A/N: A short sequel to the movie "New In Town".

Recipe for Success

"No Trudy, I told you last month, yesterday and I'll tell you the same tomorrow - you're not getting my tapioca recipe!" Blanche Gunderson spoke sternly into the telephone. The Head of Development at the plant started to slam the telephone down, then stopped herself and gently laid the handset in the cradle. Lucy Hill had learned that what she just walked in on was the closest the normally nonplussed Blanche got to shouting; the same volume level exhibited most people would equate with a casual conversation. Blanche simply didn't yell.

"You would have relieved some stress if you had slammed the telephone" Lucy suggested to her former secretary.

"Oh no, I couldn't do that - it's a perfectly good phone. It didn't do anything to me."

"Is she still trying to get that recipe from you? She doesn't take no for an answer even if it's the twelfth time?"

"She's a real estate agent, of course she can take no for an answer. But when it comes to collecting recipes, the woman knows no bounds. She wasn't going to get it before we used it to make our Zappy-oca Power-Pack Protein Pudding and she's not going to get it now."

"Because she'll give it to our competitors, right?"

Blanche looked at Lucy like she had just suggested that they go on an axe murder spree. "You wash you mouth out Lucy Hill, Trudy is my best friend! She'd never sell out anybody in New Ulm OR the state of Minnesota. No, she just wants to have every recipe she can get her hands on and it sticks in her craw that she can't get mine." Blanche smiled. "It's the principle of the thing ya know. That's why I had the kitchen staff vow to keep it away from her or our competitors."

"Remember, you run the formulation department as part of product development, not the kitchen."

Blanche chuckled. "Formulation department...my, that's fancy way of calling two sinks and a stove. But she's still not getting it."

"How many recipes can she possibly have?"

Blanche leaned closer and dropped her voice to just above a whisper. "No one knows, even Trudy. She's got them all organized in her recipe room and she almost never uses them; she just collects them. But it's driving me crazy with her asking all the time."

"Maybe she'll fall through a hole in the ice and the problem will solve itself."

"Oh, Trudy doesn't ice fish. But it's a thought" Blanch pondered, then smiled.

"Well..." Lucy drew out "I don't know if you'll like it, but I might have an idea."

...

"Thanks for helping me out Trudy" Lucy said as she entered the front door of the Van Uuden home. "I wanted to make something special for Ted, but I'm not a very original cook."

"You betcha. I understand, I really do. I usually just fall back on a dozen or so things that I rotate around; sometimes I think about trying something new but I just fall right back into the old habits" she said as she led the way to a back bedroom. A sign hanging on the closed door read 'Storage'. She barely paused to turn the handle before continuing inside. "Now what were you thinking of trying..."

As Lucy entered the room she gasped, even after hearing Blanche's description. The room was filled with recipe files. Shelves along the walls. Shelves on the back of the door. Shelves on racks in the middle of the room. There were even recipes in front of the window.

"Lucy?" Trudy asked.

"What? Oh sorry, I was...overwhelmed at your collection. How do you find anything?"

"Organization. I have a system I call the Chewy Decimal System" she giggled. Clearing her throat, she continued. "Just kidding. But lets narrow down your search. Which meal?"

"Dinner."

"You'll have the biggest selection for that one. What meat?"

"Chicken."

"Tangy, sweet, spicy or other?"

"What's other?"

"Sometimes you can't really describe the flavor so I call it 'other'."

"Oh. Uh, sweet."

"Sweet chicken, hmmm. Any allergies?"

"I'm allergic to wool."

"No dear, I mean food allergies."

"No. Unless your ingredients include wool I guess."

"Okay, wool-free sweet chicken. Let me see...no, that's out of season...here, this should do it. I think Ted should like this, but to tell you the truth as long as you cook it I think he'll be just fine with whatever; he's quite a catch!"

"He sure is. We're thinking of getting married and moving into a bigger house."

"Not too many big ones on the market at the moment" Trudy informed her.

"Maybe I could entice you to let us know first thing when one comes up" Lucy said with a wink.

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing" Lucy said coyly. "I'm just saying that I happen to have a copy of a certain tapioca recipe on me. I can't let it fall into another company's hands mind you, but if it stayed in private hands..." she said as she pulled out an index card.

Trudy's eyes went wider and her lip trembled. She reached out and Lucy pulled the card back slightly. "How many bedrooms did you want?" she asked, her eyes not leaving the card.

...

"Did it work?" Blanche asked as Lucy came back into the office later that afternoon. While her boss put away her coat Blanche paced quietly.

"I think...we hooked ourselves a fish" Lucy declared, laughing. "In return for first shot at a hypothetical future house, she took the recipe without even looking at it."

Blanche pumped her fists, then stopped herself. "I feel bad about giving her one of my failed experimental tapioca recipes, but it's such a relief. Good thing she'll never try to use it; the tapioca sets up so hard you have to cut it with a knife!" Both women giggled.

"Yeah, and I did get a chicken recipe I'm going to try on Ted, so it's a win-win. I just love it when a plan comes together."

