Sugar Rush (7 page)

“Where did Jeff take
you to lunch?” Angie asked when Lexi returned home late that afternoon.

“Barley Brother’s. Nice
view of the bridge.”

Angie was sitting at
the breakfast bar, eating a carton of yogurt. Lexi walked around Angie and
grabbed a glass from the overhead cabinet and proceeded to fix herself some
iced tea.

“Oh yeah, been there a
lot. What’d you have?”

“Cheese fondue.”

“Oh, I’m jealous! I
love their fondue. How about Jeff?”

“He had pizza.” Lexi
sat at the breakfast bar with Angie.

“Did he treat, or did you
pay for your own?”

“According to him, it
was a date. He paid.”

“I wondered about that.
Of course, going on a date doesn’t mean you can’t split the bill. I thought he
was interested in you.”

“He asked me to go over
there tonight and sit in the spa with him.”

“With or without
swimsuits?”

“He never said. But
I’ll be taking mine along.”

“I’m hurt he didn’t ask
me,” Angie feigned insult.

“You can come along if
you want.”

“I’m not really into
threesomes.”

“According to Jeff, you
were our chaperone last night. You could be one tonight.”

“Now I’m just
insulted!” Angie grumbled with a frown.

Lexi laughed.

“So, how did your day go?
Any photo leads?”

“The people at Party
Express were nice. I left them some business cards. At the other places I
stopped, they were either with customers and I didn’t want to interrupt, or the
person I needed to talk to wasn’t there.

“I stopped at the Chamber
of Commerce office and happened to run into this guy who is going to have a
balloon at the festival this weekend. We started chatting it up, and I showed
him my portfolio. He agreed to take me up in exchange for a photo shoot.”

“Sweet.”

“I know. I’m so
excited!”

“I told Jeff you were
trying to get someone to take you up, so he suggested we hang out.”

“That’s generous of
him,” Angie laughed. “Dinner last night, lunch today, spa tonight, and balloon
festival this weekend. He’s moving quick.”

“He’s just a nice guy,”
Lexi said with a shy smile, grinning to herself.

“Hot, too.”

“True,” Lexi laughed.

“So tell me, did you
find out anything more about what he does? He didn’t seem to want to talk about
himself last night.”

“I know, really. He was
like that today. We talked a lot about my hot fudge idea, and he gave me
suggestions. When I tried to ask him something about his job, he kept directing
the conversation back to me, like he wanted to know everything about me. ”

“That’s not normal for
a guy to be that interested. They typically bring the conversation back to themselves.
Maybe he’s gay?”

“No, he isn’t gay,” Lexi
laughed.

“How do you know? Did
you kiss him yet?”

“Not exactly.”

“Oh, tell me exactly,”
Angie begged mischievously.

“Nothing to tell. I
just know he’s not gay,” Lexi insisted.

* * *

“Why haven’t you
called?” Ethan Beaumont demanded. Jeff paced back and forth in the living room,
the cell phone by his ear.

“I only got here early
yesterday morning. There really is nothing to report.”

“True. But I still
expect you to call me every day. This isn’t some paid vacation.”

“I understand, but
there really is nothing going on. I don’t get the impression Lexi intends to
stay here long. They’re just using the house because the renter backed out, and
Lexi hasn’t found a job yet. I imagine she’ll eventually need to go back to the
city and start looking for work.”

“So you’ve met her?”

“Yes, I ran into her at
the grocery store, and started up a conversation. When they found out we were
neighbors, I asked them over for a barbeque. I get the impression this is
nothing more than a little vacation for the girls.”

“She can’t afford a
vacation!” Beaumont snapped. “How is she paying for food and other living
expenses? Is she freeloading off her friend? Why doesn’t that surprise me? But
I can’t imagine she’ll get away with that for long.”

“Apparently, she has
money saved.” The moment he said it, Jeff regretted sharing the information.
But Beaumont’s insistence that Lexi was nothing but a freeloader irritated him.

“That’s impossible! I
never allowed her to have a job. And I sure as hell never gave her enough
spending money that she could start stock piling it!”

The level of rage expressed
surprised and angered Jeff.

“Continue to keep an
eye on her, and find out what she has planned. I’m already wasting too much
time on all this shit. That girl needs to get over this little rebellion of
hers and get back here and do what’s expected of her. Pay attention, and figure
out someway to undermine this little spurt of financial independence she’s
flaunting. Find out where she banks, and if possible, get your hands on her
checkbook. Draining her bank account would be one way to clip that girl’s
wings.”

When Jeff hung up the
phone ten minutes later, he stood in his living room, staring blankly at his
cell phone.
What have I gotten myself into?
Before he could answer his
own question the doorbell rang.

“Hi, ready for some hot
fudge?” Lexi said the moment he opened the door. She stood on his front porch
holding a plastic grocery sack. She’d changed her clothes since he had dropped
her off two hours earlier. She now wore a flowered halter-top with her denims.

“I’m always ready for
your hot fudge,” Jeff said as he welcomed her into the house and closed the
door.

“I wanted to test
something, but Angie refuses to be my guinea pig. She says I’m trying to get
her fat.”

“So you want to fatten
me up?” Jeff chuckled.

“Well, you don’t have
to eat it all. Just taste it. Plus, I’m curious about your microwave, and how
different it is from ours.”

“Okay, test away,” Jeff
followed Lexi into the kitchen. There she unloaded the contents from her bag
onto his counter. It included a mason jar filled with a powdered cocoa
concoction, a cube of butter, a measuring tablespoon, and an 8-ounce, glass measuring
cup.

