He sighed with relief. “And they’ll come back?”
I shrugged. “That’s up to them,” I said. “I can’t make them do it. If they listen to me, you’ve got a fair chance.”
“And they’ll listen to you?”
His eyes were wide with desperation. I gave him a gentle nod. “I hope so.”
He rubbed a hand over his face and walked back out to the front of house, where I gathered there were some nervous young waiters desperately in need of training.
With any luck, we could send them home at the end of the night and never see them again.
I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and dialed Drake’s number first. I hadn’t wanted to leave him this morning, but he was sleeping peacefully – and with Grey’s offer ringing in my ears, I’d known how important it was to get to The Crow and discuss it properly.
The line rang out, landing me on a voicemail message. I frowned and tried to think of something to say – I hated speaking into machines. Was I supposed to reference the incredible, world-shifting sex we’d had last night? Or just play it casual? I decided to go with professional, since this was about work, after all.
“Uh, Drake? It’s me. Um, Rafael. If you couldn’t figure it out from my voice. Anyway, I’m calling from The Crow. Grey’s calling a general meeting tonight after the end of service. I think you’re going to want to hear the offer. We all will. I’m calling the others as well. Let’s just say things are going to change around here, and I think you’ll like it. So, uh, yeah. Call me back. Or just come along tonight. It’s up to you.”
I ended the call and then sank my head against the cool chrome of the unit I was standing next to. That… could have gone better.
“Chef, what do I do with the carrots now?” someone called out. I looked up and saw what he’d done – a level of chopping that made me think he had absolutely none of the experience in professional kitchens the agency had said he had – and rushed over to fix it.
I called the others one by one between attempts to prevent the amateurs from burning the whole restaurant down, which ended up in the busiest prep session I’d ever had with no time for family dinner. Not that it mattered. I managed to eat a bowl of completely destroyed carrot pieces and some burnt bread – which was fine once you cut off the whole of the top of the loaf – between dashing here and there.
One by one, they reluctantly agreed to come and hear Grey out. I knew all of them were only coming because of the assurances I’d made, and if Grey did screw up again after this, I was going to kill him. He would be dragging me down with him in the eyes of my team, and I couldn’t have that.
But there was a look in Grey’s eyes I’d never seen before, and this time, I had a feeling it was actually going to work out.
The last call I had to make was the most difficult one. I found a short time in the middle of service, when we had a lull in customers and the trainees seemed to be able to handle the simple task of putting a piece of meat and some vegetables neatly on a plate, and stepped outside. Sitting down on the stoop, I took a deep breath before I hit the call button.
It connected after only a few rings.
“Chef?”
I nearly melted at the sound of his miserable voice. “Beau,” I said, injecting as much warmth as I could into my voice. “How are you feeling? I didn’t know if you would pick up.”
“I’m okay.” He sniffed loudly, belying his statement. “I feel like an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot,” I reassured him. “A lot of people have fallen prey to that asshole. You’re far from the only one.”
“But you all warned me,” Beau said. His voice was strangled like he was on the verge of bursting into tears again.
“And you didn’t listen, because you’re an optimist who actually believes in love,” I told him. “That’s special. Don’t ever lose that. Especially not because of Grey Monaghan.”
He laughed thickly, and I gave him a moment before getting to the point of my call.
“Look, a lot happened since yesterday,” I said. “I thought you would want to know.”
I told him everything: the walkout that had happened as soon as he left, the way Drake had been offered the job but quit anyway, how we’d left Grey without even a dishwasher to his name. I’dleft out the part about taking Drake back to my place and the night we’d shared, thinking that it would be insensitive to rub it in Beau’s face while he was heartbroken.
But, finally, I told him about this morning. About the call I’d had from Grey, and how I’d gone in to hear him out. The promise he had made. How it didn’t make it right, what he’d done to Beau, but how it would serve as a reasonable condition for the rest of us to return to work. Ultimately, I wanted to know what he felt about it. Whether he thought it was fair. And then there was the big question.
“Look, I don’t know how you feel about all of this, but I’ve got to make the offer to you if I’m making it to anyone,” I said. “Would you come back to work under those conditions?”
Beau snorted. It wasn’t a happy sound, or even a very bitter one; he just sounded sad. “Thanks, but I didn’t walk out in protest about his lifestyle,” he said. “I walked away because he cheated on me. I don’t think there’s any way I can come back from that one.”
I nodded sadly. “I can understand that,” I said. “I’ll miss you. We all will.”
“I know.” Beau hesitated. “You know, I think there’s a reason why everything happens. Maybe this is the push I needed. I’ve been thinking about setting out on my own for a while. I don’t think I’d ever make it to Head Chef at The Crow – you’ll be around for so long, I’ll be most of the way through my career if you ever even retire – but I might be able to make a success of my own business.”
