Page 77 of Appointing

“Taste this,” Sarah Anne said, shoving a spoon into Ingrid’s mouth before Ingrid knew what was happening. “Well?”

“Warn a girl next time,” Ingrid told her, licking her lips. “But yeah, that’s really good.”

“If I warned you before I wanted you to try a new recipe, you’d say no at least half the time.”

“I’m your sister, not a guinea pig, Sarah.”

“Right now, you’re both.” Sarah went back to the stove, where she returned to her stirring. “So, how is it?”

“I told you it was good.”

“No… It’s been a few weeks now, right? How is it working with Dad?”

“Well, I don’t really workwithhim – I have about three bosses above me before him, so I don’t see him all that often.”

“But is it going okay so far?”

“It’s fine, I guess. It’s not what I thought I’d be doing with my life, but I have a chance to grow here. Plus, I get to work on their non-profit stuff a few hours a week. I enjoy that.”

“My do-gooder sister.” Sarah Anne rolled her eyes at Ingrid. “Here I am, trying to make a name for myself so I can own a popular restaurant one day, make enough money to own two or three more, become a celebrity chef, get a cooking show or something, and then just roll in the dough. You’re, over here, making enough to survive on and working with non-profits. How do we share a mother?”

“Well, we don’t share a father, so maybe it’shisDNA,” Ingrid replied.

“Hedidstart a giant money-making company,” Sarah Anne said of her father.

“He’d give you the money, you know?” Ingrid said.

“What money?”

“Sarah, he’d give you the money for your restaurant. He wouldn’t even loan it to you; he would just give it to you. You could be up and running in probably less than a year.”

Sarah stopped stirring and said, “I want to do it on my own.”

“I know you do. I’m just saying that if you asked, he’d give it to you. If you wanted it to be official, you could tell him to make it a loan and have paperwork drawn up.”

“I don’t want him to finance my restaurant, Ingrid. I want to work my way up, save money, go to a bank, ask for a loan, be turned down two or three times, and then finally get approved. I want to go through all the problems of being a restaurant owner. I want to come in over budget on the kitchen equipment, negotiate prices with suppliers, and hire staff that’ll just turn over in six months. It sounds strange, but I want it all. And if Dad just gives me the money or even loans it to me, I’ll miss out on a lot of that. It won’t matter as much.”

Ingrid thought for a moment about her own situation. She swallowed as she examined her life now. She’d loved her job, working as a private secretary to the royal family. She’d earned it. She’d worked her way up, had the crappy offices, got the coffee and tea, and took the early and, often, late meetings when her superiors went home for the day. She’d earned her promotions, the better offices, and the right to send someone else to get the coffee. Now, she worked at a company she didn’t really care about because her stepdad had given her a job. She wasn’t even sure she was qualified for it. Everyone else seemed to have much more experience and university degrees that matched their professions. Ingrid stared down at the laptop she’d pulled out the moment she got home to respond to her emails and wished they were asking her to approve a press release or work out the Queen’s schedule for an upcoming trip instead.

“Are you expecting someone?” Sarah Anne asked.

“What?”

“The door, Ingrid. Someone’s here.”

“No, I’m not expecting anyone.”

“Well, it could be the new knives I’m expecting. Or, you know, it could be the Queen of Norway again,” Sarah teased.

“I haven’t seen her in weeks, Sarah. It’s probably your knives. You likely have to sign for them, soyoucan get the door.”

Sarah placed her spoon on the stove and excitedly rushed to the door.

“Um, Ingrid?”

“Yeah?”

“I think it’s for you,” Sarah said, sounding strange.

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