“Of course, we need to
test this out on the ice cream I left over here last night. There is some
left?”

“Yes, a little.” Jeff said
sheepishly. He was ashamed to admit he had consumed a large bowl that morning
for breakfast with the leftover fudge from the night before.

Lexi went to the
cupboard and took out a glass and filled it with water from the refrigerator.

“This afternoon when I
got home, I did some calculating to figure out a mix. There was powdered milk
and powdered vanilla in the pantry, so I thought I’d experiment.”

“So, that’s the hot
fudge mix in the mason jar?”

“Yes. It includes two
cups of granulated sugar, one-third cup powdered milk, two teaspoons vanilla
powder, and six tablespoons of Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa. Oh, and a dash of
salt. I shook it up really good in the jar to blend it.”

“What now?”

“I figure a quarter cup
of the sauce is a reasonable serving. First, I add one tablespoon of water to
the glass.” Lexi dipped the tablespoon into the glass of water she’d gotten
from the refrigerator, scooping up a spoonful. After adding the water to the glass
measuring cup, she cut off a tablespoon of butter and added it to the water.

“Is there some reason
you took water from the fridge? Does it need to be cold?”

“No, but Angie told me Havasu’s
drinking water pretty much sucks, so most people have some sort of a filtration
system. Chances are there’s one on the drinking water that comes from your fridge.
She also said most of the houses have soft water; that’s why I don’t want to
use the water from your tap. It might give it a funny flavor.”

“Okay. So, you add one
tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of drinking water to the glass. Now
what?”

“I put it in the
microwave for 40 seconds on high, to melt the butter.” Lexi put the glass in
the microwave over the stove, and set the timer for forty seconds after closing
the microwave’s door. She continued to talk as she waited for the butter to
melt.

“I learned something
strange. Cooking time varies, depending on the cup I use.”

“How so?”

“When the microwave
turns off, I’ll add two tablespoons of the mix and stir it with a knife, just
to blend it. I don’t want to splash the fudge mix all over the inside of the
glass. Then I put it back in the microwave and cook it some more. In the
microwave at our house, it cooks in 42 seconds if I use the 8-ounce glass. But
if I use the 16-ounce glass, it takes a minute.”

“Really? That’s kind of
strange.”

“I know, right? Not
sure how I can train my customers to use certain cups when cooking the sauce.”

Lexi removed the glass
from the microwave and added two tablespoons full of the mix to the butter and
water mixture. Jeff watched as she cooked it for 42 more seconds in the
microwave. After the microwave buzzed and turned off, Lexi waited five minutes
before dishing up a small bowl of ice cream.

“You’re mean, making me
wait,” Jeff teased.

“Boiling hot right out
of the microwave will just melt your ice cream. Plus, the fudge will thicken a
little bit as it sits.”

She poured the warm
fudge over the dish of ice cream. She handed Jeff a spoon and took one herself.
They each took a bite.

“Tastes just like the
fudge from last night, just a little thinner. It’s really good.” Jeff took
another bite.

“It was thicker in our
microwave. Cooking it a couple seconds longer would probably thicken this up.”

“You know,” Jeff
continued to eat the hot fudge sundae as he talked, taking the bowl from Lexi.
“It still tastes amazing, even if it’s thinner than the hot fudge from last night.
It’s no different than regular chocolate sauce in consistency. I think there
would be a way to teach the consumer, so they can fiddle with it and get the
ideal consistency with their microwave. And you never know; some people will
like it thin, and others will want it thick.”

“Well, it does get like
caramel if you overcook it. But one thing I learned this afternoon, if you cook
it too long in the microwave, the butter separates from the mixture and you end
up with this hard chocolate ball, swimming in a pool of oily butter.”

“That doesn’t sound
appetizing.”

“No, it was kind of
gross.” Lexi laughed.

“Well, girl, I think
you have a hit,” Jeff said after he finished off the bowl. “Now what?”

“You think I should
really do this?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, I guess the
first thing is to talk to Angie’s parents, to see if they have any objections.
Then I need to take the food handler’s class, buy a business license, and
register with the state,” Lexi said excitedly, then she seemed to remember
something and her enthusiasm dissolved.

“What’s wrong, Lexi? I
think this is a great idea.”

“I seriously need to
think about buying a car. I really hate doing that; it’s going to wipe out my
savings. But I can’t really expect Angie to let me use the bug all the time,
considering she’s trying to get some photography jobs lined up, and she’ll need
it. But buying a car just for the hot fudge business sort of defeats my
original purpose of generating income with minimal expense. I’d thought of
getting a scooter before, but that really would not be practical for the hot
fudge business.”

“For now, let me be
your taxi. We’ll figure something out.”

“I can’t ask that of
you.”

“Why not?  Sounds fun.
It’s my vacation, and I would love to spend it helping you get your hot fudge
empire up and running.”

“That’s sweet, but
aren’t you just going to be here for about a week?”

“When did I say that?”

“I guess you never
really said how long you were staying. I figure vacations are about a week or
two.”

“I rented the house
through the month, and I might stay longer.”

“You can do that?” Lexi
frowned.

Jeff didn’t answer
immediately, trying to choose his words carefully.

“Well, I’m not totally
on vacation—I mean I’m on vacation, but I brought some work with me. You know,
the wonders of the Internet and all.”

“Oh, you’re
telecommuting! What is it you exactly do, again?”

Jeff smiled because he
knew he’d skirted that question, and hadn’t told her.

“Boring corporate stuff—nothing
terribly exciting. Helping you get a new business off the ground… well, it
sounds like a nice change.”