Recipe for Disaster

Recipe for disaster

Blinded by the sun near the top of the mountain.

Author's Note: Not breaking a lot of new ground. Just trying to navigate out of my own head, and hopefully, you'll find this entertaining. No burnings at the stake here if that is what you are looking for. This is a bit longer than average, for me, so you've been advised.

Chapter 1

A fidgety Bella couldn't contain herself any longer as she saw the man climb from the cabin of the mid-sized delivery truck. She sprinted from her aunt's office towards the loading dock as he approached, throwing her arms around his waist as she collided with him, knocking him back half a step.

"Mr. Hank! You're back."

He laughed, "Hey, sweet girl. I am, at least for several weeks."

Looking at the cardboard tray of Starbucks drinks that he was holding, she smiled and asked hopefully, "are those for us?"

He returned her smile and replied, "They are. Your Aunt told me what to pick up for each of you."

Bella beamed. She loved the afternoon treats that Hank would bring for her, her Aunt Morgan, and her older sister, Amber. He had been gone for several weeks, having told her that he had another job that required travel from time to time.

He was wearing his 'food bank uniform' like the last time she saw him, which was cargo shorts, a golf shirt, and a baseball hat, with the food bank logo, similar to the other drivers that worked or volunteered for the food bank. Her aunt, actually her great aunt, managed the food bank. She and her sister hung out there during most of the summer. Recently she and her middle-school-aged sister had begun attending summer day-camps, which they loved. When the camps ended for the day, they would spend their afternoons with their aunt until time to go home. The girls, along with their mother, lived with her aunt and Uncle Bill.

Morgan and Bella took their drinks and thanked him. Hank handed a frappuccino to Amber, who grunted out a 'thank you.'

Morgan was displeased with that response, but she didn't push the girl. She said "Thanks for the drinks, Hank. You know you didn't have to."

"I'm happy to do it."

Turning back to the little girl, he asked, "Bella, your aunt tells me you've been going to summer camps while I was gone. What have you been doing?"

The precocious eight-year-old was more than happy to tell him all about what she and her sister have been doing for the last three weeks. They had received 'scholarships' to attend, which covered all of their expenses. Each week had been different. One of them was a technology camp where she received a new iPad, and her sister received a MacBook Air during the course. Surprisingly, they were allowed to keep them. Bella filled his ear for half an hour regaling her adventures for the last several weeks.

Hank asked, "Amber, are you liking your new laptop?"

This time he did get a smile because she was thrilled to have it. "I am. It came with a typing app, and I'm teaching myself how to type."

"I'll bet you are doing great."

Morgan grinned at him. She hadn't been able to get him to tell her if he had given the girls the camp scholarships nor if he had provided the tech toys, but he didn't deny it either. She and the girls' mother had been stunned by both developments, though obviously pleased that this nice man, who had been a sporadic volunteer for years, had taken an interest in the girls.

Bella asked, "Where did you say you had to go?"

"Australia and Singapore. Do you know where those are?"

She replied, "I know about Australia, but not...what was the other one?"

"Singapore. Let me see your iPad and I'll show you." He quickly pulled up Google maps and zoomed out the map so he could slowly show her where it was on the globe relative to Asheville and Australia. Then he loaded an app on her iPad called "Stack the Countries," which would help her with her geography.

Hank spent some time telling her about his work trip to each place and what he did while there. Afterwards, he returned to the loading dock where he needed to unload the truck and then help restock some of the shelves at the food bank. He was still working on restocking when Morgan and the girls told him goodbye for the day.

"Such cute, sweet girls," he thought. They reminded him of his kids when they were younger. He was glad he could give them a little joy while he was there during the summer. Getting away from Pittsburgh for a little while had proven to be a good decision.

_________________

The next day, Tuesday, the process was repeated when Hank arrived with more food donations that needed to be unloaded, along with drinks for the girls.

Bella asked Hank, "do you work at night, too."

He chuckled, "Not at the office. I work at the tire factory near Hendersonville in the mornings. I'm working here in the afternoons this summer, and I usually work a few hours each evening at home...unless I need a break. I think I'll try to go fishing one evening this week."

