It Started with a Dog, page 10
The lights they’d selected for the garden were the best of them all in her humble opinion. They were shaped like small umbrellas, and when they were strung, it would look as if umbrellas were quietly descending from the sky beneath the spread of the old live oaks.
“Outstanding,” Soren said, looking around, and Harper shot a look at Kendal. “When will the lights be installed?”
“A couple of days at most.”
“And the entertainment? You have that lined up?”
Kendal took his phone from his pocket and looked at it.
“I’ve got calls into four local bands. Lolita Lynne,” she said, holding up a finger.
Kendal typed.
“A lovely quality to that particular style of music,” Soren said.
“Nané—”
Kendal typed some more.
“Interesting choice,” said Soren.
Harper wondered if he actually knew these bands or if he was just talking. And what was Kendal typing on his phone with such urgency?
“Why Bonnie is the third act.”
“Yes, Why Bonnie,” Soren repeated.
Harper paused. “Are you . . . are you asking?”
“I am saying.”
“Right. And the last one is the Suzanna Harper Band.”
“Suzanna,” Kendal said, and glanced up from his phone. “She goes simply by Suzanna now. I would say she’s the most mainstream of the four.”
“And an excellent choice. Her music is the sort one should make love to,” Soren opined as he walked back into the main room.
“Eew,” Kendal muttered at the same moment Harper whispered, “Good God.” They looked at each other as they followed Soren inside. Well, that was at least something they agreed on.
She looked down at her clipboard. “Veronica is helping out and rounding up some waitstaff from the other stores for the opening, and the new staff hires will begin when we fully open the following day. We’ll have a frappe station there.” She looked up from her clipboard and pointed at a spot near the coffee bar. “Oh, and one last, sort of fun thing, I think.” She paused and grinned at them. “I have a tarot card reader coming.”
Soren’s head swiveled around. He looked her up and down as if she’d mismatched her shoes. “Why?”
“It’s fun. A novel experience.”
“Sure, it’s fun if you have a good reading,” Kendal said. “It’s when you don’t get a good reading that everything goes to hell.”
Soren looked almost alarmed. “Do you want to chance a bad reading with potential customers?”
“What?” She laughed. “It’s a gimmick. The reader knows this is a promotion. She’ll probably give them readings about coffee or something. It will be fun.”
“I’d rethink that,” Soren said, and glanced at Kendal, almost as if seeking approval. Kendal kept his gaze on his phone.
There was a time Soren would have loved something as different as a tarot card reader. He loved all her ideas. What was happening here, exactly?
“Fine. I’ll cancel the tarot card reader.” Maybe not before she got her tarot cards read.
“If that is all, I have no indubitable queries at this time. This looks quite good, Harper. We may expect to be proud of our achievement, and you in particular.” He winked at her. And with that wink, balance was restored. She didn’t want to read too much into it, but she felt confident she was getting the promotion.
“Carry on,” Soren said grandly. He gestured for Kendal, and the two of them started for the door.
She suddenly remembered something. “Wait!” she called after them. She’d forgotten that the publicist she’d hired, Carly Kennedy, was chomping at the bit to put out invitations. “When are we going to announce this thing? It’s going to be just us standing around if we don’t get some publicity.”
Soren paused, then turned to look at her. “You never announce before you have the musical entertainment lined up. Never.”
“Right, but we have to get things printed and Carly needs lead time—”
“Then get the music arranged. Come along, Kendal,” Soren said, and continued on his path to the door, his long trench coat billowing out behind him.
“Because it’s really hard to keep this a secret!” Harper shouted after him. “Everyone on the block knows we’re opening a Deja Brew here!”
Soren didn’t respond. He didn’t even turn his head to look back at her.
She followed him out onto the street, because sometimes, you had to stalk Soren to get his attention. “I’m going to get the music lined up and tell her to announce it as soon as possible!” she shouted at Soren as he and Kendal walked down the street to his car.
If Soren had heard her, he gave no indication. But Kendal heard her and looked back at her with a thumbs-up before climbing into Soren’s car.
“You little . . .” What did you call someone whose ambition clearly matched your own?
“Whatever,” she muttered, and stalked back inside to make some calls.
* * *
While Harper was making her many calls to the Suzanna Harper Band’s—correction, Suzanna’s—manager, and texting back and forth with the publicist, Jonah and Amy were scowling at fairy lights hanging from the interior beams of the Deja Brew in North Austin. This store had been made to look like a winter cabin, with faux log walls and beamed ceilings. The music was a cross between a ballad and electronic dance music, sort of what Jonah imagined popular music in Norway must sound like.
Amy pointed at the chalkboard that listed the day’s fresh items. “It’s all vegan. Not one thing on that list has even a smidge of butter. Personally, I’m offended. Even the damn ice cream is vegan.”
At the bottom of the chalkboard was a note that today’s items were supplied by the local Merry Vegan Bakery. Jonah wondered what the margins were on the baked goods in a place like this. His margins were razor-thin. “Ready?” he asked Amy.
“Ready.”
