Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
We dropped the food off at the restaurant. “What do you want me to throw something together for lunch?”
“Stevie.” I laughed. “You’ve been doing so much cooking, no way I’m letting you do any more. I’m going to take you out for lunch instead, how about it? My treat.”
“Oh, well, since you’re paying…” Stevie teased, nudging me with her elbow as we left again.
“You need to let other people do the cooking for you sometimes,” I told her seriously as we headed for a local diner. “Otherwise you do too much of it and you lose your joy for it, just like any other job.”
The diner we grab was near Fisherman’s Wharf, good hometown type food. “Is there anything on here that isn’t swimming in gravy?” Stevie said.
“Emperor’s New Groove,” I said, accurately identifying the quote. Brooke and Stevie watched that movie so damn much when they were teens, I think because it helped them laugh and de-stress after all their homework. They were always quoting it at each other.
Stevie grinned at me, her eyes shining. “I wasn’t sure you’d get the reference.”
“You and Brooke were always quoting it, how could I not?”
“Yeah, but, we were the kids. You had your own things.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t always think of you as a fellow adult. I sure didn’t want to sleep with you when you were a teenager.”
“Oh, good, I hear that’s not such a great thing.”
I laughed. “But I always paid attention to you. You were a bright person, a hard worker, you still are. I always enjoyed your company and I was glad that you were a friend to Brooke. I just… appreciate you in a different way now.” I winked at her.
“I’ll say.” Stevie chuckled. Then she tapped her laminated menu. “This stuff is… simple, I guess you could say, but you wouldn’t call it the same as my stuff at our place, would you?”
“Oh, no way.”
“Although,” Stevie added, pretending to think for a moment, “we could start covering everything in gravy. I think it would bring in a whole new level of clientele.”
“It would bring in a whole new level all right,” I replied, chuckling.
Stevie gave me a conspiratorial grin, and I realized how relaxed I felt. How easy it was to spend all of this time with her, how free and light our banter was. It didn’t feel exhausting to be with her, or like a chore. In fact the time had flown by.
And every time she looked at me like that—the way that she was looking at me right now—I felt like I could do anything. Like I was at the top of my game.
What the hell was I supposed to do with that?
Chapter Sixteen: Stevie
I hadn’t planned this when we’d gotten to the diner, but you know what? What the hell. This was a good chance to give an object lesson in how not to run a restaurant.
“I don’t want to fuck around or anything,” I said, “step on your toes or whatever, but I was hoping maybe we could use this chance to talk shop a little more?”
“Sure thing.” Michael set down his menu. “What’s on your mind?”
When I used to want to be so focused on my career, people kept telling me that I was too ambitious, too hard, that I needed to relax and soften and get a proper work-life balance. I hadn’t been able to avoid noticing that they never said that to my equally-ambitious and hardworking male classmates. Because I was a girl, what was a great “go get ‘em” drive in the men was turned into “whoa, honey, slow down,” for me.
But Michael seemed delighted that I was so focused on the restaurant, that I was so dedicated to it. He kept telling me how much he appreciated my hard work ethic. I couldn’t remember the last time that someone had said that about me—and he had noticed it all the way back when I was in high school.
It made me feel validated in a way that nobody else really had.
“I see places that are run like this all the time,” I explained. “And while… while pretentious places like what Theo does fucking frustrate me, this does too. I don’t want our restaurant to be like this, either. I feel that there has to be a balance in the middle. There has to be an in-between ground.
“Because if you look at this—these people do good business right? Because people don’t want frills, they want to come here and eat and there’s a feeling of comfort to food like this, and sometimes you just want some fucking comfort, you want to drown in gravy. But not when you want a real experience, and that’s what a restaurant like ours gives. That fine dining experience. You feel… classy, when you go to our restaurant. You feel special. Waited on, you know? That’s why we call them waiters and servers.”