Chapter 3

3

Charlotte: Soooo . . . how did the big meeting with the investor go this week? Did you wow Mr. Fancypants?

Truly: Define “wow.”

Charlotte: That sounds like it didn’t quite go as planned.

Truly: Does anything really ever go as planned?

Charlotte: What’s the issue? Is he just not interested in the speakeasy concept? Because that is shocking. I’ve seen your Gin Joint numbers, you numbers-sharing whore, you.

Truly: They’re like Mariano Rivera getting into the hall of fame kind of numbers. Excuse me as I pet this photo of me and the famed closer when we met once after a game.

Charlotte: Girl, I love it when you name-drop sports stars on me.

Truly: That reminds me, when are you getting us third-baseline seats to the Yankees again? I need my fix.

Charlotte: Such a greedy one. If you can tear yourself away from work for ten seconds, you can share our season tickets for the game next Sunday. Spencer has a meeting, but the kids can hang with my sister so we can go child-free.

Truly: This news delights me. Not the kid-free part, since your kids are cool. But the baseball part. The Yankees are my happy zone, and I’ll work late every night to go to a Sunday game and replace your hubby.

Charlotte: We have two more tickets. You could bring Jason and Malone.

Truly: You’re a goddess. I’ll see if I can twist their arms. It’ll be hard, but I’ll do my darnedest. Anyway, thanks again for connecting me with Darren. To answer your question, he likes Gin Joint. But he wants something else first. I was kind of hoping he’d say a Parisian-style bar.

Charlotte: A Parisian-style bar would be amazing. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time too.

Truly: Sadly, that’s not his first choice, and that’s the problem. Wait! It’s not a problem. I don’t believe in problems. I believe in challenges. I’m simply still marinating on this one.

Charlotte: Ooh, intriguing. Tell me more. What style does he want?

Truly: Something I know little about. But I might have told Darren I know a helluva lot more about it than I actually do.

Charlotte: Guess it’s time to come up with a whole new game plan.

Truly: That’s exactly what I’ll have to do.