CHAPTER3
Chloe
Holy crap, where had the days gone? Yesterday I received an email from the library in Boston. Their budget allowed for a part-time position in the fall. I had a week to respond. I hoped to hear something from the library in Tranquility before then.
My talk with Amanda ended on a positive note. She said no one had ever taken the time to acknowledge her bad behavior. She apologized and offered to help me in exchange for using my Jeep. I would be driving the rented minivan. My insurance coverage included a casual driver on the Jeep, so I accepted.
In exchange for Amanda borrowing my Jeep, she would help me create delicious frozen treats. I appreciated the extra hands in the kitchen. It reminded me of my time with Aunt Catherine.
Amanda opened up and revealed the pressure of measuring up to her older sister. Melanie was the golden child allowed to spend the summer in Spain with the man her parents deemed acceptable husband material, then Melanie was going to work for her parents’ advertising agency.
Amanda had no desire to follow the path set out by her parents. Her interest lay in culinary arts. Something that held no value, according to her parents. Their loss was my gain. Amanda and I experimented with new flavors. Some combinations were inspiring, like orange sherbet and black licorice. We called it Tiger Stripes. However, black licorice with other flavors was a failure. Another success was the Cherry Bomb: dark chocolate crammed with organic cherries.
Melanie portrayed Amanda as a spoiled socialite. And based on my first impressions, I believed her. But from what I saw this week, Amanda was anything but. I was familiar with parents whose interests served their own needs and not those of their children. I could sympathize with the girl on the cusp of womanhood. I also revisited my stance on evicting her overdramatic ass.
I was up before dawn double checking my list.
Okay, so maybe it was more like triple checking.
Today was the grand opening weekend. I always got butterflies, no matter how many years I’d done this.
I pulled into the parking lot reserved for the vendors. It gave us a clear path to the huts. It was difficult to judge how much product I would need. The number of tourists would depend on the weather.
And this weekend called for a record-breaking heatwave.
Hopefully, I’d made enough to get me through the weekend. Amanda informed me she was spending the day with a group she’d made friends with. She also told me to call her on her cell if I needed help. I assured her that I would be fine. I did it alone last summer, and I was sure I could handle it.
As in previous years, the mayor would host the opening ceremony at eleven am. The town had been advertising the details since the beginning of May. I opened my Twitter account and posted a quick update and tagged the town’s tourist account.
Catherine’s Sweet Treats is excited to see old friends and hopefully make some new ones.
I had everything in place with time to spare. I decided to investigate which shops had returned and which were new. The artsy huts were the ones with the highest turnover.
Next to me was Alana from Tranquility’s Stationery Emporium. She sold beautiful hand-crafted, leather-bound notebooks, as well as souvenirs such as key chains, postcards, trinkets made with seashells, and snow globes.
I noticed Dave was positioning his easel outside his hut. This would be his third year doing character sketches. I passed jewelry huts and health food shacks. The boardwalk would not be complete without an array of bikinis, wraps, and board shorts stands. I found myself in front of Athena’s Coffee. Next door was Mary-Anne’s Bakery and then Hank’s Hoagies.
Wait, where was Hank? And where were my hoagies?
What the fudge sticks is a Shake Shack?
And why the hell was Peyton Manos standing inside waving, smiling like a loon?