This Time Next Year

Minnie visits her parents, who are knocking down their garden shed to make room for a new vegetable plot. While making tea, Minnie finds a family scrapbook with a record of all of Minnie’s professional accomplishments, including every menu she ever cooked as a chef and advertisements for No Hard Fillings. This evidence of her mother’s love and support overwhelms Minnie.

Minnie’s parents both praise the fruitcake she brought for them. Connie reflects that their family is a gift in her life, and Minnie is stunned to see her parents openly affectionate with one another. Minnie shares a new business plan with her parents and is shocked to find that they support her without criticism. Her father suggests selling some of his clocks to fund her new business, saying, “Maybe I spent too much time on them, didn’t spend enough time on what’s important” (292).

Minnie prepares for her first investor’s meeting to pitch her new business. Greg connected Minnie with Lucy, Quinn’s ex-girlfriend, who now works in corporate catering. Minnie reflects that “in the past, she would have assumed someone like Lucy would never even give her a meeting […] It would probably come to nothing, but she ha[s] to try” (294).