"Oh, speaking of plans...we got this email while you were out." Blanche handed a printout to Lucy.

"What?" she said as she read the email. She sat down and read it again.

"It says those robotic arms for the factory came from Japan and are in Des Moines right now. They're almost here. That's good, right?"

"No Blanche, it isn't. Those robotic arms were supposed to be for the plant when my former bosses were going to convert the place to make those protein Rocket Bars. When that plan fell through and they wanted to close the plant we came up with the tapioca and pudding line to save the place. That order for the arms was supposed to have been canceled before they even left Japan."

"Can't we just mark the box 'Return to Sender'?"

"It's not that easy, Blanche. Let me make some calls..."

...

Lucy slammed down the phone and buried her head in her hands. She wasn't crying; company CEOs weren't supposed to cry. She wondered if company presidents punched walls or threw chairs and decided throwing things was much more the executive way to vent her frustrations. She looked around her clean desk for something to throw and found nothing but her planner, address book, lamp and pencil cup. The pencil cup was actually the first tapioca carton to come off the assembly line and had been presented to her as a memento; throwing that would be like using the holy grail as a spittoon. She opened a drawer and found an oversized eraser which she grabbed and tossed across the room. It didn't even make it to the other wall before dropping to the floor and bouncing harmlessly. "I'm a CEO of a company, but I still throw like a girl" she thought to herself. Getting an MBA didn't give you strong arms.

Blanche walked back in through the doorway. "What's all the ruckus about, are you tearing up the place?" She glanced around and picked up the eraser before setting it gently on the desk. "No use destroying the office now, is there."

"Oh yeah, I really gave that eraser hell" Lucy responded.

"Well excuse your French young lady!"

"Sorry Blanche, I'm just so frustrated. I just got off the phone with our investment group. They're happy with our early returns but they won't shell out any more for equipment until after the first year. They won't pay for the robotic arms because the responsibility to cancel the order was on us and we can't take on any more debt right now."

"Then send them back."

"The Japanese company won't take them. They were custom-designed and we're stuck with them, no need for them and no way to pay for them."

"I knew you'd be all in a tizzy over this, so I called in a specialist to help" Blanche offered.

"You know a financial specialist?" Lucy asked with her eyebrows marking her skepticism.

"No, I don't know nothing about those things, don't ya know. I mean a specialist for you." Footsteps sounded outside as they approached the office. Blanche glanced out the door and turned back with a smile. "He's here now."

She stepped aside and in walked Ted Mitchell; union rep, fireman, tow truck operator and all around nice guy. He also happened to be Lucy's boyfriend. "Is your heater on the fritz again or is that steam coming out of your ears?" he asked with a lopsided grin.

Before Lucy could speak Blanche cut in. "You two go talk and I'll hold things down here. Go eat or something. Go on!" She gestured for Lucy to go, which she did reluctantly.

Outside they walked to Ted's truck. Once inside he turned the key, but the vehicle refused to even turn over. With a "Give me a moment" he hopped out, grabbed a screwdriver and dove under the hood. Lucy heard banging, an "Ouch!" and finally Ted returned. The turn of the key was rewarded with the engine firing up.

"Do you always have trouble? Why not get a new truck?"

"This one has lots of character. I can still get parts for it, and I've got another at the junkyard for what I can't buy at Hansen's Auto Parts. How else am I going to keep up the title Sorry-Ass Truck Guy title you gave me?" He grinned at Lucy, ribbing her for the name she had given him before finding out he was the union rep for southeast Minnesota.

Later, both were sitting on a bench at a small park. Even though it was probably only sixty degrees outside, kids ran around in shorts and tee-shirts while adults enjoyed the good weather.

"So as I understand it, you're stuck with the arms" Ted recapped.

"Yeah, can't send 'em back and no one around here to sell 'em to."

"And you don't have a use for them."

"They were designed to help make protein bars. We can't exactly use them to play piano or dig up sewers."

"And lastly, you don't have the money to pay for them" he concluded.

"Nope. When they get here the manufacturer will demand payment and we don't have it."

"Suppose you had the money to pay for them. What could you do?"

"Nothing, like I said. Those Rocket Bars failed in market testing."

"Did you ever try one?"

"Yeah. Nasty, I don't blame kids for not wanting them."

"But they like your tapioca."

"Sure they do. They don't care if it's high protein or not, it's the taste they like."

"Why not make protein bars out of tapioca instead?"

"You can't, pudding doesn't work like that unless you freeze it which won't work because we sell off of regular shelves. You'd have to..." Lucy said before stopping.

"You'd have to what?" he asked.

"Nothing. You'd have to change the recipe to make it thicker, like one of Blanche's failed experiments."

"Yeah, but it still tasted good, right?"

"I suppose so, I didn't try it...but it doesn't matter, we can't pay for the arms anyway."

"Just how much money are we talking?"

"More than you got. We're talking about a million and a half. Might as well be ten million" she sighed as she looked down.

"You're right, ten million is a dream. But we just might make one and a half."

Lucy looked up and turned to Ted. "What do you mean?"

