Sweet Dream Lover

by Karen Sandler

  Tears pricking her eyes, Norma shut the door again. How could she have botched things so badly? Fritz kissing her was all wrong, and she needed to make that clear to him, but she didn’t have to hurt him.

  Guilt digging deep, Norma plopped back on the sofa and dropped her head in her hands. There had to be a way to fix this. If she had to stay up all night finding a way, she’d make things right.

  Chapter 12

  “There’s no way around it, Kat. We have to sell the company.”

  When her father dropped the bomb, Kat had been leaning back in her cushy conference room chair, caught up in the usual, plaguey daydream about Mark, the one that for the past three weeks wouldn’t leave her alone. Last Wednesday’s debacle had only intensified the X-rated images and on a dreary Monday morning, it was so much more pleasant to focus on a truly fine picture of Mark naked between her legs than whatever further bad news her father planned to deliver.

  When her father’s pronouncement registered, Kat jolted upright in her chair, gaping like a fish. The other members of the Roth Confectionery board were seated around the conference table. Her father, her mother, her stepparents met her openmouthed stare with varying degrees of sympathy and concern. The only face missing from the tableau, the only one that would truly have offered comfort, was her Nana Ruth, now living full-time at the care home. Kat was just as glad Nana wasn’t here to witness this heartbreak.

  She gripped the soft leather arms of her chair, no doubt leaving fingernail impressions. Groping in her now vacant brain for a response, she mustered a query for her father. “No other choices...sell the company or go under?”

  The room fell into an uneasy quiet, her stepmother Patti’s gaze fixed on her hands folded on the table, her mother Rose punctuating the quiet with an occasional heavy sigh, her stepdad Tony holding his coffee mug without ever drinking from it. The morning gloom hanging over Lake Union was a perfect counterpoint to the nasty business inside. That roiling cloud of white lurking over the lake might as well be hovering over their heads.

  His brown eyes soft with empathy, her father nodded somberly. “That’s it in a nutshell, Kat.”

  She couldn’t quite get her mind around the reality of it. “But all the Mother’s Day sales figures aren’t in.”

  “They’re in, Katarina.” Worry lined her mother’s usually cheerful face. “And they all tell the same story.”

  An image of a cartoon sales chart danced in her mind, a big jaggedy black line plunging precipitously down. “What about another loan? Until we can roll out Chocolate Magic.”

  Her mother and father exchanged telling glances and a heavy weight thunked in the pit of Kat’s stomach. “What?”

  The sympathetic look on her mother’s face tightened the knot inside. “Chocolate Magic is a sinkhole, Kat. We’ve been pouring all our discretionary funds into that one project for too long with no results.”

  “But the team is almost there!” Kat protested, the plush comfort of her chair suddenly suffocating. “It’ll take another few days, a week tops.”

  Her stepdad Tony clunked down his coffee mug. “They’ve been promising that for months.”

  Patti threw in her own dire two cents. “We’ve just been hit with a double whammy. Sales of the old favorites have dwindled and our new products just haven’t caught on. Coffee Pals were an expensive mistake.”

  Patti’s words struck like a stake to the heart. Coffee Pals had been the first project she’d devised and championed after the divorce. She’d heard through the grapevine about Denham’s Coffee Buddies, knew they would be using the whimsical cartoon Buddy to sell the line. She’d thought she had a better idea. Grown-ups drank coffee, why not a mature, sophisticated sales program?

  Who could have guessed Coffee Buddies would go so well in hot chocolate? Kids clamored for them, snapped up the blasted Buddy dolls as if they were the Cabbage Patch Kids of the new millennium. Denham responded quickly to the craze, selling family packs with an assortment of flavors sure to appeal to both kids and adults, complete with a goofy-faced Buddy doll.

  With a groan, Kat dropped her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.” Honey, I tanked the corporation.

  Her mother jumped to her feet and hurried to Kat’s end of the table. “No, sweetheart.” Her hand stroked Kat’s bowed head gently. “These problems started long before your tenure as CEO.”

  Now her father put a supportive arm around her slumped shoulders. “The whole industry is in a downturn. You couldn’t have controlled that.”

