They both laughed.
“Stay away from my toes, you pervert.” Lexi playfully shoved Jeff with her hip as they walked along the boardwalk toward the London Bridge. He managed to keep in step with her, in spite of the minor stumble from her shove.
“I won’t make any promises,” Jeff teased, then added in a serious tone, “So you’re really considering doing this hot fudge thing?”
“I’m thinking about it. It would be a way to earn a little money, which I could use right now.”
“How would you market it?”
“Havasu has a Sunday swap meet. Angie told me about it last night, after we left your place. I was thinking about renting a booth, giving out samples of the fudge, and if people liked it, they could buy a jar of the mix. I’m pretty sure it would be exempt from sales tax because it’s a food item, so I wouldn’t have to mess with that.”
“You could also sell it mail order, or put it in stores. It’s really good. People love chocolate. Of course, you’d be wise to start with the swap meet first, see how people respond. It would be like test marketing the product.”
“Plus, I could make a little money on the weekends.”
“What about your graphic arts?”
“I never intended to look for a job in Havasu; always figured I would try the freelance thing like Angie. But to do that, I need to replace my software. I had everything I needed on my Mac, but I don’t have that computer anymore. While I have the money to buy the software, I’m a little reluctant to take any more out of my savings account until I have something coming in.”
“But you’re going to need money to start the hot fudge business.”
“True, but not as much as buying my software, and it might start generating some cash the first week I’m at the swap meet. Plus, I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d feel more comfortable having a couple different types of income streams. I don’t like depending on one thing. I’ll probably go ahead and download the trial version of the software I need. That’s normally a thirty-day free trial. I’ll use it to design some labels and try to generate some freelance jobs. Hopefully when the trial ends, I’ll have some cash coming in and a few freelance customers, then I’ll feel more comfortable making the purchase.”
Walking along the channel, with the waterway on their left, they passed the London Bridge Resort on their right, with its castle-like towers attempting to make the transported bridge feel less out of place in its desert home. Up ahead, beyond the resort, five arches of the London Bridge stretched across the calm channel, connecting the Island to Lake Havasu’s City’s mainland. Before the city’s founder, Robert McCulloch, purchased the bridge in 1968 from the City of London, there had been no island, just a peninsula. Initially purchased to attract attention to the then infant community, the bridge now provided the only roadway off and on the island.
When Lexi and Jeff reached the English Village, below the London Bridge, they browsed through some of the shops, and Jeff pointed out that her fudge mix might do well in such a venue if the packaging was attractive.
After exploring the English Village, they walked back to the car and drove to a restaurant for lunch. On the drive there, Lexi reflected on the morning by the London Bridge. If this was actually a date, as Jeff insisted, she couldn’t recall any prior date she’d ever been on where the topic of conversation was focused entirely on her.
Chapter Ten
“Where did Jeff take you to lunch?” Angie asked when Lexi returned home late that afternoon.
“Barley Brother’s. Nice view of the bridge.”
Angie was sitting at the breakfast bar, eating a carton of yogurt. Lexi walked around Angie and grabbed a glass from the overhead cabinet and proceeded to fix herself some iced tea.
“Oh yeah, been there a lot. What’d you have?”
“Cheese fondue.”
“Oh, I’m jealous! I love their fondue. How about Jeff?”
“He had pizza.” Lexi sat at the breakfast bar with Angie.
“Did he treat, or did you pay for your own?”
“According to him, it was a date. He paid.”
“I wondered about that. Of course, going on a date doesn’t mean you can’t split the bill. I thought he was interested in you.”
“He asked me to go over there tonight and sit in the spa with him.”
“With or without swimsuits?”
“He never said. But I’ll be taking mine along.”
“I’m hurt he didn’t ask me,” Angie feigned insult.
“You can come along if you want.”
“I’m not really into threesomes.”
“According to Jeff, you were our chaperone last night. You could be one tonight.”
“Now I’m just insulted!” Angie grumbled with a frown.
Lexi laughed.
“So, how did your day go? Any photo leads?”
“The people at Party Express were nice. I left them some business cards. At the other places I stopped, they were either with customers and I didn’t want to interrupt, or the person I needed to talk to wasn’t there.
“I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce office and happened to run into this guy who is going to have a balloon at the festival this weekend. We started chatting it up, and I showed him my portfolio. He agreed to take me up in exchange for a photo shoot.”
“Sweet.”
“I know. I’m so excited!”
“I told Jeff you were trying to get someone to take you up, so he suggested we hang out.”
“That’s generous of him,” Angie laughed. “Dinner last night, lunch today, spa tonight, and balloon festival this weekend. He’s moving quick.”
“He’s just a nice guy,” Lexi said with a shy smile, grinning to herself.
“Hot, too.”
“True,” Lexi laughed.
“So tell me, did you find out anything more about what he does? He didn’t seem to want to talk about himself last night.”
“I know, really. He was like that today. We talked a lot about my hot fudge idea, and he gave me suggestions. When I tried to ask him something about his job, he kept directing the conversation back to me, like he wanted to know everything about me. ”
“That’s not normal for a guy to be that interested. They typically bring the conversation back to themselves. Maybe he’s gay?”
