Romance Impossible(27)

"I'm...I'm sorry?" She stepped in, her confusion turning to genuine concern.

"The seafood supplier just called," I said, slowly, like I didn't quite believe my own statement. "They've got...basically nothing for us. Some kind of screw-up. I don't know. I stopped listening at some point." I shook my head, snapping back to reality. "Have to make some calls. See if there's anyone who can supply us on short notice..."

Jill held up a single finger: Wait.

"I can handle that," she said. "How much of everything do you need?"

I blinked a few times, then handed her the copy of the purchase order. She scanned over it briefly, then picked up the phone on my desk. "It'll be a very reasonable price," she said. "So don't worry."

"I'm not worried," I said. "Just - I didn't know you had seafood connections."

She smiled as she tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder. "It's Boston, Chef. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody."

I wasn't sure that was strictly accurate, at least when it came to seafood. But I wasn't about to question it.

"Mr. Lamott, hi. It's Jill Brown - Shelly's friend. I've just started working at a new restaurant....yes....yeah, thank you. Here's the thing, though, we're supposed to open today and we ran into a little hiccup....yeah, you guessed it....within a few hours?...oh, awesome. That's fantastic....yes, thanks, I'll hold."

"He's transferring me to the warehouse," she mouthed, in my direction. I just nodded.

While she was reading off the order, I started to wonder what the hell was wrong with me. I'd had vendors cancel on me plenty of times before. I'd dealt with missing orders, wrong orders, spoiled orders...granted, I'd never had someone cancel on this short of a notice before, but I still should have been able to handle it better than I did. I should have been on the phone immediately, not waiting for Jill to come in and rescue me.

What was this woman doing to me?





***



"Uhhh, Chef?"

Aiden's eyes were huge. He was staring at me, that deer-in-the-headlights look that would have brought out untold levels of rage in me - if only he wasn't family.#p#分页标题#e#

"Yes, Aiden," I said, as patiently as I could manage. The kitchen activity was starting to pick up, the seafood had arrived just in the nick of time, and everything seemed to be running smoothly for the time being. But I had a feeling that was about to change.

"I think I screwed up," he said. "I took some reservations, and...I think I took too many..."

"What? When?" My mind started racing. "You're not supposed to make any reservations, Aiden. That's not your job. One is too many. Did you check Cat's book, at least?"

"....yeah," he said, drawing the word out slowly. "But I think I kind of...read it wrong..."

Moments later, Cat, the hostess, burst in.

"Chef," she said, urgently, looking almost as angry as she was terrified. "I don't know what happened. I must have forgotten to switch it over to the messaging service before I went to lunch the other day, and..." She glared over in Aiden's direction.

"I thought I was helping," Aiden insisted, turning to her. His voice was raised in a way I didn't like.

"Hey!" I snapped. "Bickering doesn't help us now. What's the situation? How bad is it?"

Cat cleared her throat. "I think we're...I think we're double-booked until at least 8 o'clock."

"Christ." I pressed my fingertips into my closed eyes for a moment. "All right. Okay. Aiden, get back to your customers. Cat, we'll just have to play this by ear. Some of these people won't show, and some of the earlier ones won't stay as long as we planned. We'll manage. Right? And if anyone gives you too much trouble, call me to the front. I'll deal with them."

She nodded, taking a deep breath and returning to her station. I felt for her more than anyone. Worst case scenario, the bad press for this would still come off as "Chef Dylan's New Restaurant Too Popular For Its Own Good." But she was on the front lines, and was almost guaranteed to take the brunt of every inconvenienced diner's anger.

Aiden was a liability. I'd known that when I hired him. But I was enough of a black sheep in my family already, without refusing to hire my nephew when he was in a rough spot. My sister Megan, she begged, and she guilt-tripped, and she was practically a professional at that.

I hadn't spent much time with the kid since he was - well, a kid. But from what I remembered he was always friendly and pleasant enough. Unfortunately, that didn't transfer to actual work skills.

Finally, I went back to my work, with only half of my concentration focused on the food. It was early yet. Things wouldn't get hairy until later, when the restaurant began to grow crowded, and we'd have to start turning people away - some of whom might actually have reservations.