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I nodded. In addition to Donovan himself, he had two station chefs and three sous-chefs working for him. We had one bartender, two bussers, and six servers working in the front-of-house. I didn’t know what to do with myself tonight, so I was hostessing.
“You look dashing in your chef’s uniform,” I told him.
He gave a little bow. “And you look stunning in, uh, the front-of-house uniform.”
“It’s just black slacks and a blouse,” I replied. “And I don’t feel very sexy with this big bump.”
Donovan laughed and kissed me on the forehead. “You’ve never been sexier. When we get home late tonight, I’m going to prove it in the bedroom.”
“We’ll see how much energy you have by then.” I glanced at my watch. “Okay, it’s time. Here we go!” I ceremonially flipped the sign by the front door fromCLOSEDtoOPEN.
Donovan and I stood by the front door, gazing out at Elkhart’s main street. There were eight street-parking spaces in front of the restaurant. All of them were empty.
Five minutes later, nothing had changed.
“It’s fine,” Donovan said. “It can take weeks to get up to normal speed. Especially with the pandemic happening. Lots of people aren’t ready to eat indoors.”
“That’s why we have the outdoor patio,” I replied. “And we’ve spent hundreds of dollars on ads in the local newspaper and on Facebook.”
His hand rubbed my upper back. “It’s opening night. We might not have many customers. Things might go wrong. That’s okay. We’ll go with the flow.”
“We should have started with only five servers,” I muttered. “Six is too many.”
“Six is the right amount,” he insisted. “Better to over-prepare.”
Suddenly a car pulled into one of the spots in front of the restaurant. I slapped at Donovan’s arm to get his attention. But when the people got out of the car, they weren’t random customers. They were people I recognized.
“Andrea!” I said when the old manager forNelly’s Boutiquecame through the door. “You came!”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world! This is my boyfriend, Blake.”
“Blake, nice name,” Donovan said. He glanced sideways at me.
“Uh, thanks?” Blake replied.
Andrea approached me, then hesitated behind her mask and said, “Can I hug you? Is it safe?”
“We already had the virus, so hugs are safe.” We embraced, and then I grabbed two menus from the hostess station. I cleared my throat and formally said, “Welcome toSolo Tu!Right this way to your table…”
By the time I returned to the front, there was another car parking. Before they could get out, four twenty-somethings walked by the restaurant, stopped, and then came inside.
“Better get to the back.” Donovan gave me an eskimo kiss through our masks. “Good luck!”
“I don’t need it—I’ve got the easy job. Good luck in the kitchen!”
I smiled as Donovan practically skipped back into the kitchen.
A steady trickle of customers arrived over the next hour. When the restaurant was a quarter full, I started to breathe easier. We could call that a successful first night.
Then one of my best friends came barging through the front door. “There she is, pregnant and glowing!” Sara exclaimed. Behind her followed Becky, Marisa, and Wanda. The four girls who were supposed to go to Rome with me.
We giggled and hugged. “You didn’t have to come.”
“Are you kidding? We weren’t going to miss your big opening,” Sara replied.
“I only came because I want to see this man I’ve been hearing so much about,” Wanda said. “Where are you hiding him?”
“He’s working in the kitchen.”