Ted grinned again and Lucy started to melt slightly in anticipation. "I can't guarantee I can rescue you again, but I have an idea. Let's go see Stu, but first we have to make a stop with Blanche."

Standing at the front door later, Ted knocked again. "His truck's here, so he's here. Gotta give him time to come up out of the basement I guess." Grumbling could be heard approaching the door from inside. The knob turned and the rotund figure of Stu Kopenhofer, plant foreman stood before them in tattered house shoes and terrycloth robe.

"Hell's bells, what are you two doing here?" he asked.

Ted and Lucy looked at each other and Lucy pointed as if to say "Your turn" to Ted.

"Stu, we've got a problem at the plant."

"The plant? It's my day off, golldarnit!" he yelled.

Any further explanation was interrupted by the figure of Flo coming out of the bedroom in a matching robe. "Stanley, come back to bed bef...what the hell are you two doing here?"

"We already covered that you old hoot owl!" Stu yelled over his shoulder. "Show up on time for the meeting, will ya?" He turned back to the couple. "Let's go into my office" he told them as he led them down into the basement.

"I thought this was your ex-house and you paid rent to live in the basement" Lucy asked as Ted settled into a chair after removing a duck decoy from the seat. She stood as Stu rummaged around for something and gave up.

"I do. Doesn't mean I can't play nice with the landlord sometimes, but that's beside the point" he said with a smile. Lucy couldn't recall him ever smiling. As if being noticed for the out-of-character response, he returned to his normal gruff manner. "Now what's this about the plant?"

Lucy quickly filled him in on the details of the robotic arms imminent arrival in New Ulm and the lack of funds or use for them. She then laid out the idea for the tapioca bars. "But that still leaves the money problem and that's where I turn the floor over to Ted." Ted stood up and Lucy took his place in the available seat.

"Stu, you know we're working our way toward owning the plant so in a way we're investing ourselves in it at the same time it's an investment for us."

"Sounds good. You can have that change jar over there, I bet there's at least ten bucks in there."

"I'm not talking change jars, Stu. I'm talking Land O'Lakes money."

Stu let out a whistle slowly. "Aint that a kick in the keister."

"What's Land O'Lake money?" Lucy asked.

Ted explained. "Payout money, payoff money, whatever you want to call it. Before your Munck Foods bought us, we were owned by Land O'Lakes for a long time. When we got bought, the employees got a payout based on how long they had worked to lure them into keeping their skills with the new company. Most of the people working there now have been there at least five years."

"So you're talking our rainy day money" Stu said flatly.

"Wait wait wait" Lucy interjected. "We're not throwing in for a wedding gift, we need real money."

"Let me put it this way" Ted went on to Lucy. "How much spare money do you have right now if you really needed it?"

She thought for a moment, then bragged "I could write a check for a thousand right now. I might eat ramen noodles for a whole month before the next pay day but I could do it."

Stu and Ted stared at her. "I thought you were this big business executive with a fancy car and apartment in Miami" Ted asked.

"I do. Did. But I had expenses, I just didn't have anything saved."

Stu shook his head and Lucy looked confused. Ted went on. "People around here don't work like that. We drive old cars...or old trucks. We live in smaller houses, we wear our clothes out. Stu, what did you run out and buy with all that money?"

"Nothin'. Well, got that new shotgun I went crow hunting with, but that's all."

"See Lucy? A company isn't just equipment and buildings. It's the people too. Remember when they came together to get that trial run of tapioca going? They'll do it again for this, you just have to sell the idea is all. They trust you. I trust you. Stu?"

"I'm thinking about it..."

Lucy started a hurt face.

"...okay, how much are we talking? I probably couldn't go in more than thirty thousand or so" Stu offered.

Lucy's jaw dropped.

"And I can add twenty-five" Ted joined in.

"Put me in for twenty!" Flo yelled down the stairwell. "I want to keep the restaurant customers I have!"

Lucy went to sit down only to find she already was.

...

"It's funny, I was told how Power Bars was such a big failure in the youth test market. But our Tap It-oca bars are the craze of school lunches everywhere" Lucy sighed. She and Ted were sitting on the same bench where the idea for the bars had first started.

"Which came first, the craze or the social media thing that Bobbie started?" Ted asked. "I don't really understand it either, but if they want to make videos about a snack who am I to complain? It got her an 'A' at school."

"Yeah, another successful phase completed."

"Only thing left is the new name."

"What new name?" Lucy asked, now serious.

"You have to rename the company after it gets officially transferred from Munck Foods. You won't have any connections to them anymore."

Lucy bit her lip. "I hadn't even thought of that! I'll need to start a survey..."

Ted laughed. "You executives are all alike; take one small thing and you immediately have to set up meetings and agendas."

The End

A/N: I ran across this movie recently, and since I like the two leads I figured on watching it. Yeah, it was a bit of a predictable romcom but for a feelgood movie it had it's moments. And of course it had to end with everything tied up just right.

Anyone who has been part of a startup knows something always goes wrong no matter how fluffy...