Bossing the Virgin(5)

Up until now, I haven’t told them what my plans are going forward with the company. I’ve been busy restructuring, hiring and promoting people to fill in the gaps. I don’t want to be my father. I don’t want to handle everything myself. Not just because it put him into an early grave, but because I know that my time could be spent much more effectively if I’m not bogged down in the minute details.

“Oh people know about Red Canyon all right. But that doesn’t mean they want to come in. There are too many restaurants doing exciting things. The scene has changed,” I say. “We need to make some changes too if we want to keep up.”

It’s as though I’ve set off a bomb in the room. Everyone clamors to talk. I expected this, but I’m prepared and ready to field their questions. After two hours explaining both my vision and receiving their input, I finally call an end to the meeting. We have a plan in place, and I’m tired, but feeling hopeful. The most important thing to do of course is to streamline. We can’t have any more wasteful spending. The second thing we’re going to do is to rebrand the menu. Once we stop flushing money down the drain and we’re bringing people back through our doors, then we can look at rebranding everything else. So far we don’t need to close any restaurants, but that possibility remains open. I hope I don’t have to, and I argued against it because my employees don’t deserve to be out of a job. They put their trust in my father, and now me. I won’t give up on them without exhausting all my other options first.

“So,” I say to Sean once it’s just him and I left in the room. “Think we can make this happen?”

“I hope so,” he says. “You’re getting awfully close to bankruptcy. But if there’s anyone in our business school who could pull it off, I’d put my money on you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I say, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you done for the day?” he asks. “There’s a game on tonight. Feels like forever since we’ve watched one together.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. There’s a million and one things I’ve got to do now that we’ve hammered out a plan. At least we won’t have to worry about the menu. The new chef, Mikayla, is brimming with ideas.”

“So you hired someone? Finally. Is she any good?”

I think about Mikayla, with her big, innocent eyes and her long hair tumbling down across those slim shoulders and pert breasts. I think about that smooth, creamy skin, and how I wanted to touch and taste her. The way she stopped my brain in its tracks for a full five seconds when she walked in the door. I didn’t hire her for her body, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that my cock thanked me for it.

“We’ll see tomorrow,” is all I say. “I’m going to get her to make me lunch.”

**********

Mikayla shows up at eleven on the dot, and I’m glad for the break. I’ve spent a majority of this morning putting out fires. It turns out that it’s not only my father who was adverse to change. Plenty of his employees are too. I get that they’re afraid of trying something new, especially when new is the complete opposite of what we’ve done so far. But what we have isn’t working. Surely they can see that? It makes me want to bang my head against a wall when I have to explain that for the millionth time. So when Mrs. Stiller tells me that Mikayla’s shown up, I practically jump out of my chair to greet her.

She’s dressed completely different today, in a white chef’s coat and leggings that hug her curves. I feel desire rush down my body, and I have to make a firm decision to keep my eyes from wandering down. She’s foregone makeup, but her face is still fresh and dewy and gorgeous, even more so yesterday. She hands off her paperwork to Mrs. Stiller, and together we head toward the elevators. My dad loved cooking, and insisted that the company headquarters be fitted with a state of the art kitchen. I know that it’s been neglected in the past few years, but it was still sometimes used for work parties and the like. For the purposes of today, it would do just fine.

I’d sent someone yesterday to ensure that the kitchen’s fully stocked. Not only will Mikayla be cooking in here today, but she’ll be training the chefs at Red Canyon Steakhouse to ensure that they are all able to execute her menu, and she’ll be using it on a regular basis to come up with new seasonal favorites. It may be pricey to continually change up our offerings on the menu, but I think it’ll be worth it.

“You ready to do some cooking?” I ask her once we’re in the elevator.