by Lulu Pratt
She knows I know more. “When we hired you, Maddie, I had told you we would be making some pretty big changes. This includes the restaurant and the staff. It is one of the reasons we decided to hire you. Do you have an issue with something?”
“No. I just, I guess I feel bad for her. I want to know the type of situation I am becoming a part of.”
“Okay,” she says, listening for my next bit of discourse.
“I sort of caught her and Rocco together and…”
“And you want to be sure she isn’t being let go because of that?”
Well, when she put it that way, it sounds like I’m divulging more than I should, especially about my boss.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to rat them out.”
“Maddie, I’m well aware of my brother’s extracurricular activities in and outside of this restaurant. But it seems although we both want to see this place succeed, I have been the one working hard in actually trying to make it happen. Recently, something has finally gotten to Rocco enough that he does too. He came to me and recommended that we hire new waitresses to replace the mediocre ones we have been trying to work with. Looks aren’t enough to run a successful restaurant.”
“I agree.”
“We don’t mind paying a little more for quality employees. This is why we hired you. Your school gave you such high recommendations, I couldn’t say no. I am hoping my decision wasn’t made in haste.”
“No, ma’am. I mean, Joanne,” I say with a smile. “I will do my very best.”
“I know you will. Is there anything else?”
“No.”
“Okay, then. I’ll let you get back to your work.”
“Thank you.” I walk out, second guessing my ability to do this job successfully. The actual job itself is not the issue, it is the male boss I have to answer to who worries me most. I need to lay down the law the next time I have the chance, before there is no chance here for me.
I see Rocco walking through the dining area to the kitchen and I take a deep breath. What better time than the present, right?
I walk in behind him and continue my work at the counter, allowing him to do whatever it is he needs to do. I watch him go through the supplies, reading the labels and marking something down on his clipboard as I struggle with the words to say. I sort of said my piece when he chatted to me last night. Was it enough? I watch him and try to read him. He doesn’t look at me or even try to strike up a conversation.
“Can I talk to you, Rocco?” I blurt out.
“Sure,” he says without looking. He continues to take inventory without skipping a beat.
“I saw Tasha earlier. She was really upset.”
“She has a reason to be.” He walks into the back room and continues his inventory there. I follow him, determined to make sure he knows I am not available to him.
“Can I ask you why she was fired?”
“She’s not a very good waitress, never has been.”
“Then why did you keep her on for so long?”
He turns and looks at me, and it isn’t just a look. He penetrates me with his eyes. I feel it deep in my stomach and suddenly, it’s hard to breathe.
“Why do you care what happens to her?”
“She seemed upset. I just…”
“Wanted to help her? Wanted to save her from heartache? We didn’t have any sort of love affair, if that is what you are worried about.”
“I… didn’t mean that.”
“Tasha is a good person. I kept her on because of that. I wasn’t thinking about the restaurant. But I do know I should have let her go a long time ago. She just isn’t a good waitress. I kept her on my staff for the wrong reasons. I guess I was selfish. I know that now, thanks to…” He looks at me and my stomach does a flip. Am I that reason? Everything I want to say to him dissipates into thin air.
“I don’t know what you are talking about?” My body stiffens and my throat constricts around my words. The air feels heavy around me. This wasn’t what I wanted to happen. “You just took me by surprise, that’s all.”
“You shouldn’t lie to me, Maddie.” He looks me straight in the eyes. I want him to kiss me like I imagine him kissing me at night. However, he doesn’t move. The only movement that I can sense is the pounding of my heart and the sound of my pulse in my ears.
“We both know better, don’t we?”
I nod, not knowing what else to do. My mouth is dry and my fingers turn cold. I feel the heat he gives off as he leans into me. His fingers run up my arms causing goosebumps to chase after them. The combination of it all sends my mind spinning. He forces my head up and looks into my eyes and it was all it took. The connection I fought between us since the first time I saw him strengthened and wove itself around us so quickly I lost the reality around me.
He moves in closer until his mouth is covering mine and all I can do is mold myself to him. He wraps his arms around me, pulls me into him and completely dominates me. My surrender betrays me and I am powerless to fight it.
I faintly hear my name in the background, but it doesn’t sink in until Joanne is too close. I only feel Rocco’s body against mine.
“Maddie?”
Rocco moves away from me and picks up his clipboard, pointing at something I couldn’t read and talking gibberish as Joanne walks in. “So, this is where you would write down the inventory we have in stock,” he says. I look up at him and then back at the clipboard. Everything swirls together until I realize he is trying to make the situation look like we are working.
“What are you doing?” Joanne asks, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Teaching Maddie inventory.”
“I don’t want her learning inventory. That is your job. I need her to focus on the menu. Jesus, Rocco, she has only been here a few days.”
I look at Joanne, still spaced out from the quick change of pace. She asks me something but I only hear mumbling. I follow her out of the stockroom and back to my station where I am putting together several pie crusts for the evening’s dessert menu.
