42 #2
Clarice suggested adjustments to avoid disclosing information that didn’t need to be included and to distinguish between what I was presenting and what would still be finalized in the evaluation. I revised it. I removed a sentence that sounded like an apology for being involved in the story.
I hadn’t asked to be involved.
I sent the statement via the agreed-upon channel and posted it on the bakery’s social media page. Trama also issued its clarification. The documents made available to the public showed only what was necessary, without any private customer information or account details.
Then I put my phone back in my purse.
I still had boxes to finish.
***
The architecture firm’s second order went out on time.
We worked at the new counter, using the packaging we’d tested and a checklist that Joana insisted on keeping in plain sight. Each box was filled with exactly what had been ordered. We checked quantities, identification, and shipping details.
When the person in charge received the order, she sent a photo of the boxes neatly arranged on the conference table. She said they looked great.
I thanked her without asking if she’d read the news.
That afternoon, the client treated us as the business she’d hired. It was a greater relief than I wanted to need.
Another conversation didn’t end that way.
An event producer I’d been talking to about the opening of a new venue called early the next week. We were still discussing the quote, but the order would take two days of production in November. I’d held the dates while waiting for confirmation.
She said they preferred to go with another vendor.
I asked if there were any changes to the scope that I should know about.
There was a pause.
“The client felt uncomfortable with the publicity,” she replied. “I saw your clarification. I’m not saying I believe the accusation. But I don’t want to bring up another issue right now.”
I looked at the open calendar.
The two days were marked in pencil.
“The documents show how the contract was awarded,” I said.
“I understand. The decision’s already been made.”
I stayed silent for a moment.
I could offer a discount. Ask for a meeting. Resend everything and try to find the right words to stop that person from turning me into a risk they’d rather avoid.
I didn’t do that.
“All right. I’ll release the dates. Thank you for letting me know.”
I hung up with a steady voice. Only afterward did I feel my hands trembling.
I erased the markings.
The paper was a little smudged, with the faint outlines of the letters still visible. I went over it with the eraser again and stopped before tearing up the sheet.
Joana came over.
“They didn’t book?”
I shook my head.
She looked at the two blank days.
“Because of this?”
“They said it was the publicity.”
Joana pulled up a chair and sat down next to me.
I was grateful for the silence. I didn’t have the strength to hear that a better order was coming. There were those two empty days, and the bills still had the same due dates.
“Let’s review the supplies we haven’t bought yet,” I said after a while.
She picked up the list.
We went over it. There were items we wouldn’t need to order. A period of assistance that hadn’t been confirmed yet. We managed to reduce the impact without pretending there hadn’t been a loss.
When we finished, Joana took the sheet and stared at the bottom.
“I need to ask you something.”
I looked up.
“Go ahead.”
“If this takes longer, will you let me know before you can’t keep our agreement?”
The question hurt me in a way that had nothing to do with unfairness. She needed to get her own life in order. Liking me didn’t pay her bills.
“I will. And I won’t wait until the last day to tell you.”
Joana nodded.
“I want to stay. I’m not threatening to leave.”
“I know. You don’t have to reassure me before asking.”
She smiled slightly.
“I can see you’ve learned something.”
I laughed, wearily.
Then I opened the forecast for the coming weeks and showed her what I’d set aside for the team. The lost revenue left us fewer choices, but it hadn’t taken away the money already reserved. Some of the renovation could wait. We also had confirmed orders to deliver well.
I left that conversation without any certainty that everything would work out. I left knowing that Joana had heard the situation from me and could make her own choices.
In the kitchen, she went back to the filling she was preparing. I went to sort out the boxes.
We worked together until closing time.
***
Dante found out that night.
He’d called me to set a time for Bento and asked how my day had gone. I almost just told him that the delivery had gone well.
I told him both things.
I heard the anger held in his breathing when I told him the client had backed out.
“Do you want me to do something?” he asked.
