People were checking out the bakery while they were in line for the restaurant.
The bakery was getting business, too. That brought tears of joy to her eyes.
Oh, hurray.
There was no way into the restaurant unless she walked through the crowd, so she plunged straight into the noisy tangle of people.
As she got closer, someone yelled and waved, “Contessa! Yoo-hoo! Hi!”
Contessa? Who in the world…
It was a red-haired, middle-aged woman she’d never seen around town before. “I’m Beverly,” the woman said. “You know, Beverly Roseberry from your channel. You’re even cuter in person! I came from South Bend to meet you.”
“Beverly? From my YouTube channel? Hi!” Of course. BeverlyRoseB commented all the time. And had a yellow tabby cat named Charlie. “How’s Charlie doing?”
“Oh, getting into mischief as always.” She pointed to the two women on either side of her. “These are my best friends.”
“I’m Charlotte,” one said.
“And I’m Daisy.”
Tessa immediately recognized them as people who followed her channel and commented often on her videos. It was amazing that her little channel with a few hundred subscribers could bring a handful of nice people out here to support her.
“We have a reservation,” Beverly said. “Good thing, too, or we’d never have gotten in. It’s going to be packed.”
Tessa greeted them and gave them all hugs. “How did you find out about this?” Because she certainly didn’t post about it. In fact, in the past few weeks, she’d barely posted any videos at all.
“Well,” Beverly said, “the wedding videos you posted were so cute, and seeing you with Leo and how you both worked so hard to make this happen…”
Wedding videos? And they knew Leo’s name?
She was always careful not to identify anyone in her life by full name. And she would never post a…
Vivienne.
“We were hoping to meet Cosette, too,” Charlotte said.
“She’s at home,” Tessa said, “but you’re welcome to stop by and see her.” Did she just invite strangers to her house?
Well, they weren’t really strangers. And they sure looked a lot more trustworthy than DrLongschlongMD.
Tessa thanked them for coming and was greeted by still more people who knew her name. She was a little dazed when she finally managed to break through the crowd and enter the back door of the restaurant.
It was shockingly quiet in the dining room compared to the noisy buzz in the street. Noah was setting out tea lights on all the tables. “You look nice, Tessa. I love the black lace. Very… Pretty Woman of you.”
“Thanks, Noah. You look really nice, too.” He was wearing a sweater with a bold geometric black-and-white pattern. Under his black skinny pants, his socks matched the sweater.
She was just about to put her nice heels back on when there was a commotion from the kitchen, and Aunt Loretta, Uncle Cosmo, Leo’s dad, and Leo himself burst out of the swinging door.
Aunt Loretta was wringing her hands. “So many people,” she said. “We don’t have room.”
“Don’t worry, Loretta,” Cosmo said. “Leo will figure this out. Look at all the business!”
“Go tell all those people that this is not the Olive Garden, Leo,” Marco said, pointing to the door. “Reservations only.”
“We did take reservations,” Leo said, “but a lot of local folks just showed up, like they usually do. I hate to turn them away.”
“These are more than local people. Where are they all coming from?” His dad sounded a little panicked.
“I have no idea,” Leo said. “We placed a couple of ads in different places. Our social media accounts are still really young.”
“I just heard someone outside say that the food critic from the Chicago Tribune is in that line,” Tessa said.
That’s when Leo looked up and saw her. He smiled a slow smile that warmed her to her toes and, despite the chaos, filled her with a flood of calm assurance.
“Are you serious?”
“As serious as a Zagat rating,” she answered with a shrug.
In that moment, she knew that whatever this chaos was, they would handle it. It was going to be okay.
Leo walked up and took her hand, steering her a little out of the way. “You look amazing,” he said. “I really love the rainbow flip-flops.”
“They’re from Lilac. She never misses an opportunity to support a cause.”
He kissed her, right there, in front of everyone, making her blush from head to toe.
She couldn’t tell if anyone really noticed except for Vivienne, who was in their face, taking photos.
“Vivienne, what are you doing?” Tessa asked, breaking away from Leo’s lips.
“Capturing how cute you two are.”
“Wait a minute.” Tessa pulled out her phone and called up her channel. “I have five thousand subscribers! I have ads on my channel!” She looked up incredulously. “Do you know what that means, when you have ads?
“Yep,” Vivienne said. “It’s so exciting. People want to see the nice young couple who are trying to save a restaurant and a bakery.”
Tessa handed the phone to Leo. “Look.”
“Well, I’ll be,” he said, passing it around to his aunt and uncle and dad. “Tessa, you’ve brought a hundred people here.”
Tessa nodded to her sister. “Vivienne did.”
“The power of social media,” Aunt Loretta said.
“It was more than that,” Vivienne said. “Tessa, you’re great at communicating and being friendly and funny. I just provided some emotional content to bring them here.”
By taking videos of her when she wasn’t looking and sharing God only knew what, but hey, it worked, right?
“Well, what are we going to do about it?” Marco asked. “They’re here to see the cute couple, so go give them the cute couple.”
“I have an idea,” Leo said.
Of course he did.
“Instead of turning people away empty-handed,” Leo said, “let’s all go out there and give them a taste of the restaurant.”
“The health department doesn’t allow us to serve people on the sidewalk,” Uncle Cosmo said.
“How about vouchers for a free appetizer?” Leo asked. “I can hand them signed business cards for that. And then…we can hand them something delicious.”