Hungry For You(9)

“Why especially right now?” Cale asked.

“She’s in the midst of opening a second restaurant,” Bricker informed him. “She started with this little hole-in-the-wall. It was fancy,” he added, in case Cale got the wrong impression. “But small. Only she’s onehell of a cook, and it was a raging success. You had to book months ahead to get a table. So she decided she needed a larger venue, only from what Sam has said, that’s been one problem after another, and Alex has been running in circles trying to get it together in time for opening night.”

“When is that?” Cale asked.

“In two weeks,” Bricker said dryly. “Trust me, she’ll be running around like a chicken with her head cut off and—life mate or no life mate—you’ll be lucky if she gives you the time of day if she finds out you’re not a chef.”

Cale was silent for a moment, and then undid his seat belt and shifted around to reach in the back for the cookbook. It seemed to him it was better to be safe than sorry.


“There’s absolutely no one you can think of who’s even a halfway-decent cook and presently unemployed?” Alex asked unhappily, and then listened to the voice over the phone as Gina, a dear friend who was also a chef, told her no. Alex grimaced, and murmured, “Well, thanks for trying, anyway.”

Alex set the phone back in its cradle with a weary sigh. She’d spent the last forty-five minutes since talking to Sam making calls, but there didn’t appear to be any chefs out there in search of a position … which was just ridiculous considering the state of the economy, but it was also just her luck lately.

Growling with frustration, Alex scrubbed her hands over her face, and then dropped onto her desk chairwith a groan. She’d continued with her calls in case the chef whom Sam was sending over was completely unsuitable, but it seemed he was her only hope at this point. If he wasn’t up to scratch, she would have to cook here herself tonight, which meant she couldn’t see to the things she needed to do to get the larger restaurant opened on time at the new location.

Why on earth had she set herself up for this hell? Alex wondered miserably. It had seemed such a simple and easy plan at the time. This restaurant had been going like gangbusters, always full, the money rolling in. She’d been the fat, happy cat enjoying the cream of her success … and then some little devil had whispered in her ear that she should expand and, like an idiot, she’d rushed impulsively forward with the idea.

Originally, Alex had hoped to purchase the storefront next door and simply knock down the wall between and make this restaurant larger. But then she’d realized it meant canceling several bookings to get the work done, and then someone suggested simply opening another restaurant at the other end of the city. She might bring in a whole new clientele.

With visions of a chain of La Bonne Vie restaurants dancing through her head, Alex had set out to find the perfect building in the perfect location. Then she’d settled down to decorate and market the opening of the second La Bonne Vie. Everything had gone smoothly at first, and then bad luck had begun to plague her. The perfect spot had been an old Victorian house at the edge of a busy shopping area. It was newly renovated, charming, and perfect—until an electrical firehad broken out late one night shortly after she’d started decorating it.

Fortunately, Alex had already had an alarm system put in, and the fire department had gotten there quickly. Unfortunately, while the fire itself hadn’t spread far, there had been smoke damage throughout the entire building. Suddenly, instead of some light redecorating, Alex had found herself faced with the necessity of gutting the interior and fully restoring it.

Her luck hadn’t gotten any better from there. The last few months had been spent putting out fires of a different sort: chasing down shipments that were delayed or just seemed to have disappeared, workmen who suddenly quit or simply didn’t show up, orders that had somehow gotten confused so that the wrong products arrived. In a couple of instances, the workmen had started to install the wrong items before she got there, and the companies refused to reimburse her for “used” products.

Soon the money had started to run out, and she’d had to dig into her private savings. That was when Alex had begun to panic. With the opening date already set and promoted, she’d fired the project manager who had been overseeing the redecorating and promoted Peter from sous-chef to head chef at the original La Bonne Vie, so that she could be on site at the new building all the time to ensure that there were no more foul-ups … which had apparently convinced the little weasel that he was a world-class chef worthy of scads of money.