With Caden gone I had my hands full. He left on Monday morning and it took me a while to get into the swing of things, but as soon as I found my stride, being in charge was hard work but fun. After our lunch rush on Monday, the restaurant died down enough for me to spend time in the kitchen with Greyson. I was getting bored and lonely at the hostess station.
“Are you back here to check up on me?” Greyson asked.
I hopped up onto a counter and shook my head. “Just taking a breather.”
“How are things going out there?” Greyson asked. I wasn’t sure if he really thought I could do it or if his joking with Caden about my abilities hadn’t been jokes at all.
“It’s going good, I expected to struggle more, but I’m not.”
“You have what it takes to manage this place,” Greyson said, and I felt warm.
Greyson and I had easy friendship—we joked and teased a lot and saw each other every day, but we barely knew each other more than what we got to know at the workplace.
“How was your trip this weekend?” I asked.
“It was great,” Greyson said. He was rolling out filo pastry for the Apple Pie we offered as dessert. “I love being out there, in touch with ‘mother nature’ and all, but it was damn cold. Easy to forget the wrath of nature when we’re all warm, tucked into our little beds.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t relate. I loved being outside, the outdoors had a certain appeal, but I wasn’t the kind of woman to rough it and connect with my roots as a scavenger and hunter.
“Good thing it was cold,” I said. “If the weather was good you might not come back when you could live off the land instead.”
“Oh, I would stay away even if the weather was bad. Being out in nature reminds me how small I am in the grander scheme of things. But I have to work to fund my trips.”
I wondered if Greyson had taken the job at the restaurant purely as the means to an end. In a way, it was what I had done—I had only taken the job because I had been bored with my life and had no idea where I wanted to go with it. Caden was lucky he had found two people as competent as we were, especially considering neither Greyson nor I really cared about restaurants or the industry when he had hired us.
Reluctant to go back up front, I watched Greyson work for a while in silence. He was a typical bad boy, the type that looked for trouble just for kicks. The type my mom might have warned me not to spend time with. But he was a magician in the kitchen and when he was back here, I tended to forget who he could be out on the streets.
“Do you ever take girls with you?” I asked.
Greyson stopped working and looked up at me before he shook his head. “Relationships are overrated. I don’t need the drama. And one-night stands don’t work in the wild—women are usually fussy. Their idea of roughing it is to go without room service. Out there, I prefer being alone and experiencing nature, without trying to put things into words.”
It made sense, but it seemed very different from the character I had gotten to know.
“Why?” Greyson asked, carrying on with his apple pie. He pushed the pastry into the corners of the square dish—our Apple pie wasn’t round. With square dishes we could put more of them into the industrial oven at a time.
“I was just asking,” I said.
“Oh, I was wondering if you were hitting on me and hinting that you wanted to come with me.” Greyson looked up and winked at me.
I laughed. “You wish. You’re a great guy and all, but you’re just not my type, not even close, actually. No offense.”
What I had said was true, but I wasn’t sure what kind of guy was my type if it came down to it. I had gone on a few dates in the past, but none of them had been rewarding and I hadn’t seen any of those men again. They hadn’t made me feel amazing, hadn’t made me feel like my life was empty without them.
Greyson grabbed at his shirt over his heart and made a pained face. “Cut me deep, why don’t you, sweetheart?” He grinned at me and I shook my head, jumping off the counter.
“I better get back up there. Give a shout if you need anything.”
I walked through the dining area toward the hostess station, checking in with the waiters on the way. When I reached the station, a couple and a family of four walked in. Just in time.
With a bright smile, I took care of the new diners, handing them off to the waiters, and ensuring their orders got to the kitchen without a hitch. I checked in on the other diners, asking them how they were doing and the feedback was positive as usual. I was glad things were going so well. They always went well, we had a good cadre of waiters and kitchen staff. But still, I wanted to give Caden a positive report. He was going to be away for a while longer, and the more time that passed, the more time there was for something to go wrong. But I was holding down the fort and staying on my toes. Day one was going well.