“No, he isn’t gay,” Lexi laughed.
“How do you know? Did you kiss him yet?”
“Not exactly.”
“Oh, tell me exactly,” Angie begged mischievously.
“Nothing to tell. I just know he’s not gay,” Lexi insisted.
* * *
“Why haven’t you called?” Ethan Beaumont demanded. Jeff paced back and forth in the living room, the cell phone by his ear.
“I only got here early yesterday morning. There really is nothing to report.”
“True. But I still expect you to call me every day. This isn’t some paid vacation.”
“I understand, but there really is nothing going on. I don’t get the impression Lexi intends to stay here long. They’re just using the house because the renter backed out, and Lexi hasn’t found a job yet. I imagine she’ll eventually need to go back to the city and start looking for work.”
“So you’ve met her?”
“Yes, I ran into her at the grocery store, and started up a conversation. When they found out we were neighbors, I asked them over for a barbeque. I get the impression this is nothing more than a little vacation for the girls.”
“She can’t afford a vacation!” Beaumont snapped. “How is she paying for food and other living expenses? Is she freeloading off her friend? Why doesn’t that surprise me? But I can’t imagine she’ll get away with that for long.”
“Apparently, she has money saved.” The moment he said it, Jeff regretted sharing the information. But Beaumont’s insistence that Lexi was nothing but a freeloader irritated him.
“
That’s impossible! I never allowed her to have a job. And I sure as hell never gave her enough spending money that she could start stock piling it!”
The level of rage expressed surprised and angered Jeff.
“Continue to keep an eye on her, and find out what she has planned. I’m already wasting too much time on all this shit. That girl needs to get over this little rebellion of hers and get back here and do what’s expected of her. Pay attention, and figure out someway to undermine this little spurt of financial independence she’s flaunting. Find out where she banks, and if possible, get your hands on her checkbook. Draining her bank account would be one way to clip that girl’s wings.”
When Jeff hung up the phone ten minutes later, he stood in his living room, staring blankly at his cell phone. What have I gotten myself into? Before he could answer his own question the doorbell rang.
“Hi, ready for some hot fudge?” Lexi said the moment he opened the door. She stood on his front porch holding a plastic grocery sack. She’d changed her clothes since he had dropped her off two hours earlier. She now wore a flowered halter-top with her denims.
“I’m always ready for your hot fudge,” Jeff said as he welcomed her into the house and closed the door.
“I wanted to test something, but Angie refuses to be my guinea pig. She says I’m trying to get her fat.”
“So you want to fatten me up?” Jeff chuckled.
“Well, you don’t have to eat it all. Just taste it. Plus, I’m curious about your microwave, and how different it is from ours.”
“Okay, test away,” Jeff followed Lexi into the kitchen. There she unloaded the contents from her bag onto his counter. It included a mason jar filled with a powdered cocoa concoction, a cube of butter, a measuring tablespoon, and an 8-ounce, glass measuring cup.
“Of course, we need to test this out on the ice cream I left over here last night. There is some left?”
“Yes, a little.” Jeff said sheepishly. He was ashamed to admit he had consumed a large bowl that morning for breakfast with the leftover fudge from the night before.
Lexi went to the cupboard and took out a glass and filled it with water from the refrigerator.
“This afternoon when I got home, I did some calculating to figure out a mix. There was powdered milk and powdered vanilla in the pantry, so I thought I’d experiment.”
“So, that’s the hot fudge mix in the mason jar?”
“Yes. It includes two cups of granulated sugar, one-third cup powdered milk, two teaspoons vanilla powder, and six tablespoons of Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa. Oh, and a dash of salt. I shook it up really good in the jar to blend it.”
“What now?”
“I figure a quarter cup of the sauce is a reasonable serving. First, I add one tablespoon of water to the glass.” Lexi dipped the tablespoon into the glass of water she’d gotten from the refrigerator, scooping up a spoonful. After adding the water to the glass measuring cup, she cut off a tablespoon of butter and added it to the water.
“Is there some reason you took water from the fridge? Does it need to be cold?”
“No, but Angie told me Havasu’s drinking water pretty much sucks, so most people have some sort of a filtration system. Chances are there’s one on the drinking water that comes from your fridge. She also said most of the houses have soft water; that’s why I don’t want to use the water from your tap. It might give it a funny flavor.”
“Okay. So, you add one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of drinking water to the glass. Now what?”
“I put it in the microwave for 40 seconds on high, to melt the butter.” Lexi put the glass in the microwave over the stove, and set the timer for forty seconds after closing the microwave’s door. She continued to talk as she waited for the butter to melt.
“I learned something strange. Cooking time varies, depending on the cup I use.”
“How so?”
“When the microwave turns off, I’ll add two tablespoons of the mix and stir it with a knife, just to blend it. I don’t want to splash the fudge mix all over the inside of the glass. Then I put it back in the microwave and cook it some more. In the microwave at our house, it cooks in 42 seconds if I use the 8-ounce glass. But if I use the 16-ounce glass, it takes a minute.”
