Page 34 of The Surprise Wedding
Tamara explained as best she could and said she was worried that Nate was ignoring her and that he didn’t want her anymore. She hadn’t seen him since the tasting. She was worried that the situation with her ex was starting all over again.
Liz squeezed her hand again. “I completely understand your situation. I put myself through something similar several years ago, and I messed up big-time. But, Tamara, things with you and Nate are different. You’re being a silly goose! All of us have encountered stupid situations and stupid people, but that’s how we learn and become wiser and smarter. Now we can tell the difference. And I’m here to tell you that your wonderful, clever, funny, gorgeous, crazy-in-love Nate Waterson has been working every hour God made this week. He has barely slept, I’m sure he hasn’t shaved, and as far as I can tell, he’s on a steady diet of our filter coffee and Twizzlers. And when he’s not doing things on the computer that people like me know nothing about, he is sitting in his office, looking out the window, smiling at absolutely nothing. If that is not a man in love, I quit my job. I’ll say one more thing: Do not, under any circumstances, let this man get away. Do whatever you have to do to get your head around this, but do not let him go.”
Feeling relieved, unburdened… and maybe like a silly goose, Tamara watched as Liz got up, looking completely relaxed, and walked out the door. She was back five seconds later. “Oh, I completely forgot to tell you—Zach wants you to come to his wedding.”
“What?” Tamara wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“He called to ask. He said that anyone who could do so much to find the perfect coffee for them needed to be part of their special day.”
Sensing her hesitation, Liz said, “Come on, Tamara, when a billionaire wants you to go to his wedding because he’s eternally grateful, you go to his wedding.”
“All right, then.” Tamara smiled. “I’d love to.
Through the window, Tamara watched Liz walk across the street, back to Married in Malibu, knowing she had the best friend anyone could have. The fact that she’d recognized that something was bothering her in the first place meant the world. Liz had helped her out of her fog, or funk, or whatever you called it, and gotten her thinking straight. She would be eternally grateful.
Tamara quickly completed her final chores, turned out the lights, and then locked up.
Driving home, she couldn’t stop thinking about Nate. Liz was right. Nate was a keeper. She had known that about him ever since he had started at Married in Malibu more than six months ago, and they’d hit it off immediately. They had so many similar interests—most noticeably loving coffee and the beach with a passion. They both had quirky families and the same sense of humor. Not to mention, Nate was drop-dead gorgeous and super smart. He had gone out of his way to make sure she’d had a good time over the weekend, and then he’d driven them back to Malibu and gone straight to work. And, according to Liz, he had been slogging away for the whole week—no wonder Tamara hadn’t seen him!
As she pulled into her parking spot at home, Tamara came up with an idea. She wanted to do something special for Nate, something that would show him how much he meant to her. Nate was always the one making the grand gestures, like that beautiful bouquet of forget-me-nots, but she knew he also appreciated the little things.
Tamara went inside her apartment and rummaged around, gathering the things she needed. She heated up some leftover pasta, had a quick meal, and then got to work. A few hours later, probably about the same time Nate was leaving his office, Tamara sat back and examined her handiwork. She smiled. Nate—her dear, wonderful, kind, handsome Nate—was going to love it.
Nate was working furiously, testing and retesting, compiling new data, only to find more problems, and then coding some more. By Wednesday, around midnight, Nate knew he was finally on top of everything. But this morning had been a different story. He’d been working until past midnight for the past two nights and getting only a few hours of sleep before coming in early the next morning. He figured the long days had been worth it, and things were looking good. But that wasn’t the way coding worked. You thought everything was fine, and then the moment you beta tested, things started to go wrong. The best that could be said about the beta testing was that they’d caught the issues before they went live with the wedding feed on Friday.
Nate stood and stretched. All he wanted right now was to go home and get more than four hours of sleep. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was exhausted, physically and mentally. He had to be back at work at nine a.m. for a last-minute meeting with Zach and Yuriko. If he left now, he would be home in thirty minutes and in bed in thirty-one minutes.
He walked out to his car, looked wistfully across the street at the darkened coffee shop, and then drove home.
Chapter Fifteen
Tamara got to work early the next morning, long before anyone else. She parked and then ran across the street to see which cars were in the Married in Malibu parking lot. Fortunately, Travis was the only person at work. Perfect. She planned to drop off some things for Nate before he arrived for the day, and she wanted to make sure he wasn’t already there.
She hustled back to the coffee shop and turned on the espresso machine. While it was heating up, she got out her stainless coffee carafe and filled a small box with creamers and sugars, stir sticks, and a couple of fresh doughnuts she had picked up on the way in. She filled the carafe with Nate’s favorite blend of coffee and then gathered everything and walked back across the street.
Tamara stood on Married in Malibu’s front door step, right under the security camera. Travis must have been looking at the security screen in his office because he suddenly appeared at the door before she had a chance to ring the bell.
“Good morning, Tamara,” he said, seeing the carafe and inhaling the rich scent of the coffee. “Is that for me?” he asked jokingly.
“I’m afraid not, but if you come over to the shop in ten minutes, I’ll make you any kind of coffee you want,” Tamara promised.
“Ahh, you don’t have to do that,” Travis said.
“Oh, but I want to. Let’s make a deal—you let me in so I can leave this stuff in Nate’s office, and don’t mention I was here, and you can have any coffee you want on the house. Deal?”
Travis laughed, “You bet it’s a deal.”
In less than five minutes, Tamara was back downstairs. She made Travis promise he would come and collect on their deal, and then she went to work, smiling to herself as she crossed the road… again.
Nate was trying not to panic at the time. He knew that everyone else on the Married in Malibu team was already at work, sitting in the garden preparing for a quick last-minute meeting with Zach and Yuriko before their big day tomorrow. They still had about half an hour before the couple was due to arrive, and there was lots to discuss, although everything was ready. The team would just be waiting for him to show up before Zach and Yuriko. He should have been there ages ago.
Nate had run into some problems yesterday, although he didn’t say much about it to his coworkers. In his typical fashion, he’d tried to maintain a cool and calm demeanor and not let anyone else see how worried he was. But as the ringmaster of the wedding venue, he knew that Liz had picked up on his vibes. She’d trusted him to fix the problem, and he hadn’t let her down. What it did mean, however, was a seriously late night, and as a consequence, he’d overslept this morning.
He pulled into the parking lot and didn’t even have time to go up to his office. He took his satchel and sprinted to the meeting, feeling more than a little relieved that he had arrived before Zach and Yuriko. As he walked into the garden, a dozen pairs of eyes turned in his direction, and a dozen pairs of shoulders relaxed.
“Oh, hi, everybody. Sorry I’m a little bit late…” Before he had a chance to say anything else, Liz handed him a coffee. Sweet mercy, he thought as he took his first sip, and Liz began the meeting.
Two hours later, Zach and Yuriko had left. They were thrilled with absolutely everything and kept marveling at how many details had been considered and how many problems had been solved. Nate couldn’t have been happier.