“Harper,” one of the waiters said when he came to me. Table four is complaining about the food.”
I frowned and walked to the family of four I had seated earlier.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“My steak is a little raw,” the father said. “And the kids’ food is a little spicy. The kiddies’ menu promises it won’t burn.”
I nodded and apologized on behalf of the restaurant, picking up the plates in question and carrying them to the kitchen myself. My head was spinning. What would Caden do in a situation like this? Just when I had been dreaming about telling Caden how perfect everything had gone, something like this happened.
“We’ve got a complaint,” I said to Greyson when I reached the kitchen.
I explained to Greyson what the problem was and he promised he would fix it. While I waited for him to work up new kid meals and to replace the underdone steak with a new one, I tried to figure out how I was going to handle it. When the plates were ready, I delivered them to table four myself.
“I sincerely apologize,” I said again. “Here at The Spiced Cow we pride ourselves in our reliable quality. But we also understand that occasionally mistakes happen, and to make up for your compromised dining experience, I want to offer you this meal on the house.”
The family was very happy, naturally. Five minutes later I checked in on them again to ensure the food was what they had expected this time. When they let me know they were happy, I returned to the hostess station to take care of the customer checks as my diners left one by one before the dinner rush.
When the dinner rush was over and Greyson and I were finally alone, I let out a deep breath and leaned on the counter with my elbows. Greyson was wiping down the bar and he glanced at me.
“Giving away that meal was classic Caden,” Greyson commented. “He would have done the same thing. You did good.”
“Thanks,” I said, with a smile. I couldn’t resist teasing Greyson, anyway. “If you could cook properly I wouldn’t have had to give away free meals in the first place.”
“Yeah, you’re funny,” Greyson said dryly, and disappeared to the kitchen to finish his chores. I laughed and pulled off the tablecloths one by one to be washed. I flipped the chairs up onto the table so the cleaning crew could come in and mop the floors and I cashed out up at the hostess station.
I thought about what Greyson had said. I liked that he had compared me to Caden. Though he could be a pain in the ass at times, Caden was a good owner and he treated us well. The decisions he made for the restaurant were fair and just, and I knew it was why he had a constant flow of customers. It wasn’t only because his food was amazing—thanks to Greyson. Great food got people through the doors, but the personal service that Caden offered, the homey atmosphere and the promise of a repeat of the good times was what kept them coming back for more.
When I started working at The Spiced Cow I hadn’t known what I wanted to do with my life. It had been a job like any other—one I hadn’t needed any qualifications for. Now, I was starting to think maybe I wanted to stay in the restaurant business. Maybe I wanted to become a manager, maybe I even wanted to own my own restaurant one day. I had never thought about being a restauranteur growing up but now that I had a year’s experience behind me, and I’d had this time that Caden had left me in charge, I was starting to think this was what I wanted to do with my life.
When everything was taken care of, Greyson shrugged into his coat and headed out into the night. Tomorrow would be another full day of handling the restaurant with Caden gone. I wanted him back. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it alone, I was coping perfectly well. But it was lonely with just me and Greyson, and I already missed our bantering and teasing. In the past year, Greyson, Caden, and I had gotten closer than I had expected. We had become friends and even though I hadn’t realized until now, not having both of them around made my life a little drearier.
I made my way home and unlocked the loft apartment I rented. I drew the curtains and switched on the lights. I showered to get rid of the restaurant smell that always clung to my clothes when I came home and finally I crawled into bed. I checked my phone. I had received a new message and when I opened it, saw it was from Caden.
I hope your first day in charge went well.
Nothing more. He wasn’t exactly checking up on me, but he was checking in to remind me that he was still my boss. It was so like him. I thought again about giving away the free meal and decided I had done the right thing, after all. Greyson was right, Caden would have done the same. I smiled, pleased with myself and rolled over, closing my eyes. I could still show him at the end of this week that I had done a great job.