Katherine Garbera - Christmas at the Candied Apple Café

“This is so perfect, Iona. I love the ‘magic of Christmas’ and I think you have really captured it,” Cici Johnson said, coming up to her and looping her arm through Iona’s. Cici was a few inches shorter than her. Her friend and business partner had an easy smile that matched her curly brown hair. She usually wore horn-rimmed glasses but had contacts in today as they were doing a photo shoot for Manhattan magazine.

They were all dressed like … well Mariah Carey in her All I Want for Christmas video because it was sexy, Christmassy, and she wanted the promo she’d arranged to be as enticing as it could be.

Hayley joined them, linking her arm to Cici’s. Hayley had blonde hair that she’d had in a pixie cut but was starting to grow out. The three of them smiled at each other. Some days, it was almost more than any of them could believe. Of course, they’d had the dream of the café becoming a success but there were times when it was still hard to believe it was finally happening.

“Same. I just love it. This morning I stood out here with Lucy for a good ten minutes just watching the windows change.”

“I’m glad. I already have some ideas for next year.”

“Let’s get through this Christmas season first,” Hayley said.

Iona’s watch pinged and she glanced down at the device, which was linked to her smart phone.

“Oh, crap.”

“What?”

“I’m supposed to be changed and on my way to meet Mads Eriksson from the Loughman Group.”

“If you miss it, then it wasn’t meant to be,” Hayley said. “And then I don’t have to figure out how I’m going to train other chefs to make candy my way.”

Iona had to smile at the way Hayley said it. It wasn’t that her technique was different to other chocolate makers, it was that Hayley used her gut instinct to create unique flavors. She spent a lot of time coming up with them. Her objection to opening even one other location was quality control.

“Don’t worry. The Loughman Group of hotels aren’t going to scrimp on quality. It’s one of the reasons why I’m even talking to them,” Iona said. “I better reschedule this afternoon’s appointment, though.”

She stepped aside and made a quick call and cancelled the appointment for this afternoon. She knew her focus needed to be here at the Candied Apple Café. This was what had brought them to the attention of the luxury hotel chain.

Eriksson’s assistant said she’d get back to Iona with a new time and Iona turned back to her friends. They were both so happy. Cici was a new mom with a cute newborn at home waiting for her, and Hayley was engaged to a man that Iona knew loved her friend very much.

“What are you doing?”

“Just thinking how blessed we are,” Iona said, coming back over to them. “I want you to know, Hay, that I wouldn’t agree to anything that would compromise our vision for the store.”

Hayley hugged her close. “I know. But we have to think about the bottom line.”

“We do, but we aren’t in this for the money,” Iona said.

“I don’t like it when you say that,” Cici said, adjusting the red velvet Santa hat on Iona’s head. “I like it when we have a healthy profit. Makes my job much easier.”

“Money is good. It’s just not what drives us,” Iona said.

“Exactly,” Cici and Hayley said at the same time.

Then they all high fived each other.

“Do that again,” the photographer said. “Girl power.”

Girl power .

“More like woman power,” Iona said.

“Woman power, then,” the photographer said.

This shop had come out of the three of them dating the same guy and finding out about it. These women were her heart sisters and meant more to her than she could say.

***

Though it was only three days after Thanksgiving, Christmas was everywhere and Mads Eriksson, who wasn’t Scrooge by any means but really could do with some productivity from his staff, didn’t like it.

He kept his office neat and clean with only a small silver frame on his desk that held two pictures side by side. One of Gill from before she’d gotten sick and Sofia’s current school picture. He looked down at his two ladies and wondered if he was making the right decisions for his daughter.

“Hong Kong on line one,” his assistant said via the intercom.

“Thanks, Lexi.”

He knew he had to take the call, but hesitated, reaching out to brush his finger over Gill’s cheek and then turned away, reaching for the phone. God, he missed her. He tried not to. He knew that she was gone but there were times when he ached for her.

It had been a year but the pain hadn’t lessened at all.

Death was permanent so why did it keep surprising him? No matter how many times he thought he’d made peace with Gill being gone there was always something unexpected.

Always.

Dammit.

He had business to conduct. He was good at his job and he didn’t want to find himself in the same position as Amherst, having to justify his qualifications to the board of directors. He had to either motivate the Hong Kong General Manager or find a replacement; something he really didn’t want to have to do this close to the holidays.

He had said he wasn’t a Scrooge but firing someone in December really would make him feel like one and give him one more reason to hate this month.

He finished the call with a stern warning just as a text message notification popped up on the bottom of his computer monitor. His assistant, the usually efficient and seemingly unsentimental Lexi, had ”elfed” herself and made that her photo on the company server, so each time he got a text, instead of seeing a professional image, he had one of her with a striped elf hat on.

LEXI: Your three o’clock has cancelled. Can you squeeze in a meeting tomorrow morning?

She sounded like her normal, efficient self but all he could see in the company chat window was that stupid elf photo.

Mads suspected Iona’s cancelation of the meeting had more to do with cold feet than timing. He’d been cultivating the relationship with her since the end of August and she was very cautious about getting involved with another brand. He didn’t blame her.

The Candied Apple Café was unique – a combination of handmade chocolates in the European style with locally sourced ingredients. Their chocolate chef was the daughter of famed frozen-food guru Arthur Dunham. Unlike Dunham Dinners, the truffles and chocolate treats she created for their shop were anything but run of the mill.

He heard the third partner Cici Johnson was a wiz at numbers and she had to be good to have managed to show a profit at that high rent location on Fifth Avenue as quickly as they had. Part of it was Iona’s marketing strategy. She knew how to get attention and had used some events and advertising that was out of the box.

He was impressed with the three of them and wanted them to be part of the Loughman Group properties. But she had canceled. He glanced at his watch and then at his calendar.

He didn’t have any more meetings this afternoon, which made him think of something that his dad used to always say to him and his brother when they were growing up. The fish aren’t going to jump in the boat unless you’re on the lake .

The lake he needed to be on was on Fifth Avenue.

He looked at the chat window and tried not to grimace. He knew he was borderline Scrooge this year, but still. It was …

Frustrating.

He wasn’t in the mood for Christmas. Normally, he would be able to tolerate it. But not this year. It was the first without his wife and frankly he had lost the ability to pretend. To be fake happy and act like a jolly fat man might bring his daughter toys. But nothing, no amount of prayer or belief, had been able to save his wife.