was it the blonde lady who stopped by asking where we got our food?”
If Misty had come here to stir shit up again, I was the one who would file a complaint for harassment, but Yin shook his head.
“No this was a different lady. She said she was from the Sanitation Department.” Yin sounded more distressed with every word.
As I listened I tried to figure out what was going on.
I saw Ari crossing the street, his face in a grimace.
Yin looked up at him and gave him a shaky smile, then looked back at me.
“The other lady, she was here earlier, but she didn’t say anything to us.
She just stayed for a minute and left. The inspector came like five minutes later. ”
At the mention of Misty, Ari’s already serious face became thunderous.
“I’m still not sure I follow, guys. This person was going to call me?
She said we couldn’t open until when? We have lunch in a couple of hours and the festival all weekend.
” I started pacing in front of my car. This was not good.
Mr. Sheridan was coming to try the food at the festival.
What would I say when he showed up? “Oops, we got shut down because someone got sick from the food.”
Ari and Yin looked at me like they weren’t sure if I was going to yell at them, so I tried to chill out before I scared them. “Guys, I’m not mad at you, but we need to figure out how to reach this lady. Did she leave a number?”
Ari nodded and pulled out a card from his pocket. “She said you should call her.”
“Okay,” I said, taking the number from him and gestured toward the truck. “You guys just go back, take the drinks with you, too, and put them in the fridge. Hopefully this woman can come do the inspection this morning and we can move on with our day.”
This whole thing was very suspect. An inspector had looked over the truck like a week ago and everything had been perfect. So what could this even be about?
“Fuck.” I slammed my hand on the hood of the car, making Yin jump back and Ari flinch.
“Sorry, guys. I’m a bit frustrated right now.” I deflated when I saw their reaction. I did not need to scare the shit out of my employees on top of everything else. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. I’ll be there in a minute.”
When they started toward the truck I got back in my car to make the call. After two rings a woman picked up. “Muriel speaking.”
“Hi, Ms. Muriel, my name is Ernesto Vasquez from OuNYe. My employees said you came by our truck this morning.”
“Yes, Mr. Vasquez. I’m an inspector with the Department of Sanitation; we have received a complaint claiming the poor sanitary conditions of the truck made one of your customers ill.
We would like to come and inspect the truck as soon as possible.
Until we do so, we ask you don’t serve any more food. ”
Well, this was a fucking nightmare.
“A complaint? I don’t understand.” I was not having a lot of luck keeping my tone neutral. “I’ve never failed an inspection. I just had one a week ago and didn’t have a single issue. I take every precaution with the food I serve.” I was gripping the phone so hard it squeaked in my hand.
This could not be happening right now.
“I understand, sir, but we have to respond to complaints. Unfortunately, it’s pretty late in the day, so I may not get to you before Monday.
” My phone almost slipped out my hand when she said that.
She was shutting me down. I was going to lose three days of business and possibly an investor over this.
“Please, Ms. Muriel—”
I was about to start begging her to come today when she interrupted me.
“I do see here your past inspections have been satisfactory. I may be able to squeeze you in at the end of the day.” The utter desperation in my voice must’ve gotten to her. “I can come out around four. Does that work?”
Today would be a wash, but at least I still had a chance to do the festival. My head felt hot from the panic of the last five minutes.
“Yes, sure. Four is fine. Thank you.” I kept my voice cordial when I answered. Staying on this woman’s good side was a top priority.
“Okay, I’ll be there then.”
I ended the call and turned to see Jude and Carmen walking toward my car. I opened the door and got out, noticing Jude’s face was red and that he looked furious.
I slumped against the car as he approached me.
“Someone filed a complaint against the truck; they said my food made them sick. I can’t open until the inspector comes, so that means no lunch service and possibly no festival.
Fuck.” I stopped talking because I was about to cry from sheer helplessness.
Jude moved closer to me, then looked at Carmen. “See, I told you she’d pull something. God she’s unbelievable.”
Carmen looked pissed, too.
“Please tell me this isn’t about Misty.”
Jude shook his head like he was figuring out where to start.
“We just stopped by the truck to tell you about the meeting with the board and found Ari and Yin looking frazzled. They said you were talking to an inspector about an issue with the truck.” He looked so heated, even in this moment of panic, seeing him this pissed off on my behalf made my chest all warm.
“So why do you think any of this has to do with Misty?” His mouth flattened at the mention of her name.
“She was in rare form at the meeting today, especially after Martha shut her down for being horrible about my presentation. She was all smug and cryptic afterwards. I knew she would do something like this. I’m going to tell Martha.”
I tried to keep my cool, because I had a long day ahead and I didn’t want to add a fight with Jude to an already shitty situation.
“Jude, please, I don’t want you getting involved in this. I don’t want this affecting your job. This has nothing to do with you.” As soon as the last part came out of my mouth I knew I’d made a mistake. Jude’s back went up, and he looked mortified.
Fuck.
How was I supposed to be rational when my entire future could be riding on this weekend?
I sighed. “Babe, I’m sorry I snapped at you, I’m just a little bit on edge right now.
” I felt wrung out from the stress of the last ten minutes.
I noticed that Carmen’s eyebrow shot way up when I called Jude “babe.” I guess it wasn’t only my people who could see right through our “just friends” charade.
I went for a change of subject before Carmen ran with my momentary slip. “I didn’t even have a chance to tell you, but I got a call from Harold Sheridan, the local businessman, and he’s interested in talking to me about OuNYe.”
At this Jude’s face softened a bit, but he was still not talking.
Carmen’s eyes widened when I mentioned Sheridan. She spoke up, sounding impressed.
