Aftermath Book Two Crash Series

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Aria

            I cough. Again. And then gag.

            “Are you done yet?” I ask well pinching my nose closed.

            “Nope! Kiara said to take my time.” I don’t care what Kiara told Tara Shirley’s is filled with smoke. Something I hoped never to see and it smells is so pungent. It smells like burned grass, not sugary cupcakes and warm toasted chocolate.

            “You’ve been burning that thing for twenty minutes now, taking your time was ten minutes ago.” I definitely whine and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

            “I want to make sure I cleanse everything! We’re opening in a week! We don’t need any bad juju!” I didn’t know Tara was superstitious, I suspect she isn’t normally but I guess this is what you get when you’re suddenly facing life-threatening situations at every turn. Tara’s been a champ so far and if this what she needs to make herself feel better I’ll let her have it, but only for another minute.

            If she keeps burning that sage I’ll never be able to bake the smell out of the walls. That’s a problem since she’s right, opening day is a week away. I need people to be enticed by the smell when they open that door not think I’m back here cooking up grass and serving it up as an entree. And as of right now I don’t think a week will be long enough.

            Looking across the room I look to Wyatt for the hundredth time, he looks just as unpleased as I am but the dude a big ass teddy bear when it comes to Tara and won’t open his giant mouth up and tell her she is nuts. At the very least he could distract her enough for me to grab the smug stick out of her hand and throw it under a running faucet. I wonder if it’s too big to go down the toilet?

            For all, I know Sage really could rid this place of any of the bad energy leftovers from Edward. There was pure evil here on Friday and I know it’s just lurking in the shadows waiting for the opportunity to pop back up. I hope everyone that believes in the power of Sage is right and this really does work, I need all the blessings I can get, in any form.

            It’s just…does it have to smell so damn bad?

            Tara’s standing in the corner under the wind chime as she hums and waves her hand over the smudge stick, she looks perfectly content to keep going all morning but I have work to do and only days to do it. This is the only grand opening I’ll ever get, I need to make sure it’s perfect. Leaving Tara to it I clutch my nose and head to my office. She was in there five minutes ago, I wonder if it faded at all? Cross my fingers.

            I shove the door closed behind me but it bounces back into me. Immediately my heart drops to my feet and my blood rushes to my ears in a woosh. My muscles tense up as I pivot on my feet to keep from being caught from behind. My hands come up in front of my face as I prepare to strike, getting locked in here is not a good idea.

            “It’s just me!” Levi shouts with his hands up in surrender.

            “f**k!” I squeal and clutch at my rapid chest. I’m quick to fall into giggles as I make my way to the chair behind my desk, never taking my hand away from over my heart. Levi walks in and plops down in the corner lounge chair with a few chuckles of his own, at my expense of course.

            Duh, it’s him or Wyatt. We all convened for a late-night dinner meeting last night and went over the new developments. Wyatt was pretty insistent I let everyone else in on what we have so far but I promised to keep Grace and her daughter safe most importantly. Anyone else knowing puts them at risk.

            Two, we need to be sure we’re right and we’re on to something because if I know anything I know Mason. Putting it mildly he will not be pleased. Not just about putting myself in danger, he can see I’m okay. I may take risks but I’ve learned my lessons and I come prepared and planned now and I would make him see that eventually. But really I think he would be more upset than anything that I was lying by omission and manipulation. I was manipulating my words and my stories to balance what I need to tell him with what I needed to know.

            After everything we’ve been through alongside every discussion I know I’ve f****d up by keeping this hidden. The guilt from that grows with each day, he deserves better. I may say that even think it often enough but I know without a doubt it’s true in this case. Mason has not once lied or treated me poorly in any capacity.

            No, he’s been the only one ever that’s given me the respect and dignity I deserve. Best of all he doesn’t give up, or give in. As he said about his Grandma whatever thought crosses his mind you can call it done. He’s determined to succeed as soon as he sees the vision and the vision he has is one of us.