  Kat shrugged off her parents’ comfort. “Denham’s not in a downturn.” The petulant whine in her voice was not attractive. “Denham’s doing just fine and dandy!”

  Even more telling glances around the table. Tony mouthed something at his wife that looked like “Tell her,” but Kat’s mother shook her head vigorously. Patti raised her brows at Kat’s father with a not-so-subtle gesture in Kat’s direction.

  “What?” Kat asked, not even wanting to know. No one at the table would meet her gaze.

  Her father patted her on the shoulder, a suspicious smile on his face. “It’s just a little idea we’ve been throwing around.”

  Kat grit her teeth. “What?”

  Her mother sat up straighter in her chair. “It would really be the perfect match.”

  Now that Kat knew where this was heading, she really didn’t want to hear more. “No way.”

  Patti took on her let’s-be-reasonable tone. “It just makes good business sense.”

  Kat slapped a palm on the table. “Absolutely not!”

  Tony harrumphed. “It’s not as if we’ll have any other suitors.”

  Kat surged to her feet. “I won’t marry Mark!”

  As they all gawked, Kat did a little rewind in her mind of the last ten seconds. Damn. “We’re not merging with Denham.” She sank back into her seat.

  She had a microsecond respite before they all started in on her. Her father played the practicality card, rattling on about how well-acquainted Denham and Roth were with each other’s businesses. Her mother hit the emotional notes, reminding her of the long friendship between the families. A fellow MBA, Patti filled her patter with business-speak, extolling synergism and strategic partnerships. Bottom-line Tony simply stated the obvious. Roth Confectionery was dead-broke.

  “Okay, okay!” Kat shouted above the cacophony. “We’re out of options. We need a buyout.”

  Her mother and Patti smiled, no doubt in expectation of complete capitulation. And there was a part of her that wished she could sell the damn company to Mark and just walk away. Open a Starbucks downtown, one that would stay open past six o’clock on a weekday.

  Even worse, there was a more insidious, secret little smidgen of herself that still longed, against all logic, to do more than merge Denham and Roth. That little speck inside still mooned over a much more personal merger. Wished there was a way they could be together. Wished Mark still loved her.

  Her jaw tightened until her TMJ screamed with tension. “Any company but Denham. Hershey’s, Mars, Tootsie Roll for God’s sake. Anybody but Denham.”

  Shoving her wheeled chair back, Kat pushed to her feet. “I’m going down to R&D. The Chocolate Magic team has something new to show me.”

  That was a lie, but ridiculous tears burned in her eyes and she wasn’t about to let them see. She race-walked out of the room, ignoring her mother’s importunate “Kat!” and her father’s pleading “Sweetheart, please!”

  She kept going until she reached the elevator, punching the down button with a vengeance. Damn, damn, double damn. Mark had her life upside down and inside out and he wasn’t even here. She’d gone back to dodging his phone calls and e-mails since Wednesday night and had thought she was doing a pretty good job of ignoring his existence. She even had a date tonight, dinner with her dad’s estate attorney, Greg. Or was it Gary?

  What difference did a name make, anyway? What’s-his- name was so drop-dead gorgeous women swooned and drooled when he
walked into the room. His smile just about knocked the wind out of her. Of course, the moment he opened his mouth, he was so deadly dull he made her teeth ache, but they didn’t have to talk all night, did they?

  Yet all the while she’d been busy making other plans, Mark had been busy burrowing into her subconscious. She’d like to blame it on him. Maybe he was employing some weird psychically influencing voodoo device. But that didn’t change the inescapable reality. She was obsessed with her ex-husband.

  Sell the company. Her gut burned at the thought. That was bad in so many ways. She could have accepted her Mark obsession, might have even enjoyed it, trotting it out in her most private moments.

  But only if all had worked the way she’d hoped. The rollout of Chocolate Magic a brilliant success, sales climbing to dizzying heights. But who could enjoy the occasional sexy ex- husband fantasy in the face of the desperation of Roth’s financial situation?

