Strawberry Wine (Strawberry Inn Book #2)

Chapter 34

BLAIR

I sauntered into Angela’s office for a regular Monday meeting, but today was going to be anything but normal. My best friend didn’t know yet, but I was about the blow her mind with my pregnancy announcement. Even after telling both sets of parents, we still decided to hold off a bit, waiting to get through the first trimester. Angela and Harrison stopped short of plastering a billboard on Main Street with their news, otherwise, everybody knew. Waiting to share our news would give them a chance to have the spotlight on themselves.

“I’m so happy to see you, Blair. I was going to call you last night, but I thought you’d kill me for calling too late.”

“What’s wrong?” My friend seemed to be in a panic, which wasn’t unusual, but this felt different.

“I don’t know if it was pregnancy brain or just my normal forgetfulness, but I gave you the wrong dates for the group that was cycling through the state.”

I was familiar with the group, but I still opened up my planner so I could get the dates correct, “I have them arriving next Thursday, is that not correct?”

Angela buries her hands in her face, “No! It is THIS Thursday!”

“Shit…”

“Huge pile of steaming dog shit. We only have five rooms available and they need eight. What are we going to do?”

“Um…I don’t know, but what we aren’t going to do is freak out, okay? We’ve both been working in the service and hospitality business enough to know that double bookings happen. Freaking out isn’t going to help anything, we just need to start formulating a plan. Have you already blocked out the five rooms?”

“I did that right away last night when I realized my mistake. We are lucky that one of the rooms available is a suite, so we might be able to get away with just needing to find two more rooms.”

“Have you talked to the group leader at all? I know they originally said they needed eight rooms, but maybe they don’t need that many now.”

She shakes her head, “No, I called them this morning to see if I could sneak any information out of them and it sounds like they have sixteen people in their group. Some are couples, so they’re staying in the same room, but not all of them.”

“Alright, let me think on this. Maybe if we just give it the afternoon we can come up with something.” I bite on the tip of my pen, nervous to even mention this, “You know if all else fails we could probably offer to pay for some rooms at one of the chain hotels. They’re never filled during the off-season.”

“I thought of that,” she sighs, “but the whole point of this trip for them is exploring these small towns and their charm. Sending a couple of them off to a chain location just looks bad.”

“I’m sorry, babe,” I reach across the desk and take her hand in mine. “We’re two smart businesswomen and we WILL figure out a solution.”

“I think I feel better now.”

“Good, because I’ve got something to show you that might get that heart rate going again.”

“Why?” She sighs, “I don’t need any more stress in my life.”

“It is just part of owning a business you know this.” I slide the folder across the desk, “I wanted to make sure I kept you updated on the financial reports. I know usually we only do this once a month, but there have been some huge changes in the last three months and I thought it was important for you to see for yourself.”