“These are what I want for tomorrow evening, Maddie. I know they are a bit difficult to make, but I wanted to get your opinion on them.”
I stare at the recipes before me as reality begins to seep back in. Crème brûlée, lemon meringue pie, baklava and baumkuchen. Is she kidding? Is this some kind of test?
“Um,” I stammer still trying to clear my head. “You want me to make these for tomorrow evening?”
“Yes.” She was curt and expecting me to say yes. “Can you?”
“They are all quite difficult to make and time consuming. If the rest of the menu is fairly simple, I think I can pull it off. I have never made baumkuchen before, but one of my classmates did while I was watching. I think I could do it.”
“That is what I want to hear. I’ll leave you to it then.”
I wait for her to leave before examining the recipes a little closer. “This is going to be impossible.” I look around and see Rocco coming out of the stockroom.
“We should continue our conversation later this evening.”
“No, Rocco. This is a mistake.”
He walks to me, causing my breath to catch in my throat. “This is not a mistake,” he says sounding desperate. “I don’t feel like this if it is a mistake.”
I fight it. I keep my head down and I grit my teeth. “I don’t want anything to do with you unless it pertains to my work. I expect you to honor that.” My body aches for him to touch me again. I want his lips pressed into mine. I want so much more.
“Please go.” I whisper as I grip the counter until he walks out.
Later that evening, Joanne introduces me to a new face.
“This is Nancy. She is starting here with us this evening.”
“Hello, I’m Maddie,” I tell her as I hold out my hand. She is soft spoken but she holds my gaze. She is strikingly beautiful yet holds something behind her toothy smile. “Welcome to the team. I just started a few days ago, myself.”
I don�
�t like her, but I’m not sure why. I try to let it go. My father always told me to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and that first impressions are almost always wrong. I smile and offer my help if she needs it.
Finishing my shift, I clean my counters and put away my ingredients. I look in the display cases at the lemon meringue pie and the crème brûlée and I smile at a job well done. My hopes are high for the other recipes that I plan to conquer tomorrow.
I walk out of the kitchen and my heart begins to race when I see Rocco standing at a table in the corner. I stop and quietly walk backwards to the kitchen. If I go out the back, I can avoid him. I start to turn around and I hear a woman’s voice giggling from the same corner. He steps back and reveals Nancy, the new girl. I slowly move back in the shadows as I feel my heart drop. She glances over to me and unbuttons the top of her blouse. I force myself to think he is just a playboy rather than face my jealousy and I turn too quickly to go back through the kitchen but I somehow find a way to collide into the wall instead. Rocco looks directly at me and turns away from her.
“Don’t stop on my account. I was just leaving,” I spit and quickly disappear into the kitchen and out the back door. When I finally climb into a cab and have time to think about what just happened, I mentally kick myself in the ass for stopping in the alleyway in hopes that he decides to run after me instead of staying with her.
I shake my head and pray for this stupid crush to pass.
Chapter 6
ROCCO
Nancy is beautiful and quite tempting, but thoughts of Maddie cloud my thinking. This isn’t what I want anymore. But I can just imagine what Maddie thought. I look at Nancy, her fingers still on the button of her blouse, a smile on her face. I sit her down in the chair and shake my head.
“I can’t do this,” I tell her. “If you’ll excuse me.” I turn and start to run after Maddie. Nancy stops me.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to play the chivalry card with me,” she teases as she drags a long pink fingernail along my arm. “The others have warned me to steer clear of you.”
“Did they?”
“Mm-hmm. Little do they know, I like bad boys. I’d love to show you just how much I do,” she says as her sexy eyebrow rises up her forehead.
“I have to go.” I walk around her and head for the kitchen.
“Don’t tell me you are going to go after her,” she pouts.
“Actually, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“She doesn’t even want you!” she yells as I disappear through the kitchen and out the door. In the back of my mind, I know Maddie is gone but I try to catch her anyway.
By the time I get to the street, the only thing I see is the cab that pulls away with Maddie in the back. Taking my time to go back into the restaurant, I am hoping Nancy is gone. Walking back through a now dark kitchen, I see the dining area lights go off.
“Hang on a sec,” I say when I see Joanne flipping switches. “I just have to grab my stuff in my office.”
“I’ll wait and walk out with you,” she says.
I grab my things from my office and lock up before joining her at the front. After she locks up, she puts her arm in mine and we casually stroll out into the cool night air.
“Rocco, I think we need to have a little talk.”
“I thought we already did that?”
“Apparently it wasn’t enough.”
“You saw.”
“Nancy? Yes. But that is not what is worrying me.”
“What is it?”
“It’s Maddie.”
“I think she is doing a fine job.”
“Oh, she is. It’s you I have an issue with.”
I take a deep breath and put down my head. I know it’s coming.
“You have feelings for her.”
“I have feelings for women, in general.”
“Not like this. I’ve been watching you and I can see how she affects you.”
