“I will and thank you, it was nice meeting you, too.”
It was obvious where Con got his sense of value. His mother was sweet, endearing and yet I could tell that she stood firmly on her own two feet.
I felt disappointed that I missed him this morning; I was flattered that he told his mother of me and I found myself yearning to see him again.
~ ~ ~
As the door to the kitchen slammed behind me, Marco looked up only briefly. He tried to wipe the sweat that dripped freely from his forehead with his forearm, as he piped choux paste onto large baking sheets. Mixing bowls, utensils, baking pans and dishes were stacked in and around the dishwasher and two timers began to ring simultaneously.
“Where’s Nelda?”
“Stay home today. She no feel well.”
I pulled my hair back into a loose ponytail and secured it with a bread tie. “I’m sorry to hear that, I hope it isn’t anything serious.” Surveying the kitchen, I said, “I’ll get the oven and then I’ll start on the dishes. Why didn’t you call me instead of trying to keep up with all of this by yourself?”
“I did. Brian said you live there no more.”
I cringed at the mention of his name.
“I’m sorry; it happened so fast and then I got a little caught up in the weekend. I should have told you.”
“Esta bien. We get to it, we be done in two hours, then you go and I be alright.”
“Why would I want to go? I feel like I’ve been shirking my responsibilities lately, I’ll stay until we’re finished.”
“Ron called for meeting...”
“Shit! I forgot about that.”
“You busy, I be okay. You go.”
As I took the cakes for ladyfingers from the oven, I said, “I will, but not before we’re caught up.”
Marco was a hard worker who had a tendency of carrying more than his share of the burden in my little kitchen and in a few short hours, we had everything caught up and I was able to leave for my meeting at the bank.
“Are you sure you’ll be alright here by yourself for the rest of the day?”
“I be fine.”
I took one last look around and said, “Okay then, I’m off. After my meeting, I’m hoping to get out to Willoughby. My grandparent’s number is on the board by the phone if you need me. If not, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, oh, and please tell Nelda that I hope she’s feeling better soon.”
“I will, now you go.” He waved me off.
~ ~ ~
My second meeting with Ron didn’t bring the intimidation the first meeting had. The sense of urgency from the last meeting had disappeared. It wasn’t that my dreams were any less important to me now; I just had more than one dream in my closet these days.
“Meg, come in. Please have a seat.”
I chose the chair closest to the door. It was my subliminal way of getting out of his office faster if he dealt me bad news.
Ron sat behind his oval desk and shuffled through some papers before addressing me.
“Meg, I’ve gone over everything and...” His hesitation brought on a tightening in my stomach. “I’m happy to say that I think we can do business.”
I let out the breath I had been holding and allowed my muscles to relax as I thanked him.
“You have quite a little business going for yourself, I’m impressed.” Shuffling through several more files, he continued, “Since there was only one previous owner, the search should go smoothly, I’ll get the paperwork underway and my guess would be that we can get you in here to close, say, in two weeks or so.”
I was overjoyed and couldn’t help but let it show.
I stood and extended my hand. “Oh Ron, I can’t thank you enough. This is great, you made my day.”
After releasing my hand, he smiled and said, “I’m assuming that my handling your account won’t be a problem then?”
Suddenly confused, I cocked my head slightly to one side, as I tried to figure out the meaning of his last remark.
Seeing my puzzlement, he said, “I ran into Brian over the weekend, he told me that the wedding was off.”
“Yes it is, but what does that have to do with my doing business with this bank.”
“Well, I was referring to doing business with me, not the bank as a whole. Brian and I are friends and I wouldn’t want you to think it might interfere with our professional relationship.”
I offered a sincere smile, and replied, “That never crossed my mind, Ron.” Holding out my hand for a second time, I added, “I’ll see you in about two weeks then.”
“I’ll call you when we’re ready.”
If I didn’t think I would look like a lunatic, I would do a Doublemint kick right in the middle of Main Street or throw something into the wind like Mary Tyler Moore. I was ecstatic and I wanted to share my news with someone. No. I wanted to share my news with Con.