Turn Up the Heat by Jessica Conant-Park, Susan Conant

learned that his darling pregnant girlfriend had changed her mind and now wanted palaak paneer from the Indian restaurant on Beacon Street. The usually rational Adrianna had become unpredictable. Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t really blame Owen for not calling her. Just wait until she learned that the police were interested in Owen! I didn’t want to be around when she heard that.
    “Look, it’s not like Owen did anything,” she said. “So why would I be mad? Like you told Owen, the seafood company will give him another truck to use until he gets his back from the police.” Adrianna spoke with a mouthful of food. I actually encouraged her to eat as much as possible, and I did it for a selfish reason: the more she ate, the faster she outgrew her clothes, and the faster I got temporary hand-me-downs. That’s an admission I could make about only one person in the world, and the one person is Ade, my best friend.
    I said, “It’s just that Owen is so concerned about making money right now. And preparing for the baby. He didn’t want you to be disappointed in him.”
    “Of course I’m not disappointed in him! His business is great.” She happily listed a bunch of restaurants that were regular customers of Owen’s. “The only problem he’s been having is when his accounts don’t pay up and he’s got to go after them to collect money. But he hasn’t been there long enough for his restaurants to rack up big overdue bills, so it’s all right. Except, did you know that Simmer is COD? It isn’t too surprising. I mean, since Josh’s last paycheck bounced.”
    What? I had no idea that Josh’s check had bounced. Nor did I know that Simmer had to pay cash for seafood deliveries. COD struck me as a bad sign. And if Simmer was on a COD basis with the Daily Catch, what kind of credit did the restaurant have with its other purveyors?
    “Chloe?” Adrianna interrupted my thinking. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. You didn’t know about Josh’s check?”
    “No, I didn’t. I’m pretty surprised.”
    “Josh told Owen, who told me, so I assumed you knew.”
    “Well, it’s probably just because Gavin overspent so much when he was renovating Simmer. Josh said that Gavin made the huge mistake of hiring people by the hour or the day instead of having a set price for the job, so he wasted a ton of money. But I’m sure it’s just temporary. Simmer seems busy enough, so they’ve got to be recouping some of that loss. Gavin must owe tons of money, though, considering everything he had done there. That’s just part of starting any new business, right?”
    “Mmm…I suppose so,” Ade mumbled through bites of food. “Anyhow, I’m sure Owen will call me later and tell me everything. If he was in any real trouble, he’d have called by now. Listen, I’ve got two garbage bags full of clothes for you, and I’d rather you take them now so I don’t have to pack them up to move.”
    Yay! More clothes! “Cool. Can I pick them up tonight?”
    “Yes, and you don’t need to sound so happy about it. Don’t take pleasure in my getting fat.”
    “Ade, there is a gigantic difference between gaining weight during pregnancy and just gaining weight. And I love you either way.” Belatedly, I realized that gigantic had been a poor word choice. Fortunately, Adrianna didn’t seem to notice.
    “And don’t ruin my stuff. I’m taking it back someday.”
    We hung up, and I finally started to do some work. During the study breaks I allotted myself, I tried to reach Josh, but he wasn’t picking up his cell. Finally, a little after five o’clock, he called to say that he, Wade, Kevin, and some other staff from Simmer were going spend the evening with Gavin so that he wouldn’t have to be alone.
    “We’ll be closed again tomorrow, so maybe I can see you?” Josh said. “Not how I like to get a day off, but I’ll take it.”
    “Argh!” I groaned. “I’ve got a DSM review class tomorrow that Doug is leading, and I have to go