Zoe sighed, her shoulders slumping in as the totality of her failure overwhelmed her. “I wasn’t lying about the men problems.”
“I’m guessing that some guy did something horrible to you. Since you’re still dressed, it wasn’t a rape. Since you’re in bare feet and not your slippers, it has to be monumental. And since you’re not downstairs working with the others to make the fall delivery deadline, it has to have something to do with the company. So spill the beans. What is it?”
Zoe laughed through her tears and shook her head, somehow comforted that her friend and co-worker knew her so well. “Are you going to keep pulling things out of that bag?”
Debbie nodded. “Depending on how bad it is, I have something for each problem. So spill it, darling. Did someone die?”
Zoe gasped and shook her head. “No! Nothing like that.”
“Then you won’t need the chocolates,” Debbie replied, taking her hand out of her canvas bag.
Zoe laughed and ran over to her friend, throwing her arms around her shoulders and giving her a bear hug. “Oh, Debbie, what would I have done all these years without you by my side to help me through all this insanity?”
“You probably would be one dress size smaller than you are now, because I’m the one who thinks all problems can be solved, or at least ignored for a little while, by eating. Since you’re already a skinny little creative genius, I don’t care that I’ve fattened you up a bit. So what’s going on?” she asked, pulling open a cabinet and getting two wine glasses, then sliding open a drawer for the spoons, pushing the cherry vanilla to Zoe and taking the chunky monkey for herself while she slid onto the hunter green bar stool beside Zoe. “Tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll get through this just like we have all the other crises in the past four years.”
Zoe laughed, but that only made her crying worse. “You’d better hand me the chocolates,” she said, using the napkin Debbie handed her to wipe her tears away. “Or maybe you shouldn’t. When you hear what has happened, you’ll hate me and I’ll deserve all your animosity because I’ve messed up supremely bad.”
“That bad, huh?” she asked, then slid the box of expensive chocolates across the counter. Pouring the wine, she said, “You’d better spill it because my mind might not be as imaginative as yours, but it’s coming up with some pretty awful things right now.”
Zoe took a long sip of the wine, unable to appreciate the heady taste of the excellent brand Debbie had brought. She then set her glass down, took a deep breath and looked away from her friend as she said, “Andrew stole all the money from the company. I have nothing to pay the teams, no way to pay the current set of suppliers, and he hasn’t paid them for the past three months. The police have a report filed on him, but apparently he’s already off on some extravagant, and I’m guessing long term vacation in the Caribbean and as soon as the creditors find out about all this, they’re going to demand payment, of which I have no way to make. That means that our clients will also back out because we won’t be able to function on credit, nor will we be able to set up for the spring collection.”
After she finished saying all that, she took another long sip of wine, set the glass down and waited in silence as Debbie absorbed everything Zoe had just told her.
When the silence continued, Zoe couldn’t take it any longer. With trepidation, she looked over at her friend, her heart breaking as she saw the stunned look of horror on her face. “My sentiments exactly,” she said, and the tears started once more.
Zoe turned away and took another long sip of wine, draining her wine glass, then lifted the bottle and poured more. Zoe couldn’t look at her friend, but the empty wine glass that appeared next to her newly filled one told her how much her news had impacted Debbie. Without a word, Zoe filled Debbie’s wine glass as well.
“This calls for Sinatra,” Debbie said and took her glass of wine over to Zoe’s book shelves. They were the cheap kind, made of pine with only the supports and the shelves, but they worked in Zoe’s loft, fitting in with all the other eclectic pieces and colors. Debbie turned on the old fashioned stereo and put on a Sinatra record, swaying to the static filled music as she walked back to Zoe.
Putting her arms around her friend, Debbie took a deep breath. “We’ve been through some tough times before. This won’t bring down the company. You’ve worked too hard to let it die now.”
Debbie’s absolute show of confidence and support broke all of Zoe’s control. Her shoulders slumped and her head fell down, resting on her arms as she let the sobs break through. Debbie just stood there, holding Zoe as they both cried out the pain and disappointment over the day’s revelations.
When Zoe was able to take a deep breath, Debbie pulled her over to the sofa. “Come on, let’s talk this through. We have to figure out what to do about this. There’s a solution somewhere.”
Zoe took a deep breath and followed her friend, holding the ice cream and spoon close with one hand and the glass of wine and wine bottle in the other.
Debbie sat down and both of them propped their feet up on the coffee table, took a large scoop of ice cream, drank a long sip of wine and each ate a piece of decadent chocolate.
With all the essentials covered for the moment, Zoe asked, “How big is Grand Cayman?”
“I don’t know,” Debbie replied, her mouth full of ice cream. “Is that where this bastard is hiding out?”
“According to his passport papers, he is.”
“I don’t know how large it is, but it can’t be larger than one of the states and we drive across that just for a weekend getaway. We could just fly down there and find the little weasel and demand our money back.”
“There’s a problem with that idea,” Zoe said, downing half her glass of wine.
Debbie took another bite of ice cream. “What’s that? Sounds simple enough to me.”
“I don’t have any money to get there.”
“I’ll pay for it.”
Zoe laughed. “You don’t have any money either. Remember? I can’t pay you.”
“Bob still has his job. He’ll pay,” she said, referring to her husband of ten years.
“He can’t pay for anything because you can’t reach him most of the time. He’s working for that guy you call ‘The Evil One’, the guy that makes him work twenty hour days, remember?”