Death of a Chocoholic Read Online Free

eyes back to Sal, as if waiting for the editor to burst out laughing and tell him it was all just a sick joke.
    But Sal held his ground.
    His sour puss expression never changed.
    Finally accepting defeat, Bruce marched through the door into the back bull pen, retreating into his office, and slamming the door behind him.
    There was a deafening silence.
    Hayley’s mind was racing. How on earth would she ever be able to write two columns at once? She was already inundated with her office manager duties aside from her own food-and-cocktails columns. Not to mention parenting two rambunctious teenagers, one of whom was in the midst of an undisclosed crisis. She knew she had to speak up now or be stuck with an overwhelming workload.
    â€œSal, I appreciate the opportunity to fill in for Bruce, but I don’t see how I can manage—”
    â€œI’ll double your salary for the next two weeks until Bruce gets back.”
    â€œI won’t let you down, boss,” Hayley blurted out.
    Suddenly the idea of writing two columns didn’t seem so daunting.

    Island Food & Spirits by Hayley Powell
    The other night, after I finished washing the dishes from dinner, I glanced at the clock and realized that it was only seven o’clock. I still had time to whip up one of my famous German chocolate cakes that my brother, Randy, had recently started selling at his bar. The more cakes I made and he sold, the more extra spending money I would have in my pocket for the slots in Bangor. So let the cake baking begin!
    As I gathered together my ingredients on the kitchen counter, my mind wandered back a few years ago to when the kids were smaller and more rambunctious and how hectic the nights always were before and after dinner. Inevitably, I would forget to check their backpacks to see if there were any notes or other important information. Asking the kids if there was something I needed to sign or know about always proved fruitless because once they finished eating, their eyes would be glued to the television and they completely tuned me out.
    I should have been more diligent after learning my lesson at a recent parent-teacher conference. I was approached by two parents (who shall remain nameless, but you know the type—the ones who fancy themselves above all others and appoint themselves in charge of every event). Anyway, the Super Moms cornered me in the hallway and quietly asked me if everything was all right at home, since my absence from the monthly PTA meetings hadn’t gone unnoticed. They also added that they were shocked that I wasn’t even contributing to the classroom bake sale fund-raisers. After exchanging a look of judgment, they turned on their pointy high heels and clicked down the hallway, looking like twin Barbie dolls. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open (once again).
    That night when I got home, I tore through my kids’ backpacks and pulled out every scrap of paper. Oh, what a mess! But I found schedules for the meetings, dates for bake sales, book sales, and crumpled-up announcements of every other upcoming scheduled event for the whole semester. Then I searched the house for my organizer calendar, which I had purchased before the school year began just to avoid all of this drama (although I did note to myself that I hadn’t even taken it out of the wrapper yet).
    After frantically filling in all of the dates for every upcoming activity, I must admit I was quite proud of myself. I even managed to attend the next PTA meeting while pretending not to notice a few raised eyebrows as I made my way to an open seat in the front of the classroom.
    A few weeks later I was up way too late on a work night, watching a cheesy-but-oh-so-good Lifetime Movie Network thriller about some soap actress with a murderous stalker. Actually, he was better-looking than she was and had six-pack abs. I had to wonder why she was so upset that he was standing outside her bedroom window, but I digress. I