Ben was busy in the restaurant prepping the food and making sure everyone was on the straight and narrow. Saturday was always busy and tomorrow being Mother’s Day, it was going to be hell night tonight. He couldn’t have any slow pokes working right now. Outside, it was sunny and a beautiful seventy-five degrees, which meant that in the kitchen it was ninety-five degrees. They had air conditioning, but with all the gas stoves, grills and the heat of ten people moving around frantically, it didn’t make much of a difference. Ben learned long ago that it was pointless to wipe the sweat away. It would just keep pouring out anyhow. Just as long as it didn’t get into the food, he let it drip down. Usually by the end of the night, it looked like he had just gone swimming with all his clothes on. Luckily, the employees’ restrooms had showers and he always brought another set of clothes with him so he wouldn’t have to feel like the grubbiest person on earth when he went home.
Even though it was crazy tonight, everything was going smoothly. They had plenty of food and ingredients; everyone was working at a fairly quick pace and so far, no mishaps. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. That meant trouble.
He turned around and saw it was the hostess, Ashley.
“Someone giving you a hard time out there?” he asked. Ashley was young and attractive, so it wasn’t unusual that some pervert or drunk guy would make crude remarks to her. When that happened, Ben and his bulkiest employee, his bartender Bill, would personally escort the gentleman out of the restaurant and proceed to kick his ass to the curb.
“No sir,” Ashley replied, “it’s for you.”
“Someone wants to hit on me?” Ben said, continuing to prep. “Does excessive sweating turn them on or something?”
Ashley smiled. “No, this lady is inquiring about the job opening.”
They always pick the best time to ask about a job,” he thought. Why couldn’t they take Mom to the mall and leave him the heck alone? He was really not in the mood to do a meet and greet. He desperately needed a sous chef though. With both he and Annie working all kinds of strange hours, Kristopher was probably starting to think he was an orphan. It would be nice to see his child once in a while.
“You know what? Give her a job application and send her to the lounge. Have Bill fix her a drink on the house. I’ll be out there in fifteen minutes.”
“All right, sir,” Ashley said and left.
After he finished prepping, he ran into the employee restroom and dried his face off with a paper towel. He didn’t want customers to think he was a slob. Then he ran out into the lounge area. He saw a pony tailed young lady in a gray plaid jacket and black skirt looking over a piece of paper. Figuring that it must be her, he sat down beside her.
“Are you done with that?” he said breathlessly.
She looked up at him, her gray-blue eyes wide. She seemed shocked by his forwardness.
“Yes,” she said, hesitant, “except for the references part. I’m not sure which one of my professors to include.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Ben replied, taking the application and scanning the back of it. “They always lie anyway.”
She went to school in San Francisco but attended college in Boston.
“Got homesick, I see,” he said.
“No,” she said, “I wanted to stay in Boston, but my family really needs me right now.”
“What job experiences do you have that qualify you to be a sous chef?”
“None, really.”
“Not even Burger King or McDonald’s?”
“No.”
“Hmm…do you like to cook?”
“Oh I love to cook!”
“Do you take and follow orders well?”
“Yes.”
“Can you work fast and not screw up?”
“Yes, I can do that.”
“Welcome to the nuthouse. I’ll give you a quick tour of the kitchen, then I’ll give you a shitload of things to do. Follow me.”
The girl’s jaw dropped open. “Uh, does that mean I’m hired?”
“Yes. Now come on! I don’t have all day!”
The girl, a little shaken by his tone of voice, meekly followed him into the kitchen.
He hadn’t said a word to her after that that wasn’t a command, but from what he saw of her, he knew she would probably be one of his better employees. She was a bit slow because of her unfamiliarity with the kitchen area, but once she had all the supplies in hand she was efficient. The best part of all was no complaints from the customers. She obviously knew what she was doing. She was in no way qualified to be a sous chef, but at least he had some extra hands. With a little bit of training and experience, he could probably make a middling sous chef out of her in about a year.
When it was time to close, Ben told her she could go home.
“Oh no, Mr. Perrin,” she said. “I’m part of this restaurant now. I’ll help you clean up.”
What is she? A girl scout? Ben thought. He normally would have insisted that she take off, but he was too tired to argue.
“All right,” he replied, “if you want to.”
When the night was over, he went into his office and flopped down on the old squeaky office chair. He was tempted to sleep there for the night. The girl’s application was on the desk. He knew he should look it over, but he didn’t have enough energy to pick it up. He put his head on the desk and closed his eyes.
“Mr. Perrin?” A girl’s voice called out.
He bolted upright and saw his newest employee standing at the entrance to his office. This was the first time he actually had a moment to look at her. She seemed awfully familiar, though he couldn’t place where he saw her before. She was probably one of his employees’ sisters, girlfriends or cousins. He’d find out soon enough.
“I’m sorry I woke you up,” she said sheepishly.
“No, it’s okay,” he replied. “I’m not supposed to be sleeping here anyway.”
“Well, I just wanted to thank you, for…you know, giving me this job. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I know I’m totally unqualified for the position, but you gave me a chance anyway. I promise I won’t let you down.”
Wow, he thought, this is something. “It’s no problem. Actually, I should thank you. You did an excellent job, and you even stayed to help with the closing, which you didn’t have to do. It’s usually not this rough here. It’s only because of Mother’s Day. Most of the time it’s pretty easy. It can even be fun. I hope you enjoy working here.”
“Oh, I hope so too,” she said. “Well, I have to get going. I’m picking my mother up from work.”
“She does the late nights, too?”
The girl nodded.
“Hey, you know what? Let me walk you out to your car.”
“Okay,” she said.
Ben was glad he did that because the poor girl’s car was on the third ramp of the parking garage on the other side of the street. He didn’t want her to be accosted by some weirdo hanging out in the shadows.
He figured she was probably driving a clunker that didn’t work half the time, but to his surprise, the car was a nearly new BMW.
“Nice car,” he said.
“My uncle gave it to me for my birthday. Actually, it was his old car. He gets a new one every year.”
“Nice uncle,” Ben replied.
“Yeah, he’s a great guy. Oh actually, there’s something else I wanted to ask you. When is the next time I’m due to work?”
“Good question. Come in tomorrow at one o’clock. You can work until about nine. We’ll take care of closing. I don’t want to burn you out too fast.”
“Okay, sounds good,” she said. “Thanks a lot.”
She closed the car door and left the garage. He waved to her and then went to his own car in the parking lot behind the garage.
He tried to get into the car, but there was a problem. He was so tired that he was using the keys to the restaurant instead of the keys to the car. He searched his
pants pockets for the car keys but they weren’t in there.
“Goddamn it! I bet they’re still in my office!” he yelled to no one in particular.
He went to the back entrance of his restaurant and unlocked the door. He flicked on the lights and walked through the kitchen and into his office. The car keys were lying on the desk, beside the girl’s application. He grabbed the car keys and then remembered he wanted to look over the application more closely.
He took the application and returned to his car. He put it on the passenger seat. As he started the car up, he happened to glance down at the application and thought he saw the name Lauren on it. He grabbed it immediately and looked at it.
He couldn’t believe it. He spent half the night with her. How could he have not known?
His new sous chef was also his daughter.
Chapter 78: May 14
What They Left Behind Page 79