  The elevator arrived just as she had her leg primed to kick the doors and probably break her toes in the process. As it was, the forward arc of her foot sent her stumbling into the elevator car just as a woman from FedEx was exiting. Kat danced around the FedExer with a clumsy little side step, muttering an apology under her breath. She sank against the elevator wall as the doors shut her in with her solitude.

  When the car didn’t move, she remember to push the button for the seventh floor. She was setting herself up to add insult to injury by visiting R&D, but she might as well get all her disasters over with in one day.

  When she stepped into the experimental kitchen, her first shock was when the usually staid lead chemist, Tess Nguyen, made a mad dash toward her and grabbed Kat up in a breath- stealing hug. When the three other team members closed in, whooping and hollering and slapping Kat’s back, she wondered if Tess had added a little something extra to the weekly batch of brownies she brought into work.

  Then Tess said those miraculous words. “We’ve got it, Kat. We’ve pinned down Chocolate Magic.”

  Tess’s pronouncement was almost harder to accept than her dad’s dire declaration. “You’re sure? You’ve run a test batch?”

  Tess gave her another ebullient one-armed hug. “Ten test batches, all with the same results. We’ve had the formula since yesterday, but I didn’t want to give you any more false hope.”

  “That’s great. That’s fine.” Kat was shaking, her fingers numb. “I want to see. Make a batch for me.”

  Terrified her presence would somehow jinx the process, Kat followed Tess into the nearest kitchen station. Her team had set out the ingredients, a large stainless steel restaurant square piled high with what looked like chocolate crumbs, another square filled with what looked like vanilla pudding. Crumbles and custard, sales called them, the mystical components for Chocolate Magic.

  Tess pulled out a disposable plastic bowl. “We only have the one flavor so far, basic chocolate. We’ll want to add mint, peanut butter, walnut—all the varieties you suggested when you first developed the concept.”

  After Coffee Pals, this had been her second big project, and the one unique, innovative idea of her life. Mark had always been the one with the stunning brainstorms, the leaps into the extraordinary. Her skill was the dogged work of bringing an idea to fruition.

  And yet in this, her moment of glory, her one phenomenal epiphany, an ache settled in her heart. When she should be chortling with glee, looking forward to gloating to Mark about her coup, a more soft-centered longing nagged at her, to share her triumph. Instead of imagining Mark green with envy, she could all too clearly envision him smiling, happy for her, glad that she’d succeeded, business rival or no.

  Damn. She couldn’t win even when she won.

  Now she realized Tess had been standing there for far too long, holding out the empty plastic bowl. “I assumed you’d want to do the honors, Kat.”

  “Yes, right.” Kat took the bowl and dragged over the square holding the pudding-like mixture.

  Tess handed her a two-ounce measure. “For the trials we’ve tried to be as precise as possible.”

  Kat spooned the custard into the measure. “There’ll be some wiggle room with the proportions for the finished product?”

  “Sure.” Tess gave her a rubber spatula to scrape the measure clean into the bowl. “Lose a few crumbles and the customer can still have a good finished product.”

  As she swiped the spatula clean on the side of the plastic bowl, an annoying image popped in her mind. Mark at her side, enjoying the anticipation with her.

  She redirected her focus. “Marketing has packaging designed, ready for production.”

  “They demoed it for us.” Tess nudged the crumbles closer to Kat. “An all-in-one unit was smart.”

  That had been her idea as well. The molded plastic bottom included a two-ounce reservoir for the custard and a one-ounce for the crumbles. Once the consumer tore off the colorful plastic cover, the divider between the chambers slipped out, allowing the custard and crumbles to mix.

  Kat meted out the required amount of crumbles with a one- ounce scoop. Kat held the scoop over the bowl of custard as the ghost of Mark Denham seemed to hover at her elbow, encouraging her to proceed.

  Kat set her jaw. It was time for an exorcism. She upended the crumbles scoop.

  “You have to combine them quickly.” Tess handed over a wooden stick the size and shape of a tongue depressor. “The reaction is fast.”