            He’s managed to keep that vision at the forefront of his mind even when I couldn’t. He’s lifted me up off the ground every time I fell and shielded me when he could and held me when he couldn’t. The only thing he ever asked of me was to be truthful, trustworthy, honest. He’s had and has plenty of the opposite, that’s our relationship is so special, so strong because we’re honest and true. He can trust that I’m not in this for anything beyond his love, our love.

            I’m not ready to find out his reaction when he finds out I’ve been sneaking around his back and in-directly lying, which really is a lie. I don’t know what he’ll do or what kind of storm that will bring our relationship so I need to have valuable, important conviction-type evidence to bring to the table. I need proof why my way was the right way even if I went about it in the wrong way, and when it comes down to it there’s no way he would have ever let me start this whole thing if I did go to him from the beginning.

            Eventually, Wyatt gave in to my begging and promised to hold off a little longer. So instead of revealing it all to everyone yesterday, we discussed what we should do going forward. Aka, back to two bodyguards at all times and clearly, we’ve seen what happens when I go in any space with no eyes on me. So unless I’m at home with all the doors locked, alarms, sensors, and cameras on then one of the guys has eyes on me the whole time.

            Now that does make it difficult moving forward but I’m letting that be a problem for a different day. Right now it's crunch time and I need to work on getting my business up off the ground, the thing I was hiding from the past couple of months. Well, there's no more looking away but a lot of catch-up.

            “You good?” Levi asks when I stop laughing.

            “Only a minor heart attack, I’ll be fine!” Shaking the mouse next to my keyboard I wake up my screen so I can finally watch the intro video for the accounting and vendor programs I purchased. After that I need to finalize the display, meaning I need to bake everything I plan to have available come next Sunday. I want to set it up completely so I can make sure it’s perfect, that I’m prepared.

            The last thing I need is to have everything ready to go come 6 AM next week and be disappointed with the outcome. I need to see it all so I know what I need to get still while I have time to get it. I definitely need to do that today, but I need Tara to stop smoking that nasty s**t so I can get in the kitchen where I can really get to work.  

            I bought an Ad on a billboard a few blocks away, it faces a major expressway, hopefully, that will bring some exposure. I also need to get my calendar finalized, printed, and posted, along with the active links to sign up for the events. Another program I need to learn.

            I definitely can't forget to call all my distributors tomorrow to make sure they’ll still be dropping off my ordered supply this week and confirming our flexible delivery schedule going forward. I’m not sure what I will need more of and when so for now I’m going for a weekly schedule on the common items I know I’ll need especially the fresh farmers market products.

            But most importantly I need to get the place set up for the grand opening, with decorations and surprises. I want games and on the tables, alongside books for all ages and a station for art supplies. I hired Jake a man I meet at the soup kitchen to make balloon animals and Patty is going to come with a henna machine and do some sweet designs.

            Thanksgiving is next Thursday, I know I know not an opportune time to open up the week of the holiday but I’ve already taken some custom orders and I’ll have them ready but I don’t want nor need any more than that. I don’t know how sane ill become next week, I don’t want to overbook myself and if I opened any earlier I would have given in to people's pleas. I might still.

            Regardless of the kickoff of the holiday season is this very weekend I’m going to have some holiday-themed activities and giveaways. A small basket raffle, they’ll get a ticket with every purchase on top of the door prizes and random give-away.

            But the best part, the most explosive and overwhelming yet exciting part. Darius’ or maybe they’re mine too at this point want to come to film the opening. They’re even coming the day before to get some shots of the space empty and my baking prep. The publicity I already have is crazy amazing, but now this. A literal segment on the most-watched cooking channel across the country will be watching and immortalizing the grand opening of Shirley’s.

            It feels as big of a deal as I imagined something like this would be back when I was a kid daydreaming of better days. While young Aria, it gets better girl. It gets better.