Guilty Pleasures by Guilty Pleasures

Author:Guilty Pleasures
Language: eng
Format: epub

6

THE KITCHEN WAS A NOISY, chaotic swell of activity, and Nick was manning the helm. He couldn’t believe it was almost three months that he’d been there, and that the new menu had been selling at a brisk rate for two months.

After several hours of the lunch shift and heading into dinner, he felt like he’d been working here for years. And at the gratifyingly smooth workings of the crew as they shifted into high gear, he felt like he’d been working with them for years.

“We are so packed, it’s nuts,” Zooey said, in her high, girlish voice. “Where’s Mari, again?”

Paulo was busy working the sauté station, his hands a blur of motion as he spiced one saucier pan here, and plated an entrée there. Tiny was working the grill, making the flames leap like he was some kind of demon-chef. Nick noticed that they were too busy to answer.

“Mari’s off at the landlord’s,” Nick said, barely looking up from his own work, although he was startled into glancing up at the boo that resounded among the crew.

“That chiseling old bastard,” Tiny pronounced, the flames punctuating his response.

“Yeah. Slumlord,” Paulo said with a snort. “Ten bucks says he ups the rent because he heard we were doing well!”

There was a rowdy chorus of assent on that one. “Don’t worry, Mari can handle him,” Nick responded, and there was more assent at that…and they were a little calmer, too. Nick didn’t know the landlord, but he knew Mari, and he doubted any chiseling old bastard landlord could get the drop on her.

Few people could, he thought, with a proud smile. She was a sharp, savvy, no-holds-barred woman.

She was incredible.

He’d spent as many nights as he could at her place, or had encouraged her to stay with him, especially on Sundays, so they could spend a leisurely Monday morning over the paper, or wandering through the market. They’d spent a lot of it in bed, but they’d spent more time out of it, he’d noticed…not just having sex, but having dinner, talking over plans for the restaurant. Or just talking.

Their relationship was moving into affair country, he noticed. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but another part of him realized it was going to continue to happen, no matter what he logically thought.

He cared about her too much.

Tonight, they were going to work on some modifications to the menu…and maybe broach the idea of entering in one of the competitions. Nothing as prestigious as Internationale or the Bocuse D’or in France, he amended. Guilty Pleasures was still too new in the game, and still had a lot of seasoning before it was ready to handle the big-league competitors that those venues drew. But some smaller, more local stuff would be good confidence builders, he thought. And he knew Lindsay had been talking about doing some more promo stuff. He told Mari he’d go over some of her plans with her, just sort of brainstorm.

He’d also promised her to make

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.