Gina Calanni - How To Bake The Perfect Apple Pie

We make our way to Elaine’s car and the lights flash from the front and rear of her jet-black Mercedes XLS. Javier opens the passenger side and immediately I am a third wheel. I’m not entirely sure why Elaine is going with us.

“All right, where should we eat? I’m only eating clean this month, so how about En Salatas on 10th?” Elaine puts the car in reverse and steers the vehicle out of the garage.

Javier lets out a sigh. “I guess…I need to cut back on the calories, but a salad? Do they have anything else? I need something with meat.”

“Javier, you might want to consider a healthier lifestyle and go vegan…at the very least try for Meatless Monday.” Elaine stops the car at the red light in front of us.

Javier lets out another barrel of a laugh. “Elaine, not only are you ranking in every level as an ML Manager, you are funny to boot. I like it.” Javier runs his hand through his dark hair. “I do, but seriously do they serve meat?”

“I think they have grilled chicken there.” I offer. Even though I’m like a child in the back seat, I’m not going to sit back and be quiet while the adults chat. I fiddle with the straps on my purse.

“Hmm…grilled chicken. I guess I can try that.”

“Perfect, because we are here.” Elaine takes a right into the parking lot of En Salatas and finds a space in the very back of the parking lot.

“Why did you pass up those other spots?” Javier glances back at me with a raised eyebrow.

“We can use the exercise walking, don’t you think?” Elaine turns the car off and we all get out.

“I suppose a bit of a walk is healthy.” Javier kicks a chunk of gravel along the path.

“Lauren, have you been here before? They have several lighter calorie options.” Elaine blinks her eyelashes at me.

I alternate between biting my cheek and tongue. Is she insinuating that I need to opt for lighter calorie options? I did indulge over the holiday but it was a non-calorific item… Jack . I sigh. I can imagine him here. He would scoff at Elaine’s comments and definitely her lunch choice.

“Oh, great, do you have a favorite?” I beam back at her.

Elaine laughs. “I always opt for the lighter calorie options wherever I dine as it is the wiser choice, wouldn’t you agree?” She cocks her head to the right at me.

Javier pulls open the door and we step into the restaurant. I’m going to let her quasi-question sit there. Javier requests a table for three and we follow behind him as the host leads us to our table.

We all sit down as the host passes out menus to each of us. My stomach is clenched tight. I’m still not sure why Elaine is with us.

Javier raises his eyebrows as he inspects the menu. I can’t decide if I want to go with the lower calorie choice or find the most calorific dish possible. Maybe even order two. I might consider this if Javier wasn’t here, but I can’t act so silly in front of him. I close my menu knowing exactly what I’ll order and wait for the waiter to return.

The waiter strides over to our table. Javier nods at me.

“I’ll have the Caesar salad, and can you add spinach?”

“Absolutely.” The waiter turns to Elaine.

“Yes, I’ll get the kale salad and please add the goji berries and soy nuts, and the dressing on the side.”

Javier nods and makes a duck face. “I’ll get the Southwestern salad—extra chicken and bacon for me.”

The waiter nods and grabs our menus.

“Oh my heavens, Lauren, is that an engagement ring?” Elaine grabs my hand and inspects my ring as if she is a trained gemologist and trying to determine the four Cs.

I let out a slight laugh and retract my hand. I reach for my glass. “Yes, it is.” I take a sip of the water.

“Well come on, don’t be shy. We’re all professionals here. How did it happen and when?”

I laugh yet again and eye Javier. He has a pensive stare on his face. He’s reading the situation. I’ve seen this face in meetings when our company was determining if two separate divisions should merge.

“Uh well, over Christmas.” I take another sip of my water. It’s half empty. Yes, half empty because I’m about to empty it completely. Using it as a stalling tactic is going to be gone within three sips.

“Over Christmas?” Elaine jerks her head back. “This Christmas? As in just a week ago?”

“Yes, exactly.” I tug on my skirt underneath the table. And reach for my portfolio of résumés with the candidates I’ve chosen for my team. “Javier, would you like to go over these résumés?” I hold up my stack of papers. My throat is so dry and my water glass is empty.

Javier takes the stack and begins scanning through them. As he reads about each of their accomplishments he nods or shakes his head in agreement or disapproval over what they have listed.

“So when is the wedding?” Elaine asks.

“Oh, um I’m…we’re not sure. We have a lot of things to figure out.” I flat line my lips. I hope she can pick up on this cue and realize it’s the universal sign for not wanting to continue on with the current topic at hand.

“Like what? What does he do?” Elaine asks, as she takes a sip of her water.

“He has a few businesses.” I purse my lips to the side and nod.

“What kind of businesses?” Elaine inspects my face.

“He owns an architecture firm and a retirement home.” I glance at Javier. “What do you think about the candidates?” I would normally wait for him to speak first, but this Q & A with Elaine needs to come to an end. This lunch is not about my personal life and I’m not getting a good vibe from Javier about this topic either.

“This one here…Trent…his resolution stats are not impressive. Why would you want him?” Javier taps on the paper and passes it to Elaine.

“Yes, that number isn’t great, but if you look at his numbers from when he started to now his performance has nearly doubled. He’s on the right track.” I fold the napkin over in my lap. “Plus his sales are excellent.”

“I don’t know, Lauren, what about this gap in his employment?” Elaine points at the dates on his résumé.

“His mother died and he had to take some time off from work to settle her estate.” I roll my lips together.

“Oh,” they say in unison.

“Here, take a look over the rest of these, Elaine.” Javier hands the résumés to her and turns to me. “Let’s see what Elaine thinks. She was in the same spot as you a couple of years ago and now has the best team at Calstone Corp.” Javier takes a gulp from his water. “Even better than me.” Javier laughs. “I don’t know how I’m going keep up without you on my team, Lauren.”

I smile. “You’ve got a strong team, even without me.”

“What about Leena?” Elaine places the papers on the table. “Why isn’t she on the list?”

All eyes are on me. I don’t want to say the real reason. I laugh. “I can’t take her away from Javier.”

“Well, I don’t know about this, Lauren. It’s pretty good, but I’d like to see the rest of the candidates before making my decision. Did you bring the rest of the résumés with you?” Elaine raises her eyebrows at me.

Shiat. No I didn’t bring any of the other résumés. One, I thought Javier would only want to see the résumés of the candidates I had chosen and two, I didn’t think that Elaine would be with us.

“No, I didn’t.” I cross my legs underneath the table. The waiter arrives with our food and I’m thankful for the distraction.

Javier inspects his salad with his fork. “Excuse me, there should be bacon and chicken in this and I don’t see either.”

“There is. It’s those square chunks.” The waiter points to the small bits in Javier’s salad.