“So cool. Thanks. When did you get this?”
“A while ago. When you told me about the project.”
“But how did you know I was going to… I mean, I don’t even have the recipe yet.”
“Yeah, but I know you. You’ll get it.” She was smiling her big smile, the one that shows her crooked tooth. “And now you really have to get it, right? I mean, you kinda owe me now since I shelled out for the gun.” She crossed her arms and squeezed her lips together like she was suddenly all serious.
“Okay, okay. But only because you got me the pastry gun.”
“All right, then get back to work!” She smiled again. “I’ll send Zo Zo up with the cookies soon.”
I worked straight through the afternoon, took a break for dinner, and then went back to work. It was past midnight by the time I crawled into bed, but I’d filled in every box on the order form. I’d stuck to the plan, one small goal at a time. Then I’d triple-checked my work, and this time, I got the same answers. I knew there were probably a few wrong numbers, but they were my wrong numbers. So I was okay with them because it meant the right ones were mine too, and that felt better than not having any wrong numbers ever would.
13
Starting Your Own Business for Dummies said if you were opening a restaurant or café, you should buy your ingredients wholesale. I had no idea what that meant, but one great thing about a book for dummies is that it assumes you don’t know anything about anything. What’s great about that too is when you already know something the book thinks you don’t, you feel kind of smart.
The gist of wholesale is actually simple. If you’re buying stuff for your business, other businesses cut you a deal on price. We got to buy our ingredients wholesale because we needed them for our doughnut business.
Josh was actually the one who came up with the list of food suppliers who offered what we needed wholesale. Poking around on the internet, he’d found this food supplier site where you type in your location and the foods you want, press Enter, and presto! It spits out a list of all the suppliers who have what you need and deliver to your area.
The next step was to call each of the food suppliers on the list and see what kind of deals we could get. Between figuring out what to say and actually making the calls, I figured it would take us a full day. Since most of the suppliers only worked Monday to Friday, we decided to do it on a Monday that Josh had off from school.
I was still eating breakfast when I heard Josh’s mom’s car coming up the driveway that morning. Mom was hunched over some papers opposite me, and Zoe was playing with pans on the kitchen floor.
Josh knocked, then opened the door and peeked inside. “Okay to come in?”
“Yup,” I said through a mouthful of oatmeal. “Almost done.”
“Hi, Josh,” Mom said without looking up.
“Hi.”
“Welcome to Zoe’s Purple Giraffe!” Zoe said as she stirred a pan of ice cubes with a wooden spoon.
“What’s Zoe’s Purple Giraffe?” Josh asked and not in a you’re-so-weird kind of way, but like he actually wanted to know and was talking to a real person.
“My restaurant,” Zoe answered, stirring so hard ice cubes flew out of the bowl and across the floor.
Josh looked around the room as if he were seeing it for the first time. “Cozy. I like it.”
Zoe sipped from the spoon and made a face. “Too much salt! Hand me the bear!” She pointed to the honey bear on the floor next to Josh’s foot.
Josh gave her the bear, and she squeezed a long ribbon into the bowl. Then she put her head back and squeezed an even longer one straight into her mouth.
Josh laughed.
“Mom?” I said.
“What?”
“Do you see what’s going on here?”
“She’s playing. It’s fine.” She stood up. “Look, can you guys watch her for a bit? I have to go upstairs to talk to Dad about something.”
“Mom, please. This is the one day Josh has to call food suppliers.”
“It will only take a second.”
“Sure,” Josh said to my mother. “Really. It’s fine,” he said to me.
“Thanks so much. Just fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes? Didn’t you just say, ‘a second’?” I said.
“Oh, and I had an idea for where you could order all of the dairy you need for the doughnuts.”
If she thought I wouldn’t notice that she wasn’t answering my question, she was wrong. “Seriously, how long are you going to be?”
“I bought this amazing cheese from a local farm,” she went on, ignoring me. “I mean, truly amazing. The guy makes milk, butter, and cream too. You guys should really think about ordering from him. Great products, no delivery costs. Local. Stinky Cheese Farm, it’s called.”
“Oh, yeah. I know about this place. The farmer’s name is Riley, right?” Josh said.
“You know him?”
“I just know who he is. He grew up here, but he was away for college and stuff.”
“I tasted the cream. It’s out of this world. Like from magic cows or something.”
“Magic cows?” I said.
“You know what I mean.”
“We should check it out, right?” Josh said.
“Sure,” I said.
“Great. I’ll arrange it for you as a thanks for taking care of Zoe for an hour,” Mom said and then ran up the stairs.
“An hour? Now it’s an hour?” I yelled after her. “Sorry,” I said to Josh. “You can go upstairs. I’ll come up when she comes back.”
“I’m fine here. Don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah,” Zoe said. “We’re fine here.”
“So, what kind of food do you serve at Zoe’s Purple Giraffe?” Josh said.
Josh was a natural at this stuff, way better than even Jeanine, who’s been a big sister almost her whole life. Jeanine doesn’t really