They stepped up to the counter to order. Jonah took a vegan cupcake and a regular cup of coffee. Amy ordered a mint matcha tea and a vegan matcha brownie. They took their selections to the floating egg basket chairs. They were prepared to find the chairs intolerably gimmicky, but they were surprisingly sturdy and comfortable. They tried to guess how much the baskets cost. How much it would take if they were to get rid of standard wooden chairs and tables in the Star and replace them with something . . . hip?
Neither of them had a clue on either front.
“When did the vegan, no-dairy, no-sugar craze become a thing?” Amy asked, scowling at the brownie with the bright green top.
“Around the time diabetes became a thing.”
She snorted, then took a bite of the brownie. She chewed a moment, and her eyes opened wide inside her large-framed red glasses dotted with turquoise-colored crystals. “It’s good.”
Jonah chuckled. “It has to be good or people wouldn’t keep coming back.”
“I know, but still. I had no idea vegan could be so good. What did they say it was sweetened with? Prune juice or something?”
The cupcake he’d picked up was good, too. And so was the coffee. Straight-up, fair trade coffee.
Jonah looked around at the clientele. Two men were seated at a table playing a game that looked like 3D Battleship. A woman was perusing the books in the small lending library. Another man wearing headphones was bent over a laptop. The place was aesthetically pleasing, the clientele straight out of Austin central casting. The food and coffee were good, and there were enough attractions such as games and books to attract people in every day of the week.
Jonah put down his cup. “We can’t compete with this, Amy. Do you know how much we’d have to invest to come even close to competing with this?”
“You have to stop looking at this place like it’s the end-all, Jonah. I think it’s kind of uppity.”
He looked around them again. “What’s uppity? Where? How?”
Amy looked around, too. “I don’t know. It just feels elitist.”
“Because they’re vegan?”
“Because they think they’re so woke.”
“That’s the way Austin is going.”
She adjusted her cat-eye frames. “I know. Believe me, I know. But there are still a lot of people like you and me and your parents in this town. There has to be a way the Star can exist alongside places like this.”
“If the Star was in the suburbs, I’d agree with you. But we’re not. We’re right in the middle of town, in the middle of a clientele that likes this sort of thing.”
Amy stuffed the rest of the brownie in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. She swallowed and said, “We are two reasonably smart people. We can think this through. What is the opposite of healthy?”
“Unhealthy?”
Amy swiped a crumb from her lip with the tip of her finger. “Exactly. A lot of people will pull into a Sonic for a Blast. They aren’t interested in vegan brownies. We ought to double down and make pies so rich, they make you want to slap your mother.”
“Not sure that is a winning campaign slogan.”
“But you get my point.”
“I do.” He looked at the half-eaten vegan cupcake. “For every health-conscious bakery in town, there has to be a bakery known for lethal sugar content.”
“Now you’re getting it.” Amy beamed. “We’re going to save the Star yet!”
“Don’t get your hopes up too high.” Jonah wished he could feel as confident as she did.
Nine
When Harper called Olivia to tell her about her date, Olivia squealed and said she couldn’t believe Harper had lucked into a good guy, because they were so hard to find, and why didn’t she ever find a good one, and it didn’t seem fair, really, because she was always looking and Harper wasn’t.
Harper said she was protesting too much, that Olivia always had guys around. Olivia acknowledged that she did, but they weren’t the good ones.
Harper had Olivia on speakerphone. In preparation for her date, she’d busted out the fancy bath bombs and was currently soaking in the tub.
“What are you doing right now?” Olivia asked when she was done being jealous.
“Taking a bath and thinking of new ways to impress Soren.”
“Ugh, Soren.” Olivia said his name as if she knew him. She didn’t. She’d never even seen a picture of him as far as Harper knew. “You shouldn’t have to think of ways to impress him. It’s obvious how awesome you are! Your boss should recognize you based on your performance of the job he hired you to do. You shouldn’t have to perform for him.”
“You just contradicted yourself,” Harper pointed out. “And besides, I do have to perform for him. That’s what he likes.”
“I think what he likes is you,” Olivia said. “My theory is that he keeps throwing curve balls so he’ll have an excuse to talk to you.”
Harper laughed, loud and long. “He doesn’t like me, trust me. He has a new favorite.”
“You’re kidding! Who?”
“Remember the guy I thought was the receptionist and he was actually an administrator? Well, apparently, he is also some sort of accountant and advisor. And also, suddenly in the running for my big promotion.”
“What? That’s not fair.”
“No.” Harper sighed.
“You’re going to get the promotion, Harper. You’ve done everything for that man. And if you don’t get it, I will come over there and personally kick his ass.”
Harper smiled. She loved Olivia’s belief in her. But she wasn’t feeling like it was a slam dunk.
“So forget Soren. I want to talk about your date. He’s so hot! How old is he? Does he have any STDs? Arrests?”
“Olivia!” Harper laughed. “It’s a date, not an interrogation.”
“Call it what you want, but you need to know these things if you’re going to sleep with him.”
“I’m not going to sleep with him.”
“Really? Because it’s been a hot minute.”
