With the food coming out, that meant checking in with the kitchen staff. In the beginning, the food side of Arete had been…rough. Neither Marc nor I had any experience in dealing with food service, so we didn’t have the best start. The first year had been plagued by stocking issues, meals served late or without everything that was supposed to be there, and a head cook who clearly had never cared about anything in his life. Thankfully, Marc had a friend who had more understanding of what and who to look for and had forwarded us the resume of someone he knew was competent and looking for something better.
“Milton!” I called joyfully as I entered the kitchen, careful to avoid what I knew were the high-traffic areas of the kitchen. Milton was phenomenal, and he ran the tightest ship I had ever witnessed, but that meant he was not afraid to bark atanyoneif they impeded him or his staff. I still remembered the chagrined look on Marc’s face when he had joined me for inspections and had made the mistake of getting in the staff’s way during food prep, Milton had barked at him so fiercely I wondered if he had been a junkyard dog in a previous life. “How are things looking?”
“I’d tell you to go fuck yourself, you can read reports,” Milton said as he drew heavily on a vape that contained either nicotine or THC, but I’d never asked which. Technically, no intoxicants should be on the same floor as the guests, but I knew better than to poke that somewhat grumpy bear. Milton’s track recordhad been flawless since he’d been here, and I wasn’t going to raise a fuss and lose a damn good worker over a small thing like potentially having pot he kept to himself. “But I haven’t submitted them yet. What the fuck is up with the budget?”
“We’re going through some changes, obviously,” I said with a grin. “Our budget increased, and I figured it might please you if you had a bit more money for the kitchen.”
“Be nice to have some more going into my bank account,” he grunted, blowing out a cloud of fruity-smelling mist that reminded me of a cheap candle. “Guess I can’t complain too much; at least now I don’t have to scrimp every fuckin’ penny to feed these assholes.”
The same ‘assholes’ he’d played a round of ‘shot poker’ with only a few days ago, but I didn’t feel the need to point that out while he was within arm’s reach of a heavy frying pan. “So, then I’ll assume you’re happy.”
“I don’t do happy.”
“Satisfied? Less grumpy than usual? Not going to send me a message bitching about the state of this place for at least a couple of weeks?”
He grunted, and I thought I almost saw a smile as he tucked the vape away. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll let you sit around and twiddle your thumbs and play with your computer some more before I let you know what you need to be worrying about.”
“Love that,” I said with a grin, looking around as the food prep continued, although at a slower pace than it probably had been an hour before. “Oh, and in case you didn’t see it because you never look at the goddamn calendar I set up for you, there’s going to be a health inspection in the next month. And no, they did not tell me the exact date. I guess that would defeat the purpose.”
“Telling us it’s going to happen in the first place defeats the fucking purpose,” he grunted. “Useless assholes. We’ve passedevery fucking inspection they’ve given us with flying goddamn colors and they still want to pop up like they run the fuckin’ place. But you can go down the road and into a diner that stinks of piss and has rats under the tables, but those fuckers don’t get so much as a fine.”
“No one expects a diner to be up to code, that’s the risk you take, but they expect a place that’s focused on wellness andhealthto keep their food prep and eating areas up to code,” I told him with a shake of my head. “And I’m only reminding you because the last time you didn’t realize an inspector was here, I had to listen to a three-hour rant and then a ten-minute voice message because I didn’t warn you. You’re going to pass, I know that, but now you know it’s coming.”
“You make me sound like an asshole,” he said, and this time he did grin because we both knew he was an asshole, but we also knew he was the best asshole for the job. As frustrating as his temperament could be sometimes, there was no way in hell I would entertain the idea of getting rid of him.
“Make you sound like? Or am I just noting the facts out loud?” I wondered, leaving him to snort as I left the kitchen.
The rest of the staff were on top of things, though I was going to need to eye the reports and some of the metrics from the housekeeping staff. There was nothing immediately alarming, but there seemed to be some roadblocks orsomethingaffecting some of the timing. Things weren’t being done quite when they were supposed to, and our head of housekeeping was puzzled, which meant I was going to be looking at him as the first or even only problem in that department. It wasn’t always true that when a team was doing badly, the person in charge was the problem, but I’d found it was the best place to start the search.
I had a brief meeting with the few therapists we kept on staff; one throughout the season, the other two rotating as their schedules allowed. There didn’t seem to be any issuesthere, but I wasn’t surprised; it was one of the least demanding departments at Arete. Probably didn’t hurt that anything they discussed with the guests was covered under confidentiality clauses, so the only reason to bring anything up to me was something minor like a system problem, or something major that would require a lot more than paperwork.
Medical was much the same, though they were a lot happier to see their budget had gone up, unlike the far more reserved and curmudgeonly Milton. Maintenance had a few issues I made a note of and sent on to my team because they were systems based but they were otherwise doing just fine and were also happy to see some of their budgets go up. I made a mental note to talk to Marc about potentially giving raises as well because with more money at our disposal; it was important to make sure the staff felt they were being taken care of and appreciated.
That was more or less everything on the main floor that needed to be dealt with, and by the time I was done, it was dinnertime at the resort. I grabbed myself a to-go container of food and made my way to the elevator, taking it up to the administration section. Only to almost crash into Marc, who was standing on the other side of the door leading to where I needed to go, and almost making me drop my food.
“Jesus,” I huffed out a laugh. “I mean, it’s enough of a jump scare seeing you out of your office without a reason; do you have to lurk around corners?”
“It’s hardly lurking when I’m walking,” he said in amusement and then looked at the food in my hand. “Well, you beat me to the punch.”
“There’s plenty left down there,” I told him with a snort. “You know they always have enough food for everyone here and then some, right?”
“It was more that I was eating in my office and realized you were doing your start of the season prowling,” he said, adjustinghis tie even though it was perfectly straight. “And I know that when you pack your schedule, you forget simple things…such as feeding yourself. While I’m surprised you grabbed dinner, that means you probably forgot lunch…and I know you didn’t have much more than a couple of pieces of toast for breakfast.”
“Hey, there was peanut butter and jelly on those slices of toast,” I protested. Not that I didn’t know that sounded pitiful, but hell, if I was going to be accused of not taking proper care of myself, then he should at least have all the facts before making his point.
“And lunch?”
“Ah, well, you know, busy day, just didn’t find my way over there.”
“Reggie?”
“Hmm?”
“I know you host your start of the season guest meeting in the cafeteria, and the end of it marks the first lunch service of the season, correct?”
“Hmm…maybe?”
His sigh was so aggrieved you’d think I had been denyinghimfood instead of simply forgetting to eat properly. “Come up to my office and sit down.”
