Ryan caught on, and his honest, on-point response surprised her. “Look, Nikki. I get it. I know that opening up isn’t what I’m best at. And expressing my emotions isn’t something I’m that used to. At least, not yet. But I’ll work on it, okay?”
Nikki put both of her arms around Ryan’s left arm as she clung onto it, to signal her appreciation for what he’d just admitted. She felt instant chemistry again with him, and was thrilled that their date had been going well on so many levels.
They turned and continued walking through the rest of the gallery. But even though its halls were adorned with many other paintings, still the ‘Tides of Fate’ lurked in her mind. Nikki felt fate was about to roll into her life, just as the strong ocean waves were about to overwhelm that tiny boat. She could just feel it.
Chapter 13
The next couple of weeks ran by like a dream. Nikki had become intoxicated with how she felt around Ryan. They’d gone out several more times, frequently meeting up at spots around the city to explore it. Once, Ryan showed her his candle-making company. Another time, they went to a stand-up comedy club. It’d been only a couple weeks, and they hadn’t yet verbalized their relationship being exclusive, but Nikki’s emotions swirled with the possibility that she had finally found the one.
“Well, what do ya know?” Sara’s voice teased from behind Nikki at work. Both women had been busy preparing food at their separate kitchen stations for the large wedding that was finally going to happen. Their preparation was for the same large group whose rehearsal dinner had been a couple of weeks ago.
“What?”
“Just look at you, whistling and everything while you bake.” Sara had been paying attention to what Nikki had absent-mindedly been doing while her thoughts drifted off to thinking about Ryan’s strong physique.
“Hey, I’m still doing my job – I’m still cooking!”
Nikki turned to see Sara standing there in her apron with her hands on her waist smiling at her. “It looked like one taste of love was all you needed, and now the rest is history.”
Nikki chuckled with a smile when hearing her friend’s observation that she was in love. But what Sara joked next was too cruel.
“And since you’ve tasted love, have you had dessert yet?”
“Oh, very funny!” Nikki said, throwing a hand towel in her friend’s face at the cooking pun. “Now, let’s load up the dishes. We gotta get leaving.”
Just then, Nikolai burst through the kitchen door as if he’d read his employees’ minds. “You ready, ladies?”
“You bet!” Nikki exclaimed, happy to change the subject from Sara’s teasing to tonight’s large event.
“I’m just happy you agreed to have it at another, larger location, Nikolai,” Sara said. “That wedding party was huge!”
Nikolai’s face was beaming. “And it’s not just being held at any event hall. Tonight’s wedding will be at Mr. Robert Johansson’s banquet room.”
The two girls just stared at their boss, unaware of the reason for his excitement.
“… and Robert Johansson is …” Nikki asked.
But she didn’t even have to finish the question before Nikolai burst out loud in excitement: “… only one of the richest men on this side of New York! And he happens to own the most beautiful, ornate hall around. You’ll see – it’s lined with things like paintings, sculptures, and water fountains. If he likes how we do tonight, this could greatly expand the business to much larger – and wealthier – crowds! It was tough to get his agreement. So, ladies, be on your best behavior tonight!”
With that, Nikolai spun around to leave the kitchen to tend to his other hosts. But before the door swung close, Sara managed to bark a couple questions at him. “Hey, we’re not doing this alone, right? That other company from last time will be doing it with us again, right?”
Nikolai swung back around to peer inside the kitchen, catching the swinging door before it had closed. “You bet – so we gotta do better than that other company.” He moved to leave again, but turned to say one last thing to the girls. “Oh, and before I forget. One of you will be assigned as our company’s VIP-hostess. Instead of waiting the tables, you’ll wait in the VIP serving room to attend to any specific requests that any of these special people demand. There are some extremely wealthy people at this event, and only those special VIPs will be given keycards to access that room to discuss any requests in confidence with you. I think it’s odd, but that’s what the newlyweds wanted, I guess.”
The way he emphasized “special” was among the reasons that Nikki liked working for Nikolai – he was down to earth but also able to mock people behind the scenes the exact same way that Nikki saw things. His tone made Nikki chuckle out loud. This caught Nikolai’s attention, instantly sending his eyes in her direction.
“It’ll be you, Nikki. You’re the VIP hostess. Oh, and here, you’ll both need these.” Nikolai said while smiling and flipping a couple electronic keycards to the women. And with that, he turned and quickly left the women alone in the kitchen, running off to tend to the million other tasks needing completed at the last minute before the big event.
“It’ll be you!” Mocked Sara, in a tone like Nikki was more important than her.
“You know why he picked me, right?” Nikki began to taunt while sliding her keycard into her apron.
“Why’s that?” Sara asked as they both began to load their specially-made entrees into transportable heat containers.
“Because I’m not an old married mother haggled with sleep deprivation!” By now, making fun of each other with blunt mockery was almost the cornerstone of these two close friends’ relationship.
Sara instantly fired back like she always did. “Oh yeah? I would think that makes me more qualified. I actually know how to take care of someone besides myself!”
“Hey!” Nikki exclaimed, feigning offense to the joke. “That’s not fair … I have Cupcake, you know!”
The two women laughed together. This moment, thought Nikki, exemplified the reason why she always fought the desire to start her own chef business. There was the financial risk as well, which definitely held her back - but her desire to work with a strong friend was so instinctual that it even overshadowed the other reasons. And these types of moments had become so commonplace and daily between herself and Sara that she feared ever losing them.
The drive to the upscale event hall was short but rainy. As they pulled up to the rear entrance of the building, Nikki and Sara had difficulty keeping their trays dry from the storm. But even though the weather outside was stormy, that only made the magnificence of the hall stand out even more to the two women. As they carted the food into the kitchen, both of them were immediately distracted by the exquisite detail of the hall.
“Look at that, Sara, it even has stained-glass windows!” Nikki couldn’t help but point out as they pushed the cart down the hall into the kitchen.
“And, look, every door in this place requires a keycard to open it. Crazy, right?” Sara exclaimed as she pulled her keycard out to open the kitchen’s entrance.