Gerald Varick.
Why the heck would her old boss from the Ritz-Carlton call her?
“I better take this call,” she said. “Don’t get frustrated, okay? If it’s too hard, just put them into even groups of seven. We’ll knock two out later.”
Nolie looked up, a shade of panic in her eyes at the fast math.
“Just relax,” Tessa said quickly. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
She didn’t want Gerry’s call to go to voicemail, so she hustled off with the phone, heading outside to the empty deck.
“Gerry Varick,” she said after accepting the call. “This is a surprise.”
“Tessa! So good to hear your voice.” At the familiar, smooth reply, Tessa lowered herself to the sofa, picturing the thinning hair and pudgy countenance of the Ritz’s Regional Director of Conference Services.
She’d reported directly to him the whole time she’d worked there, and they’d had a cordial, if not close, relationship.
It hurt when he’d fired her. He simply didn’t believe that she had nothing to do with the very unhappy guest…who happened to be dating the same man Tessa had been seeing. It had been ugly and frustrating, and Gerry’s lack of faith in her had hurt.
“Well, it’s a surprise to hear your voice,” she said, happy she didn’t need to sugarcoat the conversation.
“I know, I know,” he said. “I’m just glad that whole…business is behind us.”
Was it?She bit back the question and waited to find out why he was calling. No doubt he just needed to find a file or locate a client contact.
“Listen, Tessa, it turns out…we—well, I—owe you an apology. We got it wrong.”
Tessa blinked. “What?”
“You took the fall for something that someone else did.”
She snorted. “I know,” she said. “I told you that. Or tried to.”
He sighed noisily. “I’m ashamed to say that the employee responsible for the whole thing was, in fact, Jeanine Margolis.”
“The person who got my job,” she said dryly. “Shocker, Gerry.”
“It was a difficult situation all around.”
Difficult forwho? For the wealthy client she’d briefly dated who’d brought a different woman to his event? Then things at the resort went south for that woman—due to circumstances completely out of Tessa’s control.
That client had not only assumed Tessa was to blame, but he’d taken his complaint to an old college buddy, who was in the C-suite of the Ritz’s parent company.
Bottom line? Tessa was kicked to the curb and never given a chance to defend herself.
“I think it’s fair to say that Jeanine, uh, set you up to take the fall for her mistakes.”
Mistakes? Tessa almost snorted. Jeanine sabotaged the poor guest’s stay and made it look like Tessa had done the damage.
Damage that had left her essentially homeless and squatting at the unfinished Summer House before she was shamefully discovered by Vivien and Eli.
So, big picture, she was glad it happened. But the “how” still stung.
“So why are you calling, Gerry? I mean, I accept the apology, so?—”
“We shouldn’t have let you go,” Gerald continued. “You were one of our best. No one does a party like Tessa Wylie. And we’d like to fix that.”
Tessa’s grip on the phone tightened, completely ignoring the attempt at flattery. “Fix it… how?”
