Page 53 of The Holiday Fail

Every day was fulfilling. With more townsfolk dropping by to eat at the restaurant, it felt like we’d become a bigger part of the community too. And the best part of it all was doing this with Andy by my side, watching him thrive more every day as people got even more excited about his food.

Thanksgiving was soon approaching as we got everything finalized for our first holiday event. Thanksgiving at Fated Encounters would be buffet style and tickets for the event were priced just high enough to cover ingredients and waitstaff expenses.

Andy had decided to do sign-ups for Thanksgiving ordersto give us a better headcount of those who wanted to dine with us. And thank goodness he did, because it was only then that we realized there was a lot more interest than expected. The first day sign-ups went out, we already had enough people to fill our dining room completely.

It broke my heart to know there were so many folks in Wintertown who didn’t have a place to spend the holiday, and when more people came to ask about getting on the waitlist, hoping to squeeze in a couple of hours to spend with others that night, I knew I wouldn’t be able to turn anyone away.

“What are we going to do?” Andy asked when he looked at the full list and our limited dining area. His brow knitted together when another elderly couple asked my dad about a Thanksgiving meal the next day.

I knew them from around town. They were a couple whose children lived far away and rarely came back to visit, and since they were getting up there in age, they probably had a hard time cooking elaborate meals just for themselves.

Andy had on such a sad face as my dad explained our event was fully booked out and turned them away. I didn’t want this either. I wished we could accommodate everyone, but the B&B was only so big…

Then, an idea popped into my head. I remembered that a few years back, someone booked the B&B out for a wedding. It was our first and only wedding here, but they had insisted on wanting it at the B&B since this was where they fell in love. We’d purchased a huge party tent with sidewalls and everything. It was in storage somewhere in the attic and hadn’t been used since, but we could fit more people with it.

It might be a little cold being November, but at least they wouldn’t be completely out in the elements. We could borrow heaters and tables from our friends and neighbors, decoratewith some sparkly lights to make it more inviting, and we could accommodate more people that way. The more I thought about it, the more feasible the plan became.

“Wait!” I called out to the couple before they left and told them to come back tomorrow night for a feast. We didn’t have much time to put this all together, but the bright smiles on the couple’s faces was worth it, even if I had to stay up all night.

“What do you have planned?” Andy asked with a smile. Dad looked curious as well.

I turned to Andy, determined that we could make this work. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. It was a one-word reply, but the sincerity I heard in his voice told me he’d truly meant it. And that meant everything.

So I told them the plan for making more room for guests in the living room as well as bringing out the large tent to create more space. They were immediately on board. Dad went to find Pops to inform him of the plan, and Andy turned to me. There was so much trust when he looked at me, like he didn’t doubt a single thing I did.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked.

“We’ll need to borrow heaters and folding tables and chairs. And decorate too. We have to make it look nice. I don’t want people to think we threw this together at the last minute, even if we did. Shit, maybe I was too eager telling the couple to come back when we don’t even know if we’ll get all this done in time,” I said with a huff.

The setup was going to take time, even with the four of us, and we still needed to finish the ingredient prep for tomorrow’s big day of cooking.

Andy pulled me into a hug, his scent immediately filling me and calming me down. “Breathe. It’s going to work out,”he stated. “I’ll drive to town and talk to the restaurant owners to see if we can borrow anything from them.”

I pulled back to look at him. “Since when did you get so close to the owners in town?”

Andy shrugged. “We chatted when I was doing research for the proposal, and we got to talking.”

“Why aren’t I surprised?” I said with a laugh. “You’re making yourself right at home here.”

I immediately pressed my lips flat, regretting saying that out loud. I didn’t want him to feel like I was trying to hint at anything.

Andy and I were dating, but he was still leaving at the end of the contract. I couldn’t ask him to stay, but I wasn’t just going to let him go either. If it meant we had to go long distance to keep him in my life. I’d do it.

“Yeah, I am.”

His words called to a selfish part inside of me that had hope I had no right feeling light up. But before I could ask him more about it, he pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“I need to head into town before the restaurants close for the night. I’ll be back,” he said, then he was gone as he grabbed the keys to the B&B’s truck.

I was frozen in place until he was out of sight, but then I sprang into action. There wasn’t enough time for me to dawdle here. We had a lot we needed to do tonight. I pulled out my phone and started going through my contacts to call in some favors.

My dads returned not long later with the giant, folded-up tent. We quickly set it up in the back and connected it to the door at the back of the dining room, so it would be easy to move from one place to the next. It took us a good hour or two to set up, made harder in the dark of the night, but we got it up eventually.

Pops and Dad went to call their contacts to see what we could borrow. Andy returned not long later, and I was surprised to see Jim’s truck pull in behind him.

“Ran into them in town,” Andy said. He came up and plopped a kiss on my cheek in greeting. My face heated at the intimacy in front of my friends, who were looking at us with huge grins on their faces.

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