Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Even though it was only my first day, I found myself getting wrapped up in that feeling when I sat down with everyone to eat and celebrate the end of a great day. After everybody got a few bites in, Derek got a glass of wine and stood up in front of everybody.
“By now, most of you have probably already noticed we have a new face among us. You may have even met her. I doubt it, though, considering she’s been going at full speed since she got here. Now that we are all settled down, I want to introduce you to Jodi. She came in and saved us today, and since she has agreed to take the position full-time, she’ll be saving us a lot more. I want all of you to welcome her and make sure she’s comfortable. Here’s to Jodi,” he said.
He finished the toast and held up his glass. The small team all welcomed me, and I was immediately brought into several conversations as we dug into our meals. I had a feeling I was going to like it here.
7
DEREK
She’d been around for less than twenty-four hours, and by the end of the brunch service on Sunday, I didn’t know what I had ever done without Jodi. The woman was proving to be a godsend. Not to mention I didn’t get tired of looking at her tall, shapely body moving so effortlessly around the restaurant floor.
I really shouldn’t have been thinking about her that way. She was the new hire, and the only thing on my mind should be her serving skills. And those seemed to just be getting better. No matter what was thrown at her, Jodi didn’t flinch. She was unfazed by how busy it was, the complex menu, or the sometimes-fussy guests.
We didn’t get a lot of those. For the most part, our customers were perfectly pleasant people who came in to enjoy the atmosphere and incredible food. But there were always the exceptions.
A few of the more demanding regular customers came in for brunch that Sunday morning, and I carefully watched how Jodi handled them. It was nothing short of masterful. She was smooth and unaffected, letting their comments and entitlements roll right off her back and continuing to do what needed to be done without getting flustered.
But what impressed me the most was how she spoke with them. On more than one occasion, another server got into a conflict with a customer and didn’t know what to do to settle the situation. Jodi was able to slide into it and know just how to talk to the customer. Whatever she said, she was able to do it in a way that calmed the customer down and ended the difficulty.
It was fascinating to watch, and it made me wonder where she got the experience to do that. Ally told me Jodi had been working at a diner in town most recently, and I highly doubted she would have had to deal with the kind of particularness and attitude with the customers there that she did with the ones here.
I also couldn’t help but wonder about her requirement to be paid under the table. That whole thing was a curiosity and a situation I hadn’t yet encountered. But Cameron was okay with it, so I was okay with it too. What mattered to me was how well she did her job and that she was reliable. It wasn’t up to me to evaluate her life.
But Cam had told me there were still formalities we had to go through when hiring her. We couldn’t just say “welcome aboard” and have her show up for work. Even if we agreed to have her paid under the table for now, we still had to document her existence. Which was why I had a stack of papers to give her at the end of the shift.
She looked understandably and deservedly tired when I caught up with her after the last of the customers left.
“Hey,” I said. “How was your second day?”
She let out a sigh but nodded. “Good. But I have to admit, I’m glad Sundays are only brunch service. I think I’m going to need a little bit of time to get used to all of this.”
I let out a short laugh and nodded. “I can definitely understand that. And speaking of which, here are some papers Cam printed out for you. He wants you to fill them out and get them back to him as soon as possible.”
“Okay,” she said, sounding a bit wary as she looked down at the papers in her hands.
I could almost see the gears churning in her head, wondering what the papers were and what she should do next.
“He said if you have problems filling anything out, you should go talk to him and he’ll figure it out with you,” I said.