AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MELANIE
“Come in,” I called at the knock on the door.
A cloud of carrot-colored hair preceded the anxious face of Patsy del Ray.
“Um, Melanie,” she said, “sorry to disturb you.”
“You’re not disturbing me, Patsy. How can I help you?”
Patsy tossed an uneasy glance at the empty space behind her, then eased inside the office. “I’m off the clock now to go pick up my kids, but I just wanted to double-check what time I should be back here tonight.”
“Five o’clock will be fine,” I said, repeating the same thing I’d already told the staff twice today. Patsy was a forty-year-old single mother who used to ride the rodeo circuit. Dominic had second-guessed me on hiring her because she had no serving experience, but so far my instincts had proven correct. Throughout training, Patsy had proved to be our most capable and conscientious worker, setting a good tone for the younger employees. Besides, if you can stay on a horse, you’re probably not going to drop plates.
Patsy bit her lip and then continued. “I know we already discussed this, but Mr.Esposito just told me to come confirm with you before I took off.”
“Well, you can tell Mr.Esposito you’re all clear until five.”
Patsy nodded, looking relieved. Dominic made her visibly nervous. Actually he made all the new staff a little jumpy. The closer we inched toward opening day, the more he brooded about every little detail. I couldn’t really blame him for agonizing over his own restaurant, but I wished he’d make an effort to be friendlier, at least to the newbies. They all kind of tiptoed around him as if he was a wild animal outside of his cage.
“I’ll be back soon,” Patsy promised. “My mom is going to be bringing the girls by tonight, and they’re so excited.”
I smiled. “We’re all excited.”
After Patsy left, I paused and chewed thoughtfully on my pen. Only two days remained until the grand opening. Tonight was the soft opening for friends and family. It was both a courtesy event and a marketing tactic. We were expecting a sizable crowd of friends, relatives, and a few members of the local press. All food and drinks were on the house as the point of the event wasn’t to turn a profit but to welcome Esposito’s to the neighborhood and get word out about the food.
Since the crack of dawn this morning, both Dominic and Gio had been putting the finishing touches on the dining room and testing out the kitchen equipment. In between taking care of a few administrative tasks, I’d been giving pep talks to the staff. Aimee, Carl, and Tim would be here from Espo 1, so we’d have some seasoned employees, but our new people were nervous. I was a little nervous with them. In a few short hours, I’d be right out there on the floor in an Esposito’s T-shirt, taking orders and serving food.
One thing I’d learned was the virtue of dressing comfortably when it came to rushing around with pizza trays balanced on each palm. The corporate look that I’d clung to so stubbornly had been abandoned, and now I arrived at work every day in a clean Esposito’s T-shirt and either a pair of jeans or a comfortable, flowing skirt, and minimal makeup. I didn’t miss dressing up. I loved the feel of tennis shoes instead of punishing heels. Plus I enjoyed the activity and the people and the sense that I was part of a bigger picture, a family. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time.
The weekly payroll still needed to be processed, so I tried to focus on that. I printed out the reports and began checking off each line item, using a brand-new pen that wrote in six different colors. I collected pens. Not intentionally, I just tended to accumulate them. I was forever forgetting how many I had and recklessly acquiring more. If someone had to inventory my life’s possessions, they would find thirty-eight pairs of shoes, endless wads of cat hair, and enough blue ballpoint pens to fill a bathtub.
Meanwhile out there in the restaurant, Dominic was yelling at someone about failing to clean the dough bins properly. I hoped it wasn’t Adam, a sensitive artist who’d already cried twice in training. Sometimes Dominic didn’t realize how much of a bear he could be, especially when he was running on adrenaline and caffeine.
I was in the middle of double-checking the payroll reports when the office door was thrown open with such force the knob hit the wall and left a dent.
A wild-eyed and clearly aggravated Dominic Esposito haunted the doorway. “There you are,” he growled as if I’d been playing hide-and-seek instead of sitting where I was supposed to be sitting and doing the job I was supposed to be doing.
“Yes, here I am,” I said a little warily. I’d become accustomed to his gruff moods. For the most part I’d learned to work well with Dominic. When the occasional clash arose, I tried to bite my tongue and remember that he was the boss. But whether the atmosphere was cooperative or stormy, there was always an underlying current of erotic tension that kept me on edge. I saw the way he watched me. And I saw the way he would jerk his head in the other direction and pretend otherwise. I wondered if he realized how much I watched him too.
Dominic jerked his head. “I don’t have time to run through the food handling procedures with the kitchen staff again. I need you to take care of it.”
“Sure,” I said, even though I’d already done that at least ten times. By this point I was confident the kitchen staff had memorized the rules even better than I had. “Let me just finish payroll, and I’ll get right on it.”
“Fine.” Dominic started to walk away.
I stood up. “Wait.”
He turned around, scowling. “What?”
“Remember what I told you earlier?”
“Melanie, there are eight thousand things that need to happen in the next three hours. Can you be more specific?”
I closed my fist around my pen and tried to ignore his rudeness. “That reporter from the SunRepublic is going to be here later, and she’s doing a piece on the restaurant.”
“Okay.” He shrugged tiredly. “That’s fine.”
