“Go ahead.” I’m not sure why she feels the need to ask, and I don’t like it. Seb II has always been a bit of a problem child, but I sense that things are spiraling out of control.
“The waiter who was rude to the couple is a friend of Ben’s,” she says. “He’s snotty and arrogant.”
“Why is he still employed? We have no place for that here.”
She doesn’t meet my gaze. “I didn’t want to piss off the kitchen,” she replies. “We work on tips. Those guys don’t.”
Okay, this is bullshit. “Did Ben suggest that he’d slow down food service if you fired his friend?”
“No, Chef.”
“So you jumped to conclusions and did nothing about a problem employee?” I cannot believe Mina. I thought she was better than this.
She doesn’t say anything in her defense. But I can read it in her stance. She genuinely believes Ben would have retaliated, and more than anything, that gives me pause. Mina’s been a rock steady manager. She was my fifth hire. I’d prefer not to lose her to Ben’s dismissive misogyny.
“Okay, here’s what we are going to do,” I tell her. “Helen’s going to come in here for the next month and get the kitchen in shape.” I give her a steady look. “In the meanwhile, I want you to clean house. And Mina, I’m not thrilled that it needed to get to this. I expect you to raise a red flag if you are running into issues, not just wait for shit to blow up in our faces.”
She bites her lip. “Sorry, Chef.”
“Let’s get Ben in here and break the news to him.”
Ben is, as expected, thrilled that he’s moving to Seb New York, even if it’s just for a month. Coming right after a second Michelin star, it feels like a promotion to him. I don’t like it. I’m sure Ben’s responsible for as much of the bad behavior as Mina, maybe more.
When Mina’s gone and the two of us are alone, I turn to him. “You aren’t being rewarded,” I say through clenched teeth. “Helen’s going to get your crew ready, and I’m going to be riding your ass at Seb New York. I don’t like a sloppy team, Ben. If you aren’t prepared to put in the work, you don’t belong here.”
“I belong, Chef,” he insists. “You aren’t going to regret this.”
He’s wrong - I already regret this. I don’t have the time to babysit Ben, especially not if this franchise deal that Juliette’s pushing falls into place. I don’t want to give up my Wednesday evenings playing pool to make sure things at Seb New York are working smoothly. If my intuition about this stupid mess is correct, this is going to be a clusterfuck.
8
In the Kreung tribe in Cambodia, fathers build a love hut for their daughter when the girl reaches marriageable age. Different boys spend the night in the hut until she finds the one she wants to marry.
from Bailey’s Journal of Interesting Facts from around the World
Bailey:
We are going to enjoy coaching you.
When Sebastian had spoken those words to me, I had gaped at him, unable to think of a witty repartee. I still cannot.
But I wonder about his words all weekend. What did he mean by we? It wasn’t an expression of interest, was it? And if it was, did he really mean both of them wanted me?
Trevor was my third lover. My first was nothing to write home about - a fumbling encounter in Kevin McNamara’s bedroom before his parents got back from work. After that first brief moment of pain, I remember lying back and wondering why people made such a fuss about sex. It was okay, but hardly life-changing.
So I stayed away from boys, much to the delight of my parents, and I focused on my studies. I graduated college with straight A’s, and started my Masters degree immediately after. In my early twenties, all my energy and focus had been on my research.
Things had been better with Ivan in the Taiga. It had been a relationship that had been based on sexual attraction rather than any real underlying compatibility. It hadn’t mattered - we never had a future. Ivan was interested in hunting, fishing and in surviving the harshness of Siberia. I was on the cusp of getting my PhD, and I couldn’t see myself staying in Russia past my research year. When it was time for me to leave, we ended things amicably and without sadness.