As the curious hostess set our menus in front of us, I steamed. As soon as she left, I looked over the menu at Greg. “Did you hear her? I was trying to be nice and she just blew me off.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk about your fight with Amy. You two have too strong of a friendship to lose it over a water conservation issue.” He put his hand on mine. “Think of it this way, she thought you of all people would be totally in her corner. So when you told her you wouldn’t be part of her ‘Nazi patrol,’ she was hurt.”
“I didn’t say ‘Nazi patrol,’ did I?” Now I wondered if I had gone too far. I’d stay on the visiting with cookies path tomorrow. Cookies could smooth over any problem—I hoped.
“Can we get back to our date night?” Greg pointed to the menu. “I’m thinking about trying these shrimp nachos, are you game?”
I nodded but snuck a glance over toward the table where my best friend sat. She didn’t look too happy that I’d interrupted her date night, either. This had to blow over. At least, I hoped it would.
I heard Greg clear his throat and turned my attention back to him. “What are you going to order?”
As I reviewed the menu, I muttered, “First thing I’m getting is a frozen strawberry margarita.”
Greg chuckled and nodded. “I figured. Look, she’ll come around. You two are as close as sisters. Sometimes sisters fight.”
And sometimes families broke up over stupid stuff. I didn’t say my thought aloud, just nodded like I believed him. I scanned the menu. On page five, there was a special category, Gluten-Free. I turned the menu over and pointed to the listings. “Can you believe the food fads going around? I mean, I knew there were people with allergies, but it’s becoming such a thing. Austin has the dessert truck, this place has a listing of gluten-free foods, what’s next?”
“Businesses are realizing they can increase profits by catering to people who want or need a certain menu. Austin thought the food truck would have paid for itself in less than a year. He’d had inquiries about doing catering for different events even before he opened. They saw the truck and called the bike shop, wondering who owned it.” Greg went back to reading his own menu. “I’m surprised you don’t have a mini gluten-free menu for the shop.”
“Believe me, I’m looking into it. I’ve had a lot of people mention how excited they were that the food truck was opening. I didn’t want to tell them it might not.” I set the menu down, having made my dinner selections. “Do you think Austin will open now?”
Greg shook his head. “This was Kacey’s project. Austin doesn’t have the drive to work that hard. You know he rarely keeps his shop open except for the weekends. Are you thinking about the truck?”
I hadn’t been, but now that Greg had brought it up, I wondered if I could nab the truck this time. Aunt Jackie and I had tried to buy it last summer, thinking that Diamond Lille’s was our only competition, before Austin had swooped in with a cash offer Homer Bell couldn’t turn down. The good news was that business decision had gotten Homer banned from eating at Lille’s for his lifetime or whenever Lille calmed down, which could be longer. I realized the waitress had arrived, and she and Greg were staring at me, waiting for my order.
I ordered the feast plate, which had both lobster and crab along with fried shrimp and as a bonus, mashed potatoes. I added a side salad to give me at least one veggie count for the meal. When she’d left, I looked at Greg. “I guess I’ll talk to Aunt Jackie about the truck. We’d have to paint it again, but she was all into the idea that we could take CBM on the road to the local festivals. She’s been looking for a truck we could afford since we lost this one.”
“You could buy it out of the Miss Emily fund.” Greg waited for the server to drop off our drinks and a loaf of hot sourdough bread with whipped butter on the side.
I ripped off a piece of bread and smoothed butter on it. “That’s what Aunt Jackie keeps saying. Honestly, I’m a little scared to dump all of that money into the business. What if people stop drinking coffee? I’d be bankrupt.”
“I don’t think people will stop drinking coffee. Besides, you have the bookstore side as well as the desserts and your touristy things.” He took a sip of his iced tea. “Too bad we can’t stay over tonight. I’d love one of those margaritas.”
“We’ll have to make plans for a weekend once the investigation is over.” I took a sip of the strawberry delight. “You realize people are buying most of their books online now? That’s another reason I don’t want to keep all of my eggs in one basket.”