Mercedes breezed into the dining room. “You haven’t started the cookies yet?”
“In a minute,” Carlita replied.
“Can I help?”
“Of course. Why don’t I supervise and you can help your nieces and nephew this time?”
The small kitchen wasn’t large enough for three children, eager to bake and two adults, so Carlita sat in the dining room and watched as they mixed the ingredients and then each of the children took turns dropping cookie dough onto the greased cookie sheet.
While the cookies baked, they made the frosting. Carlita had slightly tweaked Great Nonna Garlucci’s frosting recipe, by adding a small amount of cream cheese and lemon zest.
After the cookies finished baking and they waited for them to cool, the children and Carlita walked Rambo around the block, stopping by the pawnshop to find out if Tony would be around for pizza and cookies after the store closed.
“I’m goin’ to Shelby’s for dinner. I forgot to tell ya.”
“If you change your mind, you can come on over. I’ll order extra.”
Tony promised he would and then Carlita and the children made their way back upstairs. After frosting and sampling their cookies, the children headed to the living room to watch cartoons while Carlita and Mercedes cleaned up the kitchen. “What time is Autumn coming by?”
“Around six o’clock. She’s comin’ right from work.”
Carlita ordered a couple of pizzas along with some breadsticks for delivery and by the time the food arrived, Autumn followed the delivery driver inside.
“Ooh. You got Carmela’s Pizza. I love Carmela’s,” Autumn smiled at the delivery guy. “Hey Zeke. I haven’t seen you in a while.”
The young man nodded. “I finally nailed a job as a customer service rep at the downtown IRS office. I’m staying on at Carmela’s until the end of the week, so I can say good-bye to all of my regular customers.”
Autumn wrinkled her nose. “We’re gonna miss you down at the newspaper.”
“I haven’t seen you around there much either,” Zeke said.
“I was promoted to assistant copy editor for digital services and my new cubicle is in the back of the building. They also upped my hours, so now I’m working full time.”
“Congratulations. I thought you wanted to move into reporting.”
“I do, but I’m gonna have to work my way up and I hope I do it fast. I hate reading and editing is the worst kind of torture,” Autumn said.
“I better get a move on,” Zeke said. “Nice to see you. Stop by the IRS office someday and say ‘hi’.”
Carlita collected the pizzas and handed Zeke a generous tip before passing the pizzas to her daughter. “He seems like a nice enough young man, and working his way up the ladder.”
“He is, Mrs. G. We attended Savannah State University together, but never met until he started delivering pizzas.” Autumn turned to Mercedes. “What’s up? You sounded like you need a huge favor.”
“I do,” Mercedes said. “We can talk about it after we eat.”
Carlita fixed pizza plates for PJ, Noel and Gracie, who sat at the table while the women headed to the living room.
Mercedes grabbed a slice of Hawaiian pizza and bit the end. “Are you working the day shift?”
“Yep. Got a raise, got a promotion, if you can call editing a promotion and I’m working full-time now.”
“Does this mean you’re not working say…Thursday evenings?” Mercedes asked.
Autumn shoved the rest of her first slice of pepperoni in her mouth and reached for a second slice. “Spill the beans. What do you want me to do on Thursday evening?”
“Join my author group over at The Book Nook and pretend you’re a newbie author,” Mercedes blurted out. “You only have to do it for a couple of weeks.”
“It wouldn’t be a lie. I’ve never written a single word in my life,” Autumn said. “Why?”
“I think there’s something going on in the group.” Mercedes told Autumn how she’d met with the group and left, returning after forgetting something and then spotted the others in the group meeting without her.
“Maybe you just left before they did.”
“Nope. Stephanie was already gone and Tom was in his car,” Mercedes said. “I think they wanted to have a private meeting, when I wasn’t around.”
“Could be you’re paranoid.”
“So you’re not going to help me out?” Mercedes asked.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help. Of course I’ll help, but you owe me one.”
“A big one.” Mercedes tore off a part of her breadstick and dipped it in the container of marinara sauce. “Carmela’s does have pretty good pizza, but not as good as authentic New York style.”
While they ate, Mercedes filled her friend in on the background of the other authors and offered some pointers on how to get a feel for what they thought of Mercedes.
“You’re not gonna go to the meetings?” Carlita asked.
“No.” Mercedes shook her head. “I’m gonna tell them I’m outta town, maybe that I had to head to New York.”
After they finished eating, Autumn sampled the cookies before telling them she wanted to head home before dark. “Thanks for the pizza Mrs. G. Someday I’ll make it to New York to sample the real deal.”
“You’re welcome,” Carlita said. “Maybe you can go up there with us someday.”
Mercedes walked Autumn to the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t forget. The authors meet at The Book Nook this Thursday at six.”
“Got it.” Autumn gave a thumbs-up and hopped on her Segway. “Don’t worry. If anyone can find out if the other authors are setting you up, it’s me.”
“Thanks Autumn.” Mercedes watched as Autumn coasted to the center of the alley and then sped off, disappearing from sight.
Carlita kept her grandchildren busy, drawing pictures and arranging them on the refrigerator. After finishing their artwork, they started to watch a movie. Halfway through, she caught two of them
