Romance Impossible(45)

"Hey," I said, going over to my station. "Chef's not here yet?"

Liam just shrugged.

"Okay then," I muttered, pulling my phone out of my pocket. No missed calls. But it was absolutely unheard-of for him to be missing this close to lunch service. Something had to be wrong.

It was likely to be a quiet day, so we could limp along without him if we needed to. If I was being honest, that wasn't really what worried me. Unless he was lying dead in a ditch, I couldn't imagine why we'd be in this situation in the first place.

As I did my prep work, I kept imagining that I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. But every time I checked it - nothing. If Max were here, he'd snap at me for even keeping it in my pocket. Oh, the irony.#p#分页标题#e#

Twenty minutes later, it was time to admit to myself that I was really worried.

Finding a good stopping place, I stepped away from my work to call Lydia. I figured if anyone knew what was going on, she would. But if she knew, wouldn't she have called already? I chewed my bottom lip while her phone rang and rang.

She finally answered. "Hello, this is Lydia."

"Hi, it's Jillian Brown. I'm at the Trattoria and it's almost time to open up, but Chef's not here. Have you heard anything from him lately?"

"Not since yesterday morning," she said, her tone instantly worried. "That's not like him at all. Have you asked the others?"

"Well, the prep cook doesn't know anything - hold on, some of the servers just walked in." I turned the mouthpiece towards my shoulder. Aiden, Holly and Cat were all crowding in towards the back room. "Have you guys heard anything from Chef Dylan?"

They all shook their heads.

"He's not here?" Aiden asked, disbelieving.

I shook my own head in response, going back to the phone. "No, nobody's heard a damn thing. This is...concerning, right? What should we do?"

"I'm calling his mobile on my other line right now," Lydia said. "No answer. Listen - I'm going to hang up with you and call Beckett, maybe he knows something we don't. In the meantime, if you hear anything at all, please let me know."

"Will do. Thanks, Lydia."

"Man," said Aiden, still staring at me, wide-eyed, his bistro apron in hand. "What are we gonna do?"

I looked around the kitchen. All the servers and Liam had stopped what they were doing, and were just staring. Looking to me. Looking to me, of all people. For guidance.

"We're going to open the restaurant," I said, firmly. "Cat, please go unlock the door. Nothing needs to change just because Chef's absent. Okay?"

"Okay," said Cat. "Sounds good."

The rest of them filtered out to the dining room. So that was taken care of. I went over to Liam's area, where he was hunched over the meat grinder.

"Hey," I said. "Listen. I know this is kind of..." I sighed. There was no use beating around the bush with him. "I know you've never been happy with this position, and you only took it because you needed the job. I know how that feels. I used to be a sous chef before I started working here. Tonight's your chance to prove that you're more than just a prep cook. I'm going to need your help. Can I count on you?"

After a painfully long silence, he finally looked up at me - making sustained eye contact, I thought, for the first time since we'd met.

"Okay," he said. He wasn't even scowling.

I allowed myself to bask in my triumph for just a moment, before I remembered why I was in this situation in the first place. I glanced at my phone again, compulsively. Did Max even have my number? It was far more likely he'd call the restaurant itself, if he even knew that number off the top of his head.

Or he might call Lydia first, in which case I'd be hearing from her on my cell.

I checked it once more, for good measure.

Aiden came bursting into the kitchen like his hair was on fire. "I've got the first ticket!" he nearly shouted, waving it at me.

"All right, calm down," I said. "That was fast."

"I know." His eyes were like saucers. "They're in a hurry. They need to get across town for a show."

"At eleven o'clock in the morning?" I stared at the order. It was relatively simple, thank God.#p#分页标题#e#

Aiden shrugged. "That's what they told me."

"All right. Okay. Doesn't matter. I'll have it out as fast as I can, okay? Make sure they get some bread if they want it, and the dipping oil."

Forcing myself to switch off any thoughts of what had happened to Max, I focused on getting the entrées prepared as quickly as possible. Before I knew it, I'd slipped comfortably into a slightly supercharged version of my normal routine. The undercurrent of worry was still there, but whatever was happening, the best thing I could do for him was keep the restaurant going.