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Daniel doesn’t miss it. “Ah. So she’s immune to your famous charm.”
“No woman is immune to me.”
They look at each other. Then they both laugh.
Assholes.
I set my glass on a passing tray. “Enjoy yourselves.”
Tom raises his. “Good luck with the abnormal woman.”
“I don’t need luck.”
I head for the doors as tomorrow’s plan begins to take shape. Rachel says she listens to her staff. It’s time to find out if she means it.
Winning over the rest of the Hartwell should be easy. Nothing a little well-spent money can’t solve.
6
RACHEL
When I arrive at work on Wednesday morning, the Hartwell’s linen truck is idling at the curb instead of backing into the service lane. The driver lowers his window as I approach.
“Morning, Rachel. Someone beat us to it,” the driver says.
“Sorry. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll clear it.”
A delivery truck fills the lane. Its driver is unloading matte-black wine boxes onto two trolleys while Alfonzo, our head porter, reads the gold lettering across one of the lids.
“What did we order?” I ask Alfonzo as I approach.
“Nothing. They’re gifts.”
“Who sent them?”
Alfonzo turns the box toward me. VOSS is printed across the lid in large gold letters.
You’ve got to be kidding me. Eric can’t get permission to use my service lane, so he’s sent a truck to block it.
I open the box and find six bottles of Shiraz. A gold corkscrew hangs from the neck of each one, tied with black ribbon. VOSS is printed across every handle.
I know the wine. We serve a younger vintage in the restaurant, and even that costs almost two hundred dollars a bottle.
“How many boxes are there?”
“Eighteen. Enough for every employee.” Alfonzo points to a larger box behind the stack. “He sent that one for you.”
My name is written across the lid in gold. I leave it where it is.
The driver keeps unloading, and the boxes are taking up the space we need for the linen carts.
“How much longer?” I ask him.
“Five minutes.”
Alfonzo lifts another box onto the trolley. “I’ll put them in the old banquet storeroom until we can hand them out.”
I set down my handbag and help him move the remaining boxes. A few minutes later, the delivery truck finally pulls away. I wave the linen truck forward, and its driver gives me a small salute before backing into the lane.
