‘Wouldn’t miss it,’ Isobel said, taking the girls’ hands and leading them inside.
Clem had rostered Sebastian and Selina on for the day, plus Isobel to babysit, so she could make some headway on the coffee van and the mountain of paperwork she’d fallen behind on. She quickly got to work.
The first item on her agenda was working out the glitch with the new coffee machine. It had run smoothly in the morning at the market, but all afternoon the steam wand had been temperamental. Jean’s backup Nespresso milk frother had been a godsend.
But the stand-alone frothing gadget was an emergency fix, not a solution, and the minutes ticked by as Clem waited on hold to the coffee machine retailer.
‘Sorry, what was that?’ Clem squinted at the phone, trying to hear over the crackling phone connection. After half an hour of troubleshooting with a torch and some hard-to-follow suggestions, she still hadn’t cracked the issue.
Frustrated, she locked the van and headed for the cafe, where she settled into the office to work on her proposal for another school catering contract. Several local schools renewed their canteen contracts at the end of each year, and while she hadn’t yet heard back about her first few pitches, she’d redrafted her business plan to ensure she could handle multiple school catering contracts and still turn a profit. Sheknuckled in, determined to submit the latest proposal well ahead of schedule.
‘Having a win?’
She turned in her chair to find Sebastian in the office doorway, carefully balancing three plates. The sight of his cheeky grin, and the beautifully presented plates of fresh, seasonal and local produce, filled her with joy.
If the world stopped tomorrow, she could hold her head high knowing she’d championed local producers and gathered a team of passionate employees to serve up the finest food in the district, not to mention raised two feisty, gorgeous girls.
Was it greedy to ask for more?
‘Hard to say, but I’ve rejigged the templates for the catering quotes and tightened up the pricing, so I guess that’s winning.’
‘Hey!’ Sebastian flinched, cradling the plates like a protective parent as Selina rushed past. ‘Watch where you’re going.’
‘Sorry,’ called Selina over her shoulder, the pile of dishes she was carrying dripping a trail behind her.
Clem shot Sebastian an apologetic look.
‘I’m on it.’ She left her small office and grabbed a cloth from the cafe’s kitchen to clean up before anyone slipped. She glanced around the cafe as she tidied. Most of the customers were absorbed in their meals, or their conversation, but one man sitting close to the counter was tapping his loafers on the polished concrete and frowning at his watch. She approached his table with her brightest smile. ‘Can I get you anything?’
He let out a sigh and made a show of rubbing his belly. ‘You could get me what I ordered. I can’t believe it’s that hard to make soft-boiled eggs with bacon and tomatoes. Not beans, tomatoes. And not eggs hard-boiled within an inch of their life. I want soft eggs with runny yolks. And certainly none of this fake bacon nonsense. That girl’s brought two plates out and neither have been right. Let’s hope the thirdtime’s a charm. Not sure I’ll be coming back here again if I have to wait all bloody day for my breakfast.’
Clem was used to customers changing their minds, or misremembering what they’d ordered, but this sounded more like their error than his.
She smoothed things over as best she could, assuring him the meal was complimentary and apologising for the mix-up.
‘It’s not a mix up, it’s incompetence. That girl is off with the fairies. I see you had to mop up the tail end of my teapot from when she carted it out. Trust me, the poor man pays twice when cutting corners with cheap staff. It’s not worth it.’
Clem gritted her teeth and set down his order. She didn’t want to think about the above-award wages she was paying Selina, or the awkwardness she risked by firing her.
The arrival of her grandfather, Arthur, was a sight for sore eyes.
‘Aren’t you supposed to be finishing off your paperwork?’ Sebastian asked when he popped out from the kitchen.
‘I’ll get back to it in a moment,’ Clem told him with a wan smile, grabbing some menus and eyeing the empty chair beside her grandfather. If only she had a spare moment to sit and chat …
‘It’s bustling in here today,’ he said, unwrapping his scarf and removing his quilted vest. ‘You’re doing such a brilliant job, Clemmy, no wonder you look exhausted.’
‘Gee, thanks Pop. It’s been a roller-coaster, actually. Selina’s hit and miss, and her default setting is surly. See that guy over there?’
She told him about the irate customer, who had finally settled down now that he’d received the correct meal, free of charge.
‘Give it time, love. Your grandmother would be cursing me if I let you fire your own cousin. It’ll make Christmas with Jean awkward too.’ He covered her hand with his, andsuddenly Clem wanted to press her head into his shoulder and cry like she had as a teenager.
‘It’ll sort itself out, my girl. I’m still impressed that you’ve achieved so much in such a short space of time. Adding those dumplings to the menu was a deft move, and if you want a new flavour bomb for the summer menu, Mrs Singh is offering up her samosa recipe.’
Art offered to connect her with more of his retirement village friends, which was lovely, but when the conversation turned toLove on the Land, Clem felt swamped with indecision.
She wasn’t ready to share anything about Spencer, and she also wasn’t sure she wanted to hear any more about the show.
