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He let out an exasperated sigh. “I’ve told you six times that I hired a replacement for Jennifer.”
“Ah yeah, Jennifer. So professional of her to throw a temper tantrum and quit with no notice just when we needed her most.”
Gio was frowning again. “I know she was pissed about having to take on more responsibility with the new store opening, but we gave her a hefty raise. She never gave me a real reason.”
I grew uneasy over the thought of our former bookkeeper and assistant manager. Jennifer had been a decent employee, but from the beginning, she’d made it clear she had feelings for me beyond the normal employee-employer relationship. That wasn’t a line I planned to cross again, and in this particular case, I wasn’t attracted to her. Seducing your staff was never a good idea. I’d learned that the hard way.
It had happened once, back when we opened the first place. I went out a few times with the hostess, and we had a little too much fun. It didn’t turn into anything special, but there was a lot of gossip among the staff. When the girl quit a few weeks later, a rumor started circulating that she left because of me. It wasn’t true. She’d just started her law school internship. But it was a disruptive thing to deal with in the middle of our first restaurant opening. After that, Gio and I had agreed we, or rather I, would never allow it to become an issue again. A boss needed to uphold higher standards. I owed Gio that much. My bad choices had already cost our family enough trouble.
Yet I had to admit that where Jennifer was concerned, I’d probably been guilty of being more flirtatious than I should have been. We laughed together a little too often, and she started thinking there was something between us. I realized there were some intentions behind the way she’d stand too close to me and constantly smile in my direction. Eventually she stopped dropping hints and just got angry. I wasn’t even slightly surprised the day she slammed a clipboard on the counter and stormed out for good, because she thought I was being a little too friendly with a pair of college girls who’d come into the restaurant.
Gio must have figured out the reason, although he avoided saying so. He kept hoping I’d meet some great girl and settle down like he had. But why do that? I went out and had fun when I felt like it. There just wasn’t a lot of room in my heart or my schedule for anything else. Most of my energy went into the restaurant, and everything else was reserved for my family. So far I hadn’t met anyone worth the effort to change.
“If I had to guess, I’d say Jennifer just thought it was time for her to move on,” I said diplomatically. “The timing sucks, though.”
Gio nodded. “Might not be the worst thing, since we really need someone with better administrative skills. We were lucky to find Melanie on such short notice. She can handle payroll, accounts payable, tax filings, compliance, organization, and basic staff management for both restaurants. In the morning I’ll be having her fill out some paperwork and outlining her job tasks, but I’ll send her your way in the afternoon.”
“What for? Espo 2 isn’t really ready for staff.”
He looked at me like I possessed the thickest head on earth. “So you can meet her, Dom, and so she can see where she’ll be spending most of her time. We already talked about this. The office at Espo 1 is a closet, and we’ll have that huge space in the back of Espo 2. You two are going to have to share it. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“Nope,” I said. “Not a problem at all. So what’s Melanie’s background?” No point in pushing the office arrangements—I had too much to do with the renovations. “She has restaurant management experience, right?”
He shook his head. “Not exactly. She headed up the finance department at some trendy Scottsdale resort, but she can handle staff, and she has marketing skills, too, both of which will come in handy.”
Something about that sounded odd to me. “So she abandoned her prominent position to come down to the trenches and learn how to make pizza?”
“No. She was fired.”
Now I raised both eyebrows. “She was fired?”
Gio grinned. “It’s a funny story. I’ll let her share the details with you, though.” He must have seen the doubt on my face because he sighed. “Look Dom, Melanie’s exactly what we need for the position. She’s sharp and she’s motivated, and she really seemed charmed by the idea of working for a family business.”
“All right,” I said with a shrug. I’d been a little wary of entrusting some of the more delicate financial tasks to a brand-new employee, but I trusted my brother.
“Be ready at two to go see Donna,” Gio said on his way to the door. “And don’t tease Tara about her brother.”
“Why would I do that? I was the asshole as far as the whole Ryan debacle is concerned.”
Gio turned around and looked at me thoughtfully. “You’re not an asshole, Dominic. Take it from your kid brother. I know everything there is to know about you.”
I turned on the kitchen sink and started rinsing out the coffee mugs. He was wrong. He didn’t know everything. “Think I’ll make some scrambled eggs,” I said in an effort to change the subject.
“Fine. See you in a little while.”
After Gio closed the door, I turned the water off and just stood there in my kitchen for a few minutes, listening to the silence and remembering something Gio had said.
“Best man I’ve ever known.”
Sometimes I wished I had the courage to tell my brother about the things he didn’t know about me. But the time to come clean had ended a long time ago, and there was no point in bringing up such sore subjects now.
No. The only thing to do was to hope that the past stayed in the past where it belonged.
