Page 13 of A Bright Winter Season

“If you need anything from me, such as a set of keys, just let me know, please.” She smiled at him politely, waiting for him to turn around and leave.

“I will, thanks.”

For a moment, they stood there staring at each other. Vivian felt as though she was beginning to blush.

“I thought I’d start in here,” Terrence said finally.

“Oh! Certainly. I’ll just—” Vivian hesitated. She didn’t want to seem as though she was hovering behind him, watching him as if she was worried he was going to find something wrong with her restaurant. She felt confident that they were going to pass the health inspection with flying colors, they always had in the past. “I’ll go work in the front of the restaurant. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will.” Terrence nodded at her, still moving a bit stiffly.

Vivian left the office and made her way to the dining room of the pub. She felt flustered, and she wished she’d caught his email before he’d arrived. She knew that she shouldn’t blame herself for missing it, since she had been unusually busy, but the wholething made her feel slightly unprofessional. That was the last thing she wanted to feel after reading Judd’s interview.

She greeted a family who had just stepped inside the pub, leading them to a booth in front of one of the windows. She found herself looking around the pub more closely than she usually did, wondering if things were in more disrepair than she thought they were. She knew how one could simply not notice things in an environment they were familiar with, and she found herself worrying that Terrence might find something wrong with the pub after all.

To occupy herself, she went from table to table, refilling coffee cups and glasses of iced tea. She kept glancing at her watch, wondering how long it would take Terrence to do his inspection. After a while he appeared in the dining room, walking around slowly with his clipboard. She did her best not to stare at him, but she kept finding herself looking at him, wondering what he was thinking. He was frowning slightly, and that made her nervous.

Finally, he caught her eye and gestured for her to come over to him. She hurried over, doing her best to put on a polite, relaxed smile.

“Why don’t we go back to the office to chat?” she said breezily. She could see in his eyes that he had something not great to tell her, and she didn’t want any of the customers to overhear what he said.

“Certainly.”

He followed her through the kitchen back to the office, where she turned to him with another forced smile. “What do you have to report?”

“Your air vents need to be replaced,” he said, wasting no time on ceremony.

“The air—oh, all right.” She felt surprised. They kept the pub clean and tidy, and from the outside, all of the air vents appearedto be in fine working condition. Whatever she thought about Terrence’s stiffness, however, she didn’t think he was dishonest. She trusted that he was telling her the truth.

“Well, we’ll get those replaced, then. As early as the beginning of next year, probably right after New Year’s.” To her, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable length of time.

Terrence shook his head. “That’s not soon enough.”

Vivian frowned. “Well, I don’t know how we could possibly get it done sooner. We’re planning a Christmas community event and redecorating the dining room. It just doesn’t make sense for us to do any renovations now. Perhaps just after Christmas? We should be able to manage that if we hurry.”

Terrence shook his head again. “No, ma’am, you’ll need to get the air vents replaced right away. ASAP. Otherwise, you won’t be in compliance with code.”

Vivian held back a sigh of frustration. She felt that the timing of Terrence’s arrival was very unfortunate. She was sure the air vents weren’t actually any kind of a health hazard, and she wished that he’d arrived to inspect the pub after Christmas, which would have prevented this stressful situation.

“It seems a little silly to worry about air vents that have been causing no problems in such a hurry. I hardly think it’s necessary to prioritize them over preparing for an event that represents the spirit and community-oriented atmosphere of our restaurant.”

“Unfortunately, waiting is not an option. It has to be done right away.”

“All right. If it has to be done right away, we’ll get it done somehow. We’re a professional establishment, we wouldn’t want to operate without being in compliance with code.”

“You couldn’t operate without being in compliance with code,” Terrence said blankly. “You’d get shut down.”

Vivian pressed her lips together, feeling annoyed with his attitude. She felt that he could afford to be a little more graciousunder the circumstances. “Well, that won’t happen. We’ll get the vents replaced. Is that all? Did you find anything else wrong?”

He shook his head. “No, nothing else. The rest of the restaurant is in perfect order.” He offered a small smile, which she was surprised at, unsure of why he was suddenly being friendly.

“Good.” She wanted to add,I’m not at all surprised, but she decided it might come off as too irritated. She felt irritated, and she wanted to hide that. After all, the man was just doing his job. Even if she hadn’t liked his attitude, it wasn’t his fault that the vents needed to be replaced in order for the pub to be up to code.

“I can’t stress enough that the vents need to be replaced as soon as possible.” Terrence clicked his pen a few more times. “That means before your Christmas party. It won’t be acceptable to simply pretend you’re doing your best to get them done and go ahead and have the Christmas party before they’re replaced.”

Vivian’s jaw dropped in indignation. She swallowed the salty retort that immediately came to her mind and forced herself to take a deep breath. “I can assure you, Mr. Rawlins,” she said crisply, “we would never do anything of the kind. I might argue with you to your face, but I would never try to bend the law behind your back.”

He nodded, and there was a look in his eyes that she couldn’t quite read.

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