“Not with the client. I don’t want her to get a call from you and think she needs to change her mind.”
“I won’t call.”
I was sitting on the bed, still wearing my shoes. Bento had just fallen asleep.
“I wish having to explain didn’t leave me so tired,” I admitted.
Dante was silent for a few seconds.
“You don’t have to explain it to me right now.”
I lay on my side, holding the phone to my ear.
He told me something small about his day: a failed attempt to sort his papers at home, and finding the piece Bento had left for their next game inside his own shoe. I laughed before I could help it.
The conversation didn’t bring the order back. It let me finish the day talking about something else too.
***
The following weeks were neither a string of disasters nor a string of victories.
I received questions. I answered the ones related to work. Some people read the entire statement. Others only saw a single word in a headline and needed more time—or never showed any interest in learning the rest.
Payments for completed services were released as the checks were finished, in accordance with the contracts. I had to rearrange a purchase and postpone the part of the renovation that hadn’t begun. I paid the team and made arrangements with suppliers I could honor.
I recalculated the budget based on the funds available at the bakery.
Dante stayed with me through the wait without insisting on covering the difference.
In early November, I ran into a longtime customer at the shop. She came to pick up a pie, commented on the counter space, and asked if I still made the cake her daughter liked.
I did.
I jotted down the order while the girl chose the flavor of the frosting. The mother didn’t mention the news. Maybe she’d read it, maybe not. I didn’t need to find out to serve her.
After they left, I looked at the date I’d written in my planner.
The order was smaller than the one that would have filled those two lost days. Even so, I had work to prepare.
I grabbed the ingredient list and started with that.
44
DANTE
In the second half of November, I received the findings from the analysis of the current contracts.
I read them at home, where I had been working only on what was requested of me during my leave. The routine still bothered me. There was no longer a string of meetings to fill the time before I had a chance to think about what I’d done.
The review had reconstructed the Trama contract, the acquisition dates, the requests for changes, and the delivery confirmations.
The amounts grouped together in the accusation had been separated by recipient and service.
Actual changes in Cecília’s contracts matched documented quantities and deliveries.
The claim that I’d bought the hotel to hire or favor the bakery didn’t hold up.
That did not mean the entire administration was flawless.
The report outlined necessary measures to better record and oversee situations involving conflicts of interest, limit concentrations of approval authority, and ensure that decisions—which previously passed too quickly through the same hands—could be verified.
My past actions continued to have professional consequences.
I wouldn’t be returning to my position that day.
I signed the receipt and answered the last few questions I was asked.
Then I called Cecília.
She had already received, through Clarice, the part concerning the company. Her voice sounded cautious when she answered, as if she were still expecting to find a hidden condition after the conclusion.
“I read it,” she said.
“So have I.”
We were silent for a moment.
“Now we need to correct what’s been made public,” she said.
“We do.”
***
The correction was prepared in collaboration with the people in charge, and Cecília participated in the decisions regarding the use of her own name.
The company would issue clarifications regarding the current contracts and the measures taken.
Trama had its records and its statement.
The media outlets that had covered the allegations received the relevant documents and requests for updates, without any promise that all the headlines would disappear or be rewritten the way we wanted.
There was also the accusation from five years earlier.
That part could not be addressed in just a company statement.
I wrote a first draft of what I wanted to say. When I finished, I realized I’d spent more words explaining how I’d been deceived than taking responsibility for the choice I’d made.
I deleted a good portion of it.
I started over.
I stated that the transfer used to accuse Cecília corresponded to a documented loan that had been repaid.
That the investigation had found another source for the information that had been disclosed.
That I had accused her without giving her a fair hearing and had upheld a version of events for which I had not sought the necessary verification.
Marina’s story was left out of the text. Bento’s as well. The statement addressed the accusation I had made against Cecília.
I sent the text to Cecília via the method we had agreed upon, before any publication.
She asked for time to read it with Clarice.
I waited.
In our next conversation, she pointed out a sentence.