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“So he told me I should come chat with you.” The girl smiled, flashing white teeth, dimples, and baby blue eyes that were wide and framed with thick lashes. I wanted to groan. Why couldn’t this girl have just come after Greyson was gone? Or why couldn’t he have met her when he was back home and spare me being able to picture them together.
I may have decided to hate him, but an irrational part of me still didn’t want to even imagine him lusting after some other girl. Not yet, at least.
“Uh, yeah. Let me show you around the kitchen.”
Lin arrived a little while later and I walked Gabby through what I was doing. She frustratingly proved to be competent and not the empty-headed bombshell I was selfishly hoping she’d be. I even grudgingly found myself enjoying her company. She had a dry sense of humor and was refreshingly willing to laugh at herself when she got confused about something I was showing her.
Lin was like a walking zombie while Kenny was downstairs in the lobby. She ruined two batches of dough by forgetting how much salt she’d mixed in, and I eventually had to banish her from working on anything important until she could get her head on straight.
All four of us were working to roll balls of dough for pizzas at the prep table when Greyson came up to the counter. “Small problem,” he said.
We all stared, waiting.
“Kenny Mathers and his band didn’t think they needed to make reservations. They also have to leave before dinner service, and his backup vocalist is throwing a massive fit about it. She was apparently really excited to try the food.”
“And?” I asked.
“Kenny and his assistant told me she’s planning to trash us on her social media. She’s a small part of the band, but she has a huge following. I checked.” Greyson waited, watching me. God, he looked frustratingly good. I could still remember what it felt like to have those lips claiming every inch of my skin–to have those eyes locked on me with hungry intensity. He’d been dressing up ever since the grand opening, and he somehow looked even better in slacks and ties. It was a constant battle not to notice.
“So you’re saying you want us to drop what we’re doing and cook them a special meal?” I asked.
“Thank you,” Greyson said. He started to leave.
“I didn’t agree.”
He paused, then turned to focus on me with a dangerous look in his eyes. “I asked you out of courtesy, Harper. While I’m here, I’m still your boss.”
“You’re my temporary boss, and you can’t afford to lose me right now.” My heart was thumping in my throat. Careful, Harper. You still need this job, no matter how much he pisses you off.
I felt Gabby and my friends tense beside me.
Greyson’s jaw ticked. “Are you refusing to cook for them?”
Lin seemed especially stiff. I considered what she would want. Probably the least drama involving Kenny she could manage. With an internal sigh, I folded my arms. “I’ll cook them something, but we’re not taking orders. They can get what we’re ready to cook right now or nothing. Deal?”
Greyson hesitated just long enough to let me know he didn’t appreciate my defiance or my demands. “Alright. I’ll let them know. When will you be ready to serve them?”
I pulled open the door to the fridge and quickly put together a menu in my head. Only about twenty percent of the menu was ready to cook at this point, but I thought I could scrap together a full meal for four or five. “Forty minutes. Gabby, do you mind helping for a bit?”
“Not at all!” She flashed a smile, and I was glad to see Greyson was already gone.
I rubbed my temples. So what if he decided to screw his new assistant? I needed to make up my damn mind. I was either over him, or I wasn’t. This in-between crap had to go. I lifted the last ball of pizza dough and slapped it down into the proofing bin. “Alright, let’s do this quickly,” I said. “Are you going to be good, Lin?”
She looked paler than usual. All her typical sass and bluster was gone. “Farrah can serve them.”
“I’ll do it,” Gabby said. “I may not be much help in the kitchen, but I’ve got a background in hospitality, and I’ve waited tables. That’s kind of what Mr. Ashford hired me for.”
He already hired her? What happened to having me talk to her first. I shoved down the annoyance at that, but knew it was still going to fester. Asshole.
Kenny and his band lingered at their table with their plates pushed away and picked clean. I got on my tiptoes to take one last look, then headed back into the kitchen to get back to work. I’d just lost forty-five minutes making food for them and still had my full prep list to work on for tonight. It wasn’t impossible, but I was going to need to make sure I moved quickly and delegated as much as I could to Lin and Farrah.
