Kian(15)

Not that we would get a lot of downtime.

Escape was a popular high-end restaurant. If people dropped in to get a seat, they usually couldn’t. It was one of those restaurants where a customer needed to make a reservation a day ahead, and that was one of the reasons I was surprised by all the new employees. Escape was good to their employees. There wasn’t a big turnover rate. As Henry snapped his fingers to get my attention, I didn’t think I could ask him about that question.

Oh well. Time to go with the flow and learn my old job again.

“Okay.” My host trainer touched the Bluetooth in his ear, nodding, and then said, “On it. It’s ready in the back?” A pause. “Got it. Thank you, Tamara.” He said to me, “I know we’re slammed right now.”

There was one couple waiting for a table.

He continued, “But Tamara is coming up to help host for us. A special order came in, so we need to deliver some food to the newspaper.”

My eyebrows went up at that. “We do delivery now?”

He bent down to stuff some menus into the back of our hosting stand but paused. “When have we not?”

Touché.

I almost saluted him. “Got it.”

After loading the food into his car, he explained, “Every delivery is handled with special care. We don’t deliver to many places, but the newspaper is one of those that we need to wine and dine, so to speak, for obvious reasons.”

Yes, for obvious reasons—that I couldn’t think of at that moment.

“Amazing publicity.” He gave me the reason.

Another item that I didn’t know Escape cared about because they never had. I frowned. “There seems to have been a lot of changes with the restaurant since I worked last.”

“Really?” My trainer didn’t sound too interested as he turned the car into traffic.

I knew we were only a few blocks away, so I didn’t answer.

As he parked, he paused and frowned at me. “Did you say something before?”

“Nope.”

“Oh.” He unclipped his seat belt.

I flashed him a grin. “Where do we go, boss?”

“Uh…” He got out, shut his door, and opened the trunk.

The food was loaded up in our arms, and he led the way to a side door. After his foot tapped the bottom, the door was pushed open from the inside…and I looked up to the smiling face of my roommate’s archenemy.

“Susan…” My voice died.

Her smile vanished, and she straightened back from the doorway. “Jo.”

My trainer looked between the two of us, readjusting the food trays in his arms so that he would have a better grip. “You two know each other?”

Susan’s smile returned, but it was forced. She moved back, holding the door so that we could get through. “I didn’t know you were working at Escape.”

I said as I passed her, “Only every summer.”

But Susan didn’t care. She didn’t respond as she let the door close, and then she went before us, leading the way down a hallway. “We have a meeting tonight, so we wanted to order some food. You guys can bring it this way.”#p#分页标题#e#

We were led into a conference room where people were sitting around a bunch of tables. Susan had us unload the food on a back table. I assumed Erica would be somewhere else since Susan was promoted above her so when I heard my name, I was surprised.

Erica came over from one of the tables.

I said, “Hey.”

Erica frowned as she skimmed me up and down. “I forgot you were working at Escape again this summer. You started today?”

I nodded and patted some of the food containers, grinning. “I’ve been promoted to delivery now.”

Susan had been standing by, waiting for us. She let out a sigh when Erica came over, too, but leaned forward and studied all the food. Seemingly appeased, she cleared her throat now. “Excuse me for a minute. I need to grab the money.”

As she disappeared, Erica stepped closer and said to my trainer, “Go away. I want to talk to my friend.”

His pale cheeks reddened, but he smoothed a hand over his hair. He was trying to make it look casual, but he was failing.

I added, “I’d listen to her. She might be short, but she can be a big bully when she wants to be. I’d run, run far, my friend.”

He threw me another frown but moved backward a few steps. When he was far enough so that he couldn’t overhear, he made a point of stopping, leaning against the wall, and folding his arms over his chest.

Erica laughed to me. “I think he’d keel over if he realized I ate boys like him for breakfast.”

I gave him a look. “Yeah. Come to think of it, he does look like a younger version of Wanker, but he’s more cutthroat. I can already tell, but forget him. You’re still working with Susan? I thought you two went your separate ways at work.”