Harper stood up from the bath. “I have obviously confided too much about my sex life to you.”
“Or lack thereof.”
“Whatever. I like him. He’s funny and he’s got a great dog, and he’s an aerospace engineer and there are no red flags. Not a single one.”
“Oh my God,” Olivia said, as if something had just that moment occurred to her. “You’re going to fall in love and get married and I’ll have to go to your wedding by myself! I’ll be the bridesmaid without a date!”
Harper wrapped a towel around her. “Never fear. I’ll toss my used bouquet to you on my way out the door.”
“Don’t tease me,” Olivia said tearfully. “You know someone will knock those flowers out of my grasp at the last minute. Hey—did you tell your mom about him?”
“I have not. They are getting ready for their month-long sojourn in China.”
“Well then, let me do the motherly thing and advise you to go right now and get some condoms just in case.”
Harper laughed. “Bye, Olivia.”
“You better call me tomorrow with all the details!”
Harper promised she would and hung up.
Did she have any condoms?
Not that she was going to need them. She didn’t fall into bed with guys on the first date. Or the second. Or the third. Actually, she didn’t have a rule because she didn’t date like that. But she went in her bedroom to search for condoms. In the back of her nightstand, behind the nasal spray she’d used when she’d had a massive cold and a wrapper from a chocolate bar, she found six. She was surprised—that was about five more than she would have guessed. But Harper was always prepared, always so careful to have her p’s and q’s lined up, every situation diagrammed out, all materials ready to go. She supposed she had her parents to thank for that—she’d been alone so much growing up that she’d had to learn how to get things done on her own.
It wasn’t that her parents didn’t love her—they did. They just didn’t know how to be parents. So Harper had taken over the duty of herself, and had learned that if she planned everything, not only did time go by more quickly, but there were never those embarrassing moments when she showed up to drill team practice without the cookies or water she was supposed to bring.
And there had been Olivia to teach her, too. Life treated Olivia differently than her, and that had been just as an important proving ground as her parents. From Olivia, Harper had learned that she would never have the beauty to attract attention, but she could attract it through hard work. Did the kitchen need cleaning after a holiday meal? Harper was the one everybody wanted on their team. Was there a project that required creativity and leadership? Harper was your gal. Had your parents forgotten you were on the volleyball team? Arrange your own rides to practice and impress them all!
Somewhere along the way, doing things became the thing that drove Harper. Set a goal and meet it. Set the next goal and meet it. Keep setting goals, keep going, look at all the victories she’d racked up. Don’t look at anything else, don’t look back, don’t think about loneliness. Stay in your bubble, think about the next task, and the next one, and you would not suffer from disappointment. She liked to picture each accomplished goal as wrapped in tissue paper and neatly stacked on a shelf somewhere. A stack of her accomplishments.
She moved the condoms to a more readily accessible part of the drawer and closed it, then returned to the bathroom to put on her makeup.
Did condoms expire?
She was surprised by how much she was looking forward to this date. She was generally okay on her own. She didn’t feel a void in her life without a boyfriend like Olivia did. In fact, it used to annoy her that her mother couldn’t be without her father. Not even for a few hours. Her mother would call her father several times in the course of a workday. Dad never complained. Their closeness was their secret society, and Harper was only a peripheral part of it. She didn’t need to be with a man like that. She didn’t need to be with a man at all, really—she had plenty of friends to go with for drinks and movies. Houston was close enough that she could pop over any weekend to hang out with Olivia, and Lord knew Olivia showed up at her door in Austin regularly.
There were times, however, that Harper worried something might be a little off about her. Was it normal to be okay by herself? To not need a guy? She wasn’t sure she really even needed sex. Not that she’d admit that to her horny friends. She liked sex, but she didn’t think about it all the time, and didn’t measure her happiness by the number of guys she’d banged. She didn’t think about it much at all, really—she was too busy.
Which was why this thing with Jonah Rogers was so . . . startling. The first time she’d thought about sex—real sex, like in-it-to-win-it sex—was when she’d met him up close and personal.
She would never forget walking up to him outside the Dive Bar. She couldn’t believe that a man who looked like him was waiting for a woman who looked like her. He was fit, and hard-bodied, and handsome. He was the type of man who could spur even the dullest of hearts to imagine sex, and Harper had imagined it, all right, and her insides had gotten a little fried, so maybe she wasn’t sexually subhuman after all.
She’d find out soon enough, she supposed.
But it wasn’t only that. He was fun and good-natured, and for reasons that totally baffled her, he seemed to really like her, too. No wonder she was thinking about him all the time.
Harper finished dressing for the first portion of the date. They’d agreed that they would go and walk Bob, then change for dinner. Harper had a dress hanging on the back of her closet, but for now, she pulled on a pair of gray Adidas joggers with the brand’s famous black stripes down the sides, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a puffy vest. She had just put her hair in a high pony and, for the first time since she’d begun walking rescue dogs, a full complement of makeup. As she was dabbing on a little more blush to give her cheeks that rosy, girl-outdoors look that Olivia had once told her she needed, her phone pinged.
