He rubbed both palms up and down across his eyes. Minnie couldn’t believe her dad had been sitting on a small fortune all this time, or that he’d just offered to give it to her. Her heart swelled with affection for both her parents.

‘We’ll just make sure Mum’s in one of her “gardening moods” before we say anything, shall we?’ said her dad.

20 October 2020

Her laptop was charged, the presentation loaded, and Minnie was wearing a new black jumpsuit paired with red lipstick. One of the Instagram influencers she followed had worn an outfit just like this. She’d decided at 2 a.m. last Monday that this was the look that was going to win her the investment.

She’d spent the last few weeks racking her brains as to how she could raise the rest of the money needed to set up her ‘Buy a Pie, Give a Pie’ scheme. It was Greg’s words that rang in her head – ‘Contacts, contacts, contacts.’ Who did she know who was well connected in the corporate catering world? Lucy Donohue, that’s who.

Greg had told her that, since leaving the newspaper, Lucy had a new job running corporate catering for Lexon, one of the biggest banks in London. She was exactly the person Minnie needed to get behind her idea. In the past, Minnie would have just assumed that someone like Lucy would never give her a meeting, would never take her seriously. She would have been too intimidated to ask. Now Minnie felt differently. It would probably come to nothing, but she had to try. No regrets.

Greg and his flatmate Clive had helped her put together a PowerPoint presentation with statistics and graphics.

‘Don’t be too effusive,’ Clive prepped her. ‘Don’t act like she’s doing you a favour. You’re doing her a favour by bringing her the idea.’

‘And put your hair up,’ said Greg. ‘Don’t hide behind your hair – you always do that, it’s annoying.’

‘And take a business plan printed out to leave with her. She’ll want to look at the numbers once you go,’ said Clive.

‘And take a pie,’ said Greg. ‘That’s your product, that’s important.’

‘And testimonials,’ said Clive. ‘Everyone loves a testimonial.’

‘Oh god,’ said Minnie, trying to take it all in.

Greg put a hand on each shoulder. ‘You can do this Minnie, I know you can.’