"Can I come too?"

"I don't think your mom will let you come with me by yourself. Maybe if your Uncle Bill would agree to come, she'll let you come along." He turned to Morgan and looked inquisitively.

She laughed. "Are you kidding? My husband is retired and doesn't need an excuse to go fishing. Just give him the date and the time, and he'll be there."

"Good, let's try Thursday afternoon. He can bring his pole if he wants, but I'm bringing plenty of gear and beer."

"With an offer like that, you can count on him."

Bella was excited because she had only been fishing one other time in her life and she could barely remember it because it was so long ago. Even Amber had difficulty faking her disinterest.

________________

Thursday afternoon, the same week, found Bill arriving at the food bank to swap cars with Morgan, so he could drive the girls to the lake where he suggested they fish. Hank had his SUV loaded with gear, drinks, and snacks.

Bill had a couple of rods, and Hank had half a dozen. The plan was to drop some chicken livers deep using corks as monitors for the catfish and some live minnows for the nearby crappie. The afternoon started slow, but when they switched from minnows to grubs and then to spinners, things picked up. Hank and Bill would cast for the girls and let them reel. Once the fish started biting, the girls were very excited. Of course, the hits always come in bunches.

As soon as they had hooked their fifth crappie, one of the corks attached to a chicken liver dunked under the water. Bella was still reeling in her crappie, and Hank had noticed that Bill seemed to have an injury that prevented him from moving quickly, so he hopped over to the rod that was pulsing and grabbed it. Then he gave it to Amber and encouraged and helped her to reel in the catfish, letting her do most of the work.

That was quite the fight and a lot of fun for her. It took Amber ten minutes to finally get it into the net, but when she did, she had a nice four-pound channel cat. Bill and Hank praised her for her efforts, and suddenly, she was feeling pretty good about hanging around Hank.

Hank arranged for Uber Eats to deliver a bunch of Bojangles chicken, biscuits, and sides, and they sat under a big oak tree to eat. It turned into a great evening. Morgan stopped by later and drove the girls back so they could get cleaned up and go to bed. They had summer camp the next morning. The men cleaned the fish and put them in a cooler so Bill could take them home, promising a fish fry soon.

Bill enjoyed himself, also, and was thrilled that the girls had such a good time. After the girls had left, while they were cleaning the fish, Bill asked, "Hank, the only thing that Morgan has told me about you is that you've been a long-time volunteer and that you work at the tire factory near here. But based on that relatively new Honda Pilot you're driving, your suspected involvement in those summer camps, your manner of speaking, and not even thinking twice about having food delivered all the way out here, I'm guessing there is more to you than that just being the average factory worker."

Hank chortled, and said, "Honestly, Bill, there isn't much to me at all. I'm from Pittsburgh, where the factory headquarters are located. I travel some and have a project that allows me to be at this site some this summer. My family likes Asheville, and we have a vacation house here, so it's easy for me to work here. I'm thinking about trying to figure out how I can work from here more often."

"So you ARE more than just a factory worker?"

"I am. I'm responsible for all of the company's finances. How about you? What did you do before you retired?"

"I was a mailman and drove a postal truck. I was hit by another car several years ago, which instantly retired me and is why you see me limping around. I'll never be 100% again, but I get a little better each year. I have a two-acre garden that occupies me most of the day during the summer. The girls and/or their mom will help me a little on some mornings, but it's mostly my summer hobby.

Bill thought for a moment and continued, "Sooo...based on what you said a moment ago, does that mean you have CFO after your name?

Hank nodded. "That and a few other over-hyped letters."

Bill asked, "I see a ring on your finger. Is your wife still in Pittsburgh? Is she coming down?"

"She's traveling for work also. If she isn't going to be home, I use my project as an excuse to work from here, because I like it here. She's been doing a lot more traveling, and I've repeatedly told her that I'm not happy about it." Then he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'm not sure what's going to happen next."

It was Bill's turn to nod. "Any kids?"

"Two. A son in college and a daughter that graduated with a degree in marketing and has been out for a year. How about you?"

"Two, but they are in their thirties and live in Charlotte with their families. Three grandkids so far. Five if you include Amber and Bella, and I like including them.

