The Long Way Home by Robin Pilcher

Author:Robin Pilcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-3123-5435-0
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

23

New York—June 2006

Two hundred and four covers for the evening. That was an all-time record. Not only was every table taken both inside and outside on the cordoned-off part of the sidewalk, but seven had been early pre-theatre bookings so were now occupied by later reservations. Though in his renovation plans Art had made the passage between the extended kitchen and the restaurant area much wider, it was as chaotic as the Pamplona bull run, the four table servers having to dodge past each other with laden plates held on high. Even Claire and Art had been pressed to join in the fray, forsaking their usual ambulatory roles as front-of-house hosts to don the white-aproned uniforms of Barrington’s. As they came face to face with each other in the passage, they stepped the same way, and then the other, and then both stopped, laughing and shaking their heads.

Art breathed out exhaustedly. “I sometimes wonder.”

“What?” asked Claire.

“Whether we shouldn’t have just kept the place to its original size.” He slumped against the wall. “This is nuts. We shouldn’t even be here today. This is our daughter’s ninth birthday and we’ve managed to spend all of two hours with her.”

Claire smiled sadly at him. It was not just that it was Violet’s birthday. The never-ending work in the restaurant had relegated their daughter’s existence to no more than a walk-on part in their lives and the feelings of guilt and frustration over this were never far from Claire’s mind.

“In that case, let’s do something about it,” she said.

“What do you suggest?”

“I think it’s high time we took on a manager,” she replied.

Art smiled. It was not the first time she had suggested this. He stood for a moment surveying the mayhem in the corridor before nodding decisively. “Okay, let’s do it,” he replied, pressing his back against the wall to allow a rushing waitress past. “We’ll get on to it tomorrow.”

Claire felt like giving out a loud cry of jubilation as she hurried on her way to the kitchen. At last, she thought to herself.

There had not been a holiday, hardly a weekend break, since they had extended the restaurant into the next-door premises. From the outset it had been a much bigger operation than they had at first envisaged. The initial thought was that it would just be a case of busting a hole through the wall to connect the two properties, and then a bit of wallpapering and parquet-floor matching before scattering around a few extra tables and chairs. But then further practicalities and health and safety regulations caused havoc for a while. The kitchen was not big enough, nor met with the correct specifications to cope with the increased seating, so the small administration office had to be sacrificed to allow for its extension. Art thought they could survive without the office, but four weeks into the refurbishment the filing cabinets and desk, now mono-coloured with red brick dust, were seriously hampering work progress. So Art was forced to

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