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“What?” she asked.

“Your size? A small?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Come with me. They are in my office.”

He wasn’t going to feel odd saying it was his office and not her father’s now. It’s not like it was much of one, but it was a space to do his paperwork and was private so better than nothing.

“Wow. It’s so neat in here.”

He turned to look at her when she said that. “Was it messy before?”

He was going through the shirts in the box and pulled out a small and handed it over.

“Yes. My mother is the neat one. My father’s desk was always a mess. I used to remember his secretary complaining about it too before he retired. They probably cleaned it up before you arrived.”

“It was pretty bare when I got here,” he said.

“That would be my mother’s doing,” she said. “Everything here is so much cleaner. It’s nice.”

He grinned. The kitchen hadn’t been up to his standards and it was the first thing he changed. He’d like to come in with better equipment, but everything functioned for now until he could figure if he’d buy it or not.

“There are some rules I’ve got that some don’t like, but they have to adapt. Cleanliness is one of them. I don’t expect my employees to get down on their hands and knees and scrub the floors. I hire cleaning companies for that, but I do expect their areas kept clean before they leave.”

He learned a long time ago to keep things to his standards it was best to have someone come in and do it and have it maintained. Staff was happier that way too.

“That’s nice,” she said. “I’m not sure my father would have ever thought or considered that. Or if he could afford it.”

“It’s not cheap, but it saves being shut down by the health department too.”

She cringed. “Was it that bad back here? I never came back much. Or even looked all that closely.”

“Not that bad,” he said. “But not great.”

“Then it’s one good change and I’d think those working back here would appreciate it.”

He thought they would. Most of them did. What they didn’t like though was that when he was working he made sure they worked clean too. It wasn’t just being clean at the end of the night.

“Some do,” he said. “But you won’t be working back here other than getting the food. Even then, one change I’ve made is that during slower periods, the bartender will come back and get some of the food to bring to the bar and save the servers from going in the back.”

The servers were thrilled with that, the bartender not so much. But it’s not like it would be happening at night when it was busy.

“That’s smart,” she said. “Do they bring the ticket out and place it on the counter off to the side by the door?”

She was a smart one, he could say. “Yes,” he said. “The flow is better. Early shifts, like today, the servers are getting the drinks themselves behind the bar. Not a big deal, as you can tell. If there is a bartender on, like later in the week and it’s slow, they will get the food if they can. It’s a work in progress.”

“Isn’t everything?” she asked.

They moved to the front of the house. He’d rearranged the layout of the tables too and felt it had a better flow here. By removing a few tables, people weren’t as crowded and it’s not like it was filling up before. This way it appeared to be busier and if people thought a place was packed they wanted to flock there to try it out too.

“It looks nice in here,” she said. “You didn’t change much except the way the tables were placed.”

“No reason to make a ton of changes just yet. The menu is about the same. It’s only been a few weeks and didn’t seem like it was necessary to do much more. I removed a few things and added some. It’s best to do that with the cost of food.”

“My mother told my father that. If the cost of something was high and it wasn’t selling, why even have it on the menu?”

“You’ll notice that here. I have some dinner specials each night too. They start at five. Orders are taken on a pad and brought to the back to enter into the computer. It’s fast and easy and stops all the traffic from going in and out of the kitchen. The servers only go in to get food, not to drop off orders.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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