Hank nodded. He could understand that.

Bill continued, "Thank you for today. I don't suspect you could do this all the time, but if the mood strikes you again, let me know and we'll come back. It was easy to see that the girls had a good time too."

Hank said, "You can count on it."

Once Hank got home, he put the gear away and took a shower. As he crawled into bed, he checked his phone and for the tenth night in a row, there were no messages nor texts from Catalina, or Cat, his wife.

______________

At 7:00 am the next morning, Friday, Hank pulled into the parking lot of the factory where he would borrow a small conference room for the morning, like he always did when visiting, since there were not any extra offices for him to use. With one of the "big bosses" in town, him, everyone was on their best behavior. Though, the longer he stayed the more the workers relaxed. He felt like he had fairly good relationships with several people at the plant at all levels of responsibility.

Just before he exited his vehicle to enter the plant, his phone started beeping.

He answered a Skype, "Hey Scott, what's going on? How's Barcelona?"

Scott and his wife, Tina, were part of Cat's production team. Scott handled the camera and audio, and Tina was the director. They are the heart and soul of his wife's crew...or at least they were.

What had started as just Catalina, the kids, and himself helping her start up a side gig, away from her corporate job at Heinz, had slowly grown into a successful career as a Martha Stewart-Bob Villa crossbreed. She could cook up a storm, had the vision on how to redo kitchens, and succeeded in turning that into a hit PBS show from the western part of the northeast to the eastern part of the Midwest, including from the upper finger lakes in New York, down to Richmond, and as far west as Indianapolis, including some fans in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Their big breakthrough came one night at a Pittsburgh Penguins tailgate party. She, Hank, and a neighbor were throwing a posh tailgate party at a Penguins game, giving away free samples of her food, and selling a cookbook full of her recipes. She was dressed stylishly, as many do at the Penguins games (these aren't Flyers or Bruins fans), and a cameraman and a reporter happened to stop by. Catalina ended up on camera, and soon thereafter she was on local TV.

Being beautiful and of Spanish birth certainly helped. She sounded like Penelope Cruz, also Spanish, and looked like Salma Hayek, with an effervescent personality like Sophia Vergara. She quickly began playing up her Spanish heritage and style, and even used her maiden name, Nieves, for her TV appearances. Because of her luscious figure, plenty of people referred to her as the Spanish Nigella Lawson.

When she and Hank decided that she needed a separate studio-kitchen for filming, they decided to film the entire thing, from talking with the architects to working with the kitchen supply dealer and the heavy equipment contractors. This was when Scott and Tina, a couple in their late twenties, were brought in to begin the production planning, Tina's forte, and Scott for the filming. Hank and the kids did everything, or tried to, before then.

The small building was built on the back of their two-acre property north of Pittsburgh. Hank and Catalina did all the landscaping and interior work in and around the small barn-like building to create a filming location much like Ina Garten's 'barn' on Long Island. What started out as a mix of Youtube and PBS quickly turned into a local PBS show which was later syndicated to other PBS stations around the region. Now, her show was on PBS in over twenty cities.

Catalina had now drawn interest, though no signed deals, from the Cooking Chanel, Food Network, TLC, Netflix, and the Travel Channel. She had many sponsors and had just launched her fifth cookbook, which actually made its way onto the NY Times Best Seller list. At the moment, she was very hot, and her star was rising.

Unfortunately, the price to pay for that was her marriage, or at least the closeness that she and her husband had shared up until then. For the moment, all of her attention was on her persona and celebrity. Her fashion sense was regaled from her casual cooking attire with just a hint of cleavage to her opening night appearances at the Pittsburgh symphony or the opera. Each of her social media accounts had over one million followers. At every stop along the way, Hank had been right beside her, supporting, and promoting her.

In trying to break into the nationwide market, she hired a new agent from New York City, Sheila, who recommended a new producer/editor, Felicia. They had Catalina convinced that she was ready for the big-time, where she would transition from a mid-six-figure payday deep into the seven-digit range.