  Kat swirled the stick through the mixture, stirring in rapid strokes as the chocolate crumbles dissolved into the custard. The pale creamy custard grew darker, thicker. Kat had to use a little more effort as the mixture firmed up. In less than ten seconds, she had the finished product, creamy chocolate fudge. Chocolate Magic.

  Kat poked with the stick. “It looks good.”

  “It tastes better,” Tess said. “Feel the bottom.”

  Kat lifted the bowl and rested it against her palm. “Warm.”

  “That’s the chemical process,” Tess said. “Took some doing to dial down the heat.”

  Scooping up a generous dollop with the stick, she offered it first to Tess. The chemist shook her head. “Go ahead. I’ve sampled so much of that stuff, I’m ready to pop.”

  Kat took a nibble, scraping a bare morsel off with her teeth. The delectable richness melted on her tongue and she almost groaned in ecstasy. She took the rest of the lump of fudge off the stick and sank against the kitchen counter with a long, appreciative “Mmmm.”

  The stuff was fabulous. Ten times better than what she’d expected. Nearly as good as the carefully handcrafted fudge her Nana’s mother had made that had started Roth in the first place.

  Kat scooped up another helping. “I was never much on science, but now I’m a true believer.”

  Tess laughed. “Believe it or not, we’re using all-natural ingredients as much as possible. There’s just a little something extra to make all the magic work.”

  “We’re still in lockdown on this, aren’t we?” That level of secrecy had been Kat’s directive. “I wish I could take this up to the board.” Or to Mark. She could rub it in his face. Or on his chest...his legs...his...

  “Invite them down here.” Tess yanked Kat back from her reverie. “We’ve got plenty to sample.”

  “I almost can’t believe it.” Kat chased the last of the fudge from the bowl with her finger. “We’ve finally got it.”

  “There’s still the process timing. We get some pretty nasty results if the mixture isn’t stirred the moment the components are combined.”

  “We’ll work that out.” Nothing could discourage her now. Setting aside the bowl, she started for the door. “I’d like an up- to-date report by the end of the week. For myself and the rest of the board. We’ll want a top-notch presentation for the bank.”

  Sated with chocolate and buzzing with sugar, Kat did a jig up the corridor on her way to the elevator. On the twelfth floor, she danced to her office, alarming the temp admin from accounting who’d come up to deliver last week’s payroll repor
t. As she stepped into her office suite, she was a bit disappointed to see Norma’s chair empty. Her first instinct might have been to tell Mark the good news, but her second was to share the excitement with Norma, her most faithful friend at the company.

  Number three, and most crucial, would be her father. She might be CEO, but since Nana’s health forced her to step down, Phil Roth was the member of the board with the longest tenure. He carried more weight than even her mother and his vote of confidence would go a long way.

  As she seated herself behind her desk, she rehearsed the announcement in her mind. We’ve got it, Dad! Chocolate Magic is a reality.

  A fist of doubt squeezed her belly. Even if Tess and her team worked out the last kink, even if they rushed it to market, the product wouldn’t be on the shelves for at least a couple months. Roth Confectionery’s problems couldn’t be put on hold during that time. They still would need a bridge loan or some other kind of financing to keep them going.

  They’d find a way. Once her father knew that Chocolate Magic was truly just behind the finish line, he’d throw his support behind her. She’d make sure of it.

  She picked up the phone, fingers ready to dial her father’s extension when a familiar male voice spoke on the other end of the line. “Hello?”

  With a shriek, she fumbled the phone and it clattered across her desk like a beached fish. Grabbing it up, she gasped out a greeting. “Mark?”

  His deep voice caressed her ear. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  For a moment, her brain cross-fired and she couldn’t gather a single coherent thought. Too much fudge and unsettled emotions.

  She laughed, a jittery sound. “The phone didn’t even ring. I’d picked it up to make a call.”

  “I don’t suppose you were calling me?” She heard the wry humor in his voice. “I was wondering if you were free for lunch. There’s a wrinkle with the kayak race.”

  “Lunch.” Preoccupied with an uneasy conglomeration of Chocolate Magic and sex, her mind raced. She fumbled for her smart phone and checked her calendar. “Not today. I’ve got a Chamber meeting.”