Page 4 of Ours to Lose
He glanced around and whistled. “I was worried all this food wouldn’t fit, but that was before I knew you’d be cooking in a kitchen the size of my dad’s house.”
A house might have been a stretch, but my one-bedroom apartment would fit with square feet to spare. “Perks of the boss owning a near-billion-dollar company,” I said.
He took in the vast space filled with boxes of raw ingredients. “Is Jase swinging by to help?”
“No, he’s at the restaurant with the guys getting ready for tonight.” I would have loved to have my old crew with me—not just Jase, but Zach and Luis too.
But it was both a Saturday night and the day before New Year’s Eve, which meant Ardena would be slammed, and Zach and Luis would be needed there as line cooks as much as Jase would be needed as its head chef. One of those nights when the ticket machine never stopped printing and the flow of the kitchen took on a life of its own.
Based on the reservations, Jase anticipated it being one of the restaurant’s busiest nights in the little over a year since it opened.
A wave of longing passed through me at missing out. A few months ago, I would have been at Ardena alongside the others, prepping for the onslaught.
Zach with his heavy-metal playlist burning out his speaker while Luis tried to sneak in a Taylor Swift song. Jase grumbling about not knowing how they could stand the noise despite secretly liking it. The four of us talking and laughing at jokes as we crossed off each item of the mise en place, building the energy that would take us through the night.
I hadn’t been a part of it since taking on the role of head caterer three months ago. There was no time with a new prep kitchen to set up, menus to plan, and staff to hire. All tasks I’d done in some capacity as Jase’s sous chef, but never ones I’d been in charge of on my own.
Now, I was in charge of it all: the planning, the prep, the execution. Since I had yet to find any staff, I was also in charge of getting it all done in time.
I would. I was good at my job.
I just wished I had my team to do it with me.
“He’ll be at the party tomorrow night,” I reminded myself as much as Evan. “And I’ll have Zach helping me in the kitchen for most of it.” I wished I could bring him over to the catering side full-time, but Zach was happy where he was as a line cook.
I’d been happy where I was as Jase’s sous chef, but the time had come to move on. I’d known it would at some point. I just hadn’t expected it to be so soon.
When Jillian and Jase approached me with the catering idea at the end of summer, there was no question it was the right move for Ardena. We’d just catered a hugely successful symposium that had garnered more than a little interest, and a dedicated catering team was the perfect way to capitalize on it.
Then they’d asked me to head it up, and I couldn’t tell them no.
I hadn’twantedto say no. I’d enjoyed catering the symposium, and it meant the world that Jillian and Jase trusted me to do this.
Just nerves, I assured myself.That was all the weight glued to the pit of my stomach was.
“Speaking of tomorrow,” Evan said, “I came up with a plan.” He wore the same look as when he’d decided we should run for senior class office so we could change our high school’s official mascot to a sponge.
“No,” I said, grabbing a box of produce to load into the walk-in.
Evan grabbed one too. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Yet I still know my answer is no.”
“You might actually like this one,” he said as we placed the boxes on a shelf.
“Will I?”
“Probably not, but you should hear me out anyway.”
I sighed.
Evan grinned. “Okay, I figure since you’ll be working all night, you won’t have time to scout out a kiss for midnight.”
I pushed past him for the door. “No way.”
“But I’m already going to be scouting for a kiss of my own. I can easily keep an eye out for a guy for you.”
“And what? You’ll drag him back here thirty seconds before midnight and ask him to smoosh faces with me?” That landed solidly in my “nightmare scenario” column.
