Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“In the dark?” he asked.
“Yes, Cam. In the dark. Are you scared of the dark?”
“No, but it won’t help me get my work done if I can’t plug in,” he said. “How long of a wait?”
“I’m honestly not sure. Could be fast. Could take until I get back.”
“Christ, Derek,” Cam said. “Just get up here and start lunch service. Ally can handle the kitchen, but she’s going to get overwhelmed if we’re anything like last Tuesday. I’ll head to your place.”
“On my way, just have one stop to make first.”
“What stop?” Cam asked. “The restaurant is almost open.”
“I need a shower, Cam,” I said. “Trust me. I’ll be there in twenty.”
With an exasperated sound, Cam hung up, and I pulled into the drive of the gym. I was in and out in ten minutes, confusing the poor girl working the desk. By the time I got to the vineyard, I noticed that one of the delivery trucks that was supposed to be there wasn’t. As I got into the kitchen, Ally looked at me over the steam of the wok on her station, and I could see the relief in her eyes.
“Fucking delivery’s late,” she said. “We need it for dinner, or else we’re serving empty plates. Can you call them and find out what the shit is going on?”
“You know I am the chef, right? You are the sous chef.”
“You are the chef who is about to get a paring knife in his dick if you don’t get calling. I’ve been running this place without you so far, and lunch is picking up,” she said, not looking away from the wok.
“Fair. What do you need me to do to catch up?”
“Anything,” she said. “Literally, anything. There’s like ten things on burners and two in the oven. Just grab something and shake it, for God’s sake.”
“That’s what she said,” I muttered.
“Just make the call, Derek,” Ally said, finally breaking a smile.
I pulled up the phone and dialed the delivery service. Apparently, they were running late because of an accident right by the distribution center, making it hard to get trucks out. It meant that I couldn’t even be mad at them. The estimate was that they would have the truck well before dinner service, so we would be fine, but I was still mad when I hung up.
“News?” Ally said as she fell back into the normal sous chef role, helping me plate entrees and making sure any mise en place was done.
“Accident near distro,” I said, shaking a pan of vegetables and sprinkling salt over it at a high angle so it fell evenly. “Should be here two hours before dinner service.”
“Hallelujah.” Ally waved her hands in the air. Thankfully, she was a well-trained chef and had the sense to let the knife stay on the board, since I was walking past her to get to the oven.
“Indeed. Divine intervention at its best. Now let’s burn through this lunch rush and have a beer before shit gets nuts for dinner. We have the Baked Alaska on tonight.”
“Crap,” Ally muttered. “I forgot the Baked Alaska is tonight.”
I nodded. Neither one of us was entirely sure about adding it to the menu, not because it was difficult, but because it was so damned time-consuming. Between the ice cream, the crust, and the general assembly of the damn dish, it required multiple stages for it to cool and then rest. It was delicious, but it was a pain in the ass to make, and we were likely going to have to pump out dozens of them for the dessert menu.
Since it was the lunch service, it was, as usual, just Ally and me back there. There were a couple of line cooks that we brought in on weekends and for the dinner services on rotations, but daytime lunches were still the exclusive domain of one of my oldest and dearest friends and soon-to-be sister-in-law and me.
I was still a little miffed at her for what she had concocted on Sunday, but at the same time, it was sweet. I understood her point of view. I just didn’t agree with her. I was good being alone.
Lunch rolled by pretty easily, and I was starting to feel pretty damn good about things again. One of the line cooks showed up early, just in time to meet the delivery truck that pulled up at almost the same time. I sent him out to help with the delivery and went about finishing up the rush so I could break everything down and get ready for dinner service.
When we were down to just a couple of tables left and service officially over, Ally dipped out for a moment while I took care of cleaning up. It was the least I could do after she did such a great job of getting things going earlier.