To: Wilder Amante
Re: Offer letter
Chef Amante,
I hope this letter finds you well.
We are opening a new fine dining establishment in Cobble Hill next spring. We’d like to offer you the position of executive chef. Concept, menu planning, and execution would all fall within your jurisdiction.
We’re looking for someone with vision, class, and a sophisticated palette who could give our guests more than just a meal, but an experience.
Something they keep coming back for more of.
Salary and benefits are attached. Your start date would be by fall, at the latest.
Awaiting your acceptance,
Your family
Just like it does every time, my skin ices over at that closing.
Family.
The years they were my family were the worst years of my life.
I lost my only blood family to their so-calledfamily. My father gave his life in their service. For what?
It’s only when I got out of that life that I found anything for myself that started to feel like an actual family.
And it’s the people inside the building behind me.
Samuel’s quiet, calming presence, unruffled even at the peak of lunch rush.
Charlie’s enthusiasm over every new skill he masters in the kitchen.
Dishy’s dirty jokes that keep us laughing while breaking down and cleaning up.
The women in the front of the house who keep us in line.
And the boss, the one who brought it all together, this small place off of the tiniest Main Street I’ve ever seen, with the ragtagcrew of people with the biggest hearts I’ve had the pleasure of working with.
Lexi is the reason this is even happening in the first place.
It’s the team we’ve built through a fast couple of months where we all got thrown into the fire together, a kind of camaraderie that only comes with sink or swim. When you’re back to back, keeping each other afloat during an hours-long rush, have run out of half the ingredients on the menu, put out metaphorical fires together (and one literal one Charlie managed to start), you can’t help but bond with your staff.
They have my back. In just two months, they’ve proven it.
What did my father’s old life ever do for me? I gave, and I gave, and all I got from it was the chance to walk away.
Is this going to be any better this time?
Or is the restaurant a front for something that’s going to end up with me behind bars again?
Maybe this time I won’t make it out.
My fingers flip to the second page of the letter, the enormous starting salary, the benefits package that no job I’ve ever had could compete with, and the bonuses listed out for hitting milestones as the restaurant opens and grows.
I have no doubt it adds up to more than all of the staff here make combined.