Lately, her Instagram and Twitter pages were less and less about a recipe, product endorsement, or kitchen improvement suggestion, and more and more about her. Four years ago, she only appeared in about twenty percent of her online pictures, which were usually pictures of something she cooked or a kitchen she had remodeled; now she appeared in almost eighty percent. Hank guessed that was because of the new additions to her team.

When Hank told Catalina that, unlike the previous year, he wasn't going with her to the four-week shoot in Spain, her second such trip, she was stunned. After she informed Scott and Tina, they were concerned. By then, Hank was in Asia, so they mostly shared texts with him regarding the surprise. This was to be the first week of actual shooting in Spain. Hank was wondering about this call.

Scott asked, "Are your bags packed? Tina and I are sending you a first-class ticket to Barcelona. She's on speaker, by the way."

"Hey, Tina."

"Hey, Scott. The queen has not been amused this week. She was in full pissed-off mode this morning. This week has been a real struggle. You weren't here to do a precheck before she arrived on site. There are a few things behind schedule. Without you here to calm her down, I keep telling Scott that we should quit. Our pocketbook cannot afford that, but we say that you definitely owe us dinner and all the beer or wine we can drink when we get back."

"Done, and don't bother with the ticket. I'm not coming, and she knows it. I'm done with Queen Catalina. If I cannot have my regular Cat back that liked her 'barn' and PBS, I don't want this new person. She can stay in Spain for all I care. Maybe her mother can come to your filming location and reign her in."

Scott said, "Oh, Marelys has been here. She's not happy with her daughter, Sheila, nor Felicia. I think she preferred the old Cat, too."

Hank asked, "Are you guys taking a lunch break?"

"Not with her. The contractors have a lot of work to finish, so she's gone to her mother's apartment. Tina and I will stay to film some of their work, and Tina will plan some of the early shots for next week. We hope to be cooking by the end of next week, or we'll really be behind. It's a good crew, but clearly, they haven't watched enough of the shows in the US where they try to do a complete remodel in a week. We've given them two full weeks, but they are still struggling."

Hank chuckled, "Sounds like I made a good decision to stay."

Tina asked, "Hank, do you mean it regarding her staying in Spain? We've known the two of you for a long time. This last year has been particularly tough. Are you guys going to be okay?

"I don't know. I'm mentally preparing myself for the fact that we probably won't. I don't know if she's shared this with you two or not, but we are officially separated. I've not told Eva nor Eric. If she's told them, they haven't mentioned it to me, so I'm assuming she hasn't said anything. The two of you are the only two people I've told. I'm working from Asheville while she's gone, but you don't have to tell her that."

"Separated? Damn," exclaimed Scott. "But I completely get it. I would imagine that living with her has been difficult the past year. Tina told me that if I did to her what Cat allowed to happen to you that she would cut my balls off and hang them in her car like dice."

"Yeah. That wasn't the start, but that was the spotlight being thrown on our marriage, and every problem we had seemed to have been highlighted. I've tried to talk to her, but she thinks I'm being unreasonable. I just think that now with the kids out of the house, we both want different things in life. I don't know if we'll ever get on the same page again. Even though there is no legal separation in Pennsylvania, I've let her know that we are officially separated and if I spend any time in that house, it will be in the guest bedroom in her 'barn.' I'm completely out."

There was silence on the phone while everyone digested that information.

Tina said, "I'm sorry, Scott. I feel like we created a monster."

"No! You are the best friends anyone could have. She's the one that thinks she can party with all the cool kids, while we graciously accept her scraps. Sorry, not going to happen. I hope that when you get back, you'll think about starting a family. You've mentioned it to me before, so I hope the time is getting close."

Scott replied, "We've been thinking about it. Both of us have quietly talked to a few people in Pittsburgh about positions. We hate to leave Cat, but this week sometimes makes me wonder if she is going to move to New York and get rid of us. Hell, she may even move here, to Barcelona. We've had to hire someone to keep fans from wandering onto the site."

"I'm not surprised. Well, good for her. If that's the life she wants, she can have it. She may find that all that glitters isn't gold, and should she stumble, none of us will be there to catch her."

"I'm sorry, Hank. You've been a good husband and a great friend. Let us know if we can do anything for you."