“Mr. DiMartino, welcome.”
The woman greeting me stood up from behind a wide desk, smiling. I judged her to be in her early forties, and she bore a strong resemblance to her mother, who was standing next to me, her hand on my arm.
“Vincent, dear, this is our daughter, Danielle, who runs the hotel part of the business. She handles all the personnel decisions, so she’ll be interviewing you today.” Midge Romano beamed at her daughter. “I already took Vincent on a little tour of our place here, darling. He met Al and checked out the kitchen. So now he’s all ready for you!”
Danielle indicated a chair across the desk from hers. “Please, have a seat. Mom, are you staying, or do you have something else to do?”
“Oh, no, I’ve got to run. I have a manicure appointment in twenty minutes.” Midge reached up to pat my cheek. “You have a nice chat, Vincent, and I hope we’ll see again very soon.” With a wink at her daughter, she trotted through the open door that led into the hotel’s quiet lobby.
“So, Mr. DiMartino—”
“Please call me Vincent. Or Vince.” I unbuttoned my jacket and sat down in the padded wooden chair.
“All right, Vincent—can I get you coffee or water?”
I shook my head. “Thanks, I’m good. Your mother made me try an espresso while we were in the kitchen.”
“That sounds like her. I assume, given what my dad told me about your background, that you’re familiar with the advantages and pitfalls of working with your parents when you’re a part of a big Italian family?”
Laughing, I nodded. “Just a little. It has its moments, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly.” She folded her hands loosely on the desk. “Vincent, I’ll be straight with you here. We never really considered hiring a full-time pastry chef here. We’ve contracted out our needs in that area, and I always thought it worked well. But then last year, my father came home from a trip to Atlantic City and began raving about this guy who worked at his family restaurant. He loved your desserts, and he brought up the idea of hiring you.”
“And that wasn’t something you needed to hear. It complicates your life.” I knew how all that went. I remembered all too well how Carl and I usually reacted when my dad came up with a big new idea for improving the restaurant. If it wasn’t broke, why fix it?
Danielle chuckled. “Well, let’s just say I was taken aback. But the more he talked, the more interested I became. We’ve been talking for years about making our restaurant more of a destination in and of itself, aside from only catering to our hotel guests and to event clientele. My mother loves the afternoon tea we offer, but she’s wanted to expand that for a long time. If we did, hiring a dedicated pastry chef makes sense. And although I know your experience has been limited to work at your own family’s restaurant, I like what I read about you. Your work has gotten some notice.”
I shrugged. “I love what I do, and that’s why I do it. It’s not about awards or recognition. Some people cure disease, others write music ... I create desserts. It might not be one of life’s necessities, but it sure does make living nicer.”
“Absolutely.” Danielle straightened the blotter on her desk. “So let’s not waste any more time dancing around this. I knew before you came today that unless I found you obscenely unfit for working here in one sense or another, we were going to make you an offer. That’s because Dad wants you, and although Al and I do run this place now, Dad’s decisions are still the law. Not because he says so, but because we respect him enough to make it so.”
I wasn’t sure whether I felt relief, trepidation or excitement. Maybe all three at once. “Okay.”
She slid a large white envelope across the desk to me. “This is the offer. I know what we’re proposing isn’t going to happen overnight. We understand that you have strong ties to your hometown and to your family’s business, and we don’t want to come in the middle of family. But we’ve come up with some ideas, and they’re in here. I’d like you to take it home, look it over and then, if you have questions or concerns, give me a call and we’ll discuss them. Take your time. We don’t expect a decision tomorrow, or even next week.”
I tapped one finger on the envelope. “Thanks for understanding. I didn’t tell anyone I was coming in today. To be honest, I didn’t even tell my family about meeting your parents last year. It would have been ...” I paused, picturing how my mother and father would have reacted to the idea of me even contemplating this move. “Well, you know. You work here. You can imagine.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I can, indeed.” She gave a mock-shudder. “I am curious about one thing, though. Is there any particular reason you called my dad last week, to set up this meeting? I only ask because ...” This time, it was Danielle hesitating. “I would hate to think of you having a misunderstanding or a disagreement with your family and deciding to use our offer to make the break. We don’t want to be the job you’re taking to run away from something else. Does that make sense?”
“Yes, absolutely.” I sat up a little straighter and spread my fingers over my knees. “It’s not that at all. I love my family, and most of the time, I love working with them. I have my hot buttons, like anyone else. There are things I would change, for sure. But no, I’m not looking to get away. It’s more that I’ve been considering how I could make a life in the city work.” I swallowed hard. I hadn’t planned to talk about this, but it was important that Danielle understood I wasn’t using this possibility to escape a bad situation. “There’s a woman I’m seeing ...”
“Ah.” Her eyes lit up. “And she lives here?”
“Yeah. Yes, I mean.” I gazed out the window behind Danielle. “She’s in her last semester of law school at Penn. She doesn’t know where she’s going to practice after she passes the bar, but I think she’d like to stay in the city, since she has a part-time job with a firm here already.” Amanda and I didn’t talk about that part of our future much. But I had hunches, and I’d made assumptions. Why wouldn’t she want to stay here, living in her beautiful apartment, enjoying the life she’d made? She sure as hell wouldn’t want to move to a backwater small town like where I lived and worked.
“That sounds like this job might be just about perfect for you, then.” Danielle folded her hands. “It would be so much fun for the two of you to be in the same city, just starting out. I assume things are serious between you two?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes, I think so. It’s serious on my side, at least, and I think—well, we didn’t start out that way, but now, I can’t imagine being with anyone else.”Ever. It shocked me to even think those words, but I’d realized more and more lately how true they were.
“Then I’d say we have a lot to offer you.” She inclined her head. “Take this home. Talk it over with your girlfriend. And discuss it with your family. Once you’ve come to a decision, give me a call, and we’ll meet again.” She rose to her feet, and I did the same.
“Thank you for your time.” I shook her hand. “I look forward to talking again soon.”
“So do I.” Danielle grinned at me. “I have a feeling we’re going to find that today is only the beginning of a very happy partnership.”
“Hey, handsome. Got room in there for a girl who’s down for a good time?” Amanda bent down to lean in the passenger side window of my car, grinning at me.
For a long moment, I just drank in the sight of her. She’d pinned her hair up tonight, and just a few rebellious tendrils dangled around her gorgeous wide eyes. The dress she wore had a modest neckline, but I could make out the shape of her breasts under the shimmery black material.