“Cono, Nesto, ese hombre es poderoso aquí. He’s a big deal. Sheridan’s the biggest real estate developer in the region. His company just built the new engineering building on the Cornell campus that cost like fifty million bucks.”
My heart leaped and then sank at the information. I had no clue the guy was at that level, or how big this opportunity could potentially be.
“This is bad,” I said, running my hands over my face. “He’s coming to the festival to meet me and try the food. I know it’s a long shot, but I really want it to go well, and if this inspection isn’t good, I’m fucked.”
Jude still looked wary, so I moved to take his hand, and to my relief he let me. “Why do you think it was Misty? The inspector said it was a food complaint.”
After a second he seemed to relax and squeezed my hand. “Okay first, the Sheridan thing could be potentially amazing. He owns like half the town, and he’s known for investing in start-ups and partnering with up-and-coming entrepreneurs.”
Carmen nodded in agreement. “He’s legit.”
“About Misty, I don’t know.” He frowned as if figuring out what to say.
“She came up to me after the meeting and was being her usual shitty self, but then talked about your truck, and mentioned bad food, in a way that just made all the hairs on my neck stand up. Now suddenly there’s a complaint about your food.
” He inhaled as he shook his head. “She did it, she knows people everywhere, and she’ll use the influence she has to do stuff like this. ”
Carmen was seething next to him, when she spoke she sounded angry. “She’s a fucking bully. She has connections in the city and at the state trooper’s and she totally uses them to fuck with other people.”
Carmen was practically pulling her hair at this point.
“She’d done this before, too. A few years ago, she almost ran a guy out of town who was teaching one-on-one yoga, because she decided it was taking business from her daughter’s studio.
” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Her kids don’t even talk to her.”
A surge of fury filled me. How could this woman fuck with my business? My livelihood, because she decided it was stealing the spotlight from her kid’s hobby?
Jude’s brows dipped in a furrow. “It had to be her. Why would she say that today and not an hour later you’re getting a call from sanitation?
She’s pissed my project might get funded and she can’t fuck with my head anymore.
And she’s pissed her son’s truck is a total disaster and yours has only been in town a month and is already getting all kinds of buzz.
She’s horrible. I’m sorry, Nesto.” He squeezed my shoulder, his blue eyes dark with worry.
“If that woman does anything else to mess with my business. She’ll be sorry.”
Jude put his hands on my chest. “The inspection will be fine. As soon as the inspector walks into your truck, she’ll see no one has higher standards than you do. This is a distraction. She won’t win.”
He hugged me in silence and after a few minutes headed back to his office, leaving me to figure out what to do while I waited for the inspection, which could make or break me.
I tried not to lose my shit with the inspector still in the truck, but it was really fucking hard not to walk over to that library and blow up on Misty.
The only thing keeping me in check was the fact Inspector Muriel looked like she wanted to be doing this even less than I wanted it to be happening.
She’d been in the truck for about thirty minutes and so far hadn’t asked a single question.
I was trying not to track her every move with my death glare, so I kept updating Jude over text to distract myself.
He said Misty had been walking by their office and smirking until Carmen told her to get her bony ass out of her sight.
I laughed out loud at that.
One point for the Dominicans.
I was still a ball of nerves though and was about to go in and see how much longer this would take when the inspector stepped out of the truck.
She looked at me with a bewildered expression.
“Mr. Vasquez, your truck, your food, and everything surrounding it—including the trash can—are immaculate. Frankly, unless someone sold you something off, which I’m sure would’ve resulted in more than one person getting sick, I can’t imagine these conditions causing anyone buying your food issues. ”
I sighed, dizzy with relief. “Does this mean we can open again?”
She nodded. “I don’t see why not.” She looked around and said in a low voice, “You didn’t hear this from me, but I think this whole thing was just a higher-up putting pressure on one of the supervisors. There is no reason anyone should’ve come out here just from one random call.”
Misty’s stunt had cost me an entire day of profits.
I’d had to turn people away and watch them go across the street to get lunch somewhere else, because Misty decided she wanted me gone from town.
I wasn’t in a position to lose money like that.
The reality was a few more days like today could put me out of business.
But what could I do? I couldn’t actually accuse Misty of trying to shut me down. She’d just laugh in my face and tell me I was being paranoid and scary. What I needed to do was get back to work.
I turned to the inspector again, grateful that she came on such short notice. “Thanks for your help, I’m glad you found everything in order, and for being so flexible about coming today. Having this truck closed for the weekend would have been a serious problem for me.”
I extended my hand and she shook it, chuckling as she looked at the truck. “It was no trouble at all. If everyone kept their spaces to the same standards you do, my job would be a lot easier, not to mention a lot less cringeworthy. Take care, Mr. Vasquez.”
“Thanks, Inspector Muriel.”
As soon as she was in her car, I turned around and called Yin and Ari, who I tried to send home after explaining what happened, but refused to leave me to deal with this on my own. They’d sat around all day and were now at the picnic table we kept by the truck with concerned looks on their faces.
I clapped my hands and gave them a thumbs-up.
“Okay, guys, we’re back in business.” They both perked up and stood at attention, ready to work.
Their faith in me made me vow to do whatever I needed to make OuNYe succeed.
This was not about just me anymore. There were people counting on me, people who loved my business as much as I did.
“We lost today, but tomorrow we have the festival. Let’s get the truck back to Trumansburg and get to work getting ready for that.” They both nodded, as I tossed my car keys to Ari.
“I’ll get the truck and I’ll see you guys at the kitchen.”
“You got it, boss.” Ari gave me a short nod before they both started walking to the car.