“Really? That’s kind of strange.”
“I know, right? Not sure how I can train my customers to use certain cups when cooking the sauce.”
Lexi removed the glass from the microwave and added two tablespoons full of the mix to the butter and water mixture. Jeff watched as she cooked it for 42 more seconds in the microwave. After the microwave buzzed and turned off, Lexi waited five minutes before dishing up a small bowl of ice cream.
“You’re mean, making me wait,” Jeff teased.
“Boiling hot right out of the microwave will just melt your ice cream. Plus, the fudge will thicken a little bit as it sits.”
She poured the warm fudge over the dish of ice cream. She handed Jeff a spoon and took one herself. They each took a bite.
“Tastes just like the fudge from last night, just a little thinner. It’s really good.” Jeff took another bite.
“It was thicker in our microwave. Cooking it a couple seconds longer would probably thicken this up.”
“You know,” Jeff continued to eat the hot fudge sundae as he talked, taking the bowl from Lexi. “It still tastes amazing, even if it’s thinner than the hot fudge from last night. It’s no different than regular chocolate sauce in consistency. I think there would be a way to teach the consumer, so they can fiddle with it and get the ideal consistency with their microwave. And you never know; some people will like it thin, and others will want it thick.”
“Well, it does get like caramel if you overcook it. But one thing I learned this afternoon, if you cook it too long in the microwave, the butter separates from the mixture and you end up with this hard chocolate ball, swimming in a pool of oily butter.”
“That doesn’t sound appetizing.”
“No, it was kind of gross.” Lexi laughed.
“Well, girl, I think you have a hit,” Jeff said after he finished off the bowl. “Now what?”
“You think I should really do this?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, I guess the first thing is to talk to Angie’s parents, to see if they have any objections. Then I need to take the food handler’s class, buy a business license, and register with the state,” Lexi said excitedly, then she seemed to remember something and her enthusiasm dissolved.
“What’s wrong, Lexi? I think this is a great idea.”
“I seriously need to think about buying a car. I really hate doing that; it’s going to wipe out my savings. But I can’t really expect Angie to let me use the bug all the time, considering she’s trying to get some photography jobs lined up, and she’ll need it. But buying a car just for the hot fudge business sort of defeats my original purpose of generating income with minimal expense. I’d thought of getting a scooter before, but that really would not be practical for the hot fudge business.”
“For now, let me be your taxi. We’ll figure something out.”
“I can’t ask that of you.”
“Why not? Sounds fun. It’s my vacation, and I would love to spend it helping you get your hot fudge empire up and running.”
“That’s sweet, but aren’t you just going to be here for about a week?”
“When did I say that?”
“I guess you never really said how long you were staying. I figure vacations are about a week or two.”
“I rented the house through the month, and I might stay longer.”
“You can do that?” Lexi frowned.
Jeff didn’t answer immediately, trying to choose his words carefully.
“Well, I’m not totally on vacation—I mean I’m on vacation, but I brought some work with me. You know, the wonders of the Internet and all.”
“Oh, you’re telecommuting! What is it you exactly do, again?”
Jeff smiled because he knew he’d skirted that question, and hadn’t told her.
“Boring corporate stuff—nothing terribly exciting. Helping you get a new business off the ground… well, it sounds like a nice change.”
Lexi looked up into Jeff’s blue eyes. He seemed sincere in his offer. “You mean that, don’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
Chapter Eleven
Encouraged by Jeff’s support, Lexi gathered up her hot fudge supplies, anxious to move forward with her new venture. But first, she needed to go home and have some dinner. Sampling fudge all afternoon had messed up her blood sugar levels, and she craved protein to counteract the effects of all that sugar.
Jeff walked her to the front door and outside. The moment they stepped onto the front porch, they froze for a few seconds, awed by the spectacular sunset painting the sky over Lake Havasu.
“Wow, that’s gorgeous,” Lexi exclaimed, then added, “Angie needs to come outside and take a picture of that.” Varying shades of orange and pink painted the western sky.
“That was a pretty awesome sunset last night, too.”
“I know. On the way here Angie was telling me about Havasu sunsets. She swears no place in the world has better ones, and I’m starting to believe her. I don’t know why I haven’t come to Havasu before now. So far, I really like it.”
“I’m enjoying this weather. According to the reports, it’ll be up in the seventies this weekend for the Balloon Festival.”
“Really? That’s almost a thirty-degree jump in a week.”
“That’s what they say. So, are you coming back later to sit in the spa with me?”
“Sure. What time?”
“How about eight?”
“Sounds good.”
“Is Angie coming?”
“Angie?”
“Sure. Tell her she’s invited, too.”
Lexi knew how a balloon felt when it was pricked. Deflated, she concealed her disappointment over the invitation extended to her friend. It wasn’t that she begrudged Angie time in the spa, but she thought Jeff was serious when inferring their time together was more along the lines of a date than a casual get-together. Perhaps she’d read too much into that encounter in the kitchen the night before.
Sugar Rush Page 7