“It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“Let me finish. I know you own half this place. But I am telling you as my brother, as my business partner,” Joanne stops and turns to me. “I forbid you to see her in that way.”
“You really have no grounds to do that, Joanne.”
“I do, and I will. I need you to stay away from her.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I will pull out and stop financing the restaurant.”
“You and I both know you can’t afford to do that.”
“I won’t sit back and watch you run it into the ground. I would rather sell out to someone than watch that happen.”
“I’m not going to do that. Will you have some faith? Don’t you want to see me be happy?”
“More than you know. But jumping from woman to woman, then thinking you can settle down with Maddie is not going to happen.”
She has a point, but it’s not enough. I can’t stay away from Maddie. Every fiber of my being screams to be with her.
“I will think about it.”
“There is no thinking about anything. If you pursue her, I’m out. Do you understand?”
“Loud and clear.”
“Good.” She walks to the street and raises her hand. Without another word, she climbs into the taxi cab and slams the door.
“See you tomorrow,” I mumble.
Chapter 7
MADDIE
Walking into the restaurant, I don’t feel very well put together. A sleepless night was not in my itinerary, nor was thinking about Rocco the entire night. I know I told him I wasn’t interested, but it wasn’t true whatsoever. I am so very interested in Rocco.
I walk through the dining area, the lights still off. The only light illuminating the place is coming from Joanne’s office. It is usually a toss-up on who gets in first. It surprised me that she had given me a key after the first few times I had to wait for her to arrive to let me in. When I get into the kitchen, the smell of my lemon meringue pies fill the air and I smile at how good the aroma is.
That is, until I turn on the lights. I want to gasp or scream or throw something but I don’t. I just stand there looking at the large mound of desserts piled onto the floor. My pies and crème brûlée are thrown together onto the floor, the display cases and refrigerator door still wide open.
“What the hell?” I murmur. I walk to Joanne’s office. I stand in her doorway and watch her fingers fly over the keys on her keyboard.
“Joanne,” I say quietly.
“Good morning, Maddie. What can I do for you?” She looks up at me and her smile fades. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s been a, um, an incident.”
“What is it?”
“My desserts and everything in the refrigerator has gone bad.”
“Oh, my… do not tell me that refrigerator is on the fritz. I just replaced the damned thing.” She gets up and quickly walks past me.
“I don’t think that is the problem.”
I follow her out, not saying another word until she sees the mess herself.
“What happened?”
“I would like to know that as well.”
“Everything is destroyed?”
I nod. “Everything in the refrigerator and what you see here on the floor, yes.”
She turns and looks at the cooler.
“Judging by the temperature of the food, Joanne, this happening sometime ago. Maybe last night? I haven’t been in the back cooler or supply room yet.”
Joanne quickly runs and after a few moments she returns looking at the mess on the floor in front of me. “It’s just this,” she says. “Who would do something like this?”
“I don’t know.”
“If I run to the store, can you remake these?”
It would take a miracle. It would take three people to do what I have done in time for the dinner menu, and that is only if each dessert comes out right the first time.
“Yes, I can.” I’m a glutton for punishment.
“Okay. Make a list o
f what you will need and I’ll do the running.” She pulls out her phone and hits a couple of buttons, holding it to her ear. “How long before you come in? Okay, well we have a bit of a mess here that needs your assistance… Bring backup if you can… Okay… See you in ten.” She puts her phone back in her pocket and looks at me. “Don’t worry about this. Get me the list and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want me to get you some help?”
“No. I think I can do this.”
She nods and disappears from the kitchen, leaving me in the aftermath of the destruction. I want to start cleaning the mess but I know I need to stay on task and get the list for Joanne in order to even come close to putting any desserts in the display cases in time for dinner.
I hear the front door open and close, and wonder if it is my clean-up crew, expecting a couple of the waitresses. Rocco walks in and immediately looks over the counter at the floor, an all-knowing look on his face.
“She wasn’t lying about the mess, was she?” He glances at me. I want to tell him I didn’t make the mess, but when I open my mouth, Nancy walks in behind him shutting me up before I even say a word. Of course, I conjure the worst scenario possible and it causes a heat to slam into me, jealousy rearing its ugly head. Nancy apparently catches on as her mouth forms a sassy little smirk.
“What happened?” Her play of innocence is disgusting.
“Someone must have broken in and destroyed the kitchen,” Rocco says, glancing at me again.
“If you think this is bad, you should see the supply room,” I add while watching Nancy’s face. She furrows her eyebrows and immediately looks at the supply closet. When she looks back at me, I am the one smirking. Busted.
She looks at me and cocks her head. “Let me help with this,” she says, bending over in front of Rocco and leaning into him. There are so many things I want to do to her, but I turn away from them both and walk away with a notebook and pen in my hands. At least the idea she has to clean up her own mess gives me some satisfaction.
“How is it coming along?” Rocco walks into the kitchen a few hours into my shift and sees me hard at work. Apparently, I look a mess with the grin he has when he looks at me.
