Chapter 14
“But we have to open tonight, in honor of Romeo’s memory!” Kelton, Romeo’s sous-chef, cried, pumping a fist in the air.
The rest of Romeo’s staff, consisting of head waitress Betty, another waiter, Devon, who was a student from the College of the Atlantic, and one busboy, Lenny, the big kid who rarely said a word, all murmured in agreement.
When Hayley had gathered the staff at the restaurant, she never in a million years expected the restaurant to open on the same day that its owner had tragically died. She had simply called the meeting to promise that she would try her best to make sure that whoever was executor of Romeo’s will would fully pay the staff what they were owed out of the estate, assuming the restaurant would remain closed.
But now she had a potential mutiny on her hands.
Hayley nodded, acknowledging their desire, and spoke slowly and deliberately. “I think it would be a moving tribute to open the doors and invite customers in to celebrate the life and food of Chef Romeo, but I’m not sure practically how we would do that.”
“By moving ahead with business as usual,” Kelton explained matter-of-factly. “We just do our jobs like it’s any other night. I know how to prepare his food. Chef Romeo personally trained me; he had faith in you to run things while he was in the hospital; we have Betty and Devon to serve the customers and Lenny to bus the tables. We can do this.”
Kelton had been a fry cook over at Jordan’s Restaurant for over a decade, but after years of watching the Food Network, he knew it was time to up his game in the kitchen, exercise some creativity, challenge himself more than just slapping burgers on the grill and frying onion rings every day. Chef Romeo had finally given him that opportunity when he invited Kelton to come work for him.
Hayley certainly understood their passion during this time of grief, but she was hesitant to move forward. “Look, I think it’s a great idea, I really do, but I’m not sure tonight is the right time. Maybe after a couple of weeks, once we know who the restaurant now belongs to, if there is even a will, we can plan some kind of memorial here at the restaurant and serve all of Romeo’s specialties. . .”
“That may be too late. You know how things go, especially if he didn’t write a will. The bank could come in and take over this place, and then we’ll never have the chance to do it,” Betty argued.
“But is opening tonight even legal, given the circumstances now?” Hayley wondered aloud.
“Who cares? What are they going to do, arrest us? I say we go for it,” Devon declared. “Let’s give Romeo the befitting send-off that he so richly deserves, one that matches his larger-than-life personality!”
“I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but we’re supposed to open in an hour. How will people even know to come? I’m sure they all heard the news about Romeo by now.”
“I checked the reservations. We’re fully booked and nobody has called to cancel. We’ve only gotten a few messages inquiring if we were going to open tonight, given the circumstances. I can call them back and say yes, dinner is still on.”
Hayley’s mind reeled.
She was not sure what she should do.
Finally, Lenny, the quiet busboy, spoke up, surprising everyone. “It’s what Chef Romeo would have wanted.”
Hayley knew there was no pushing back on that one, because the kid was right. Chef Romeo desperately wanted his restaurant still open when he was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack, so there was no reason to doubt he would want it open even now in the event of his untimely death.
“Okay . . .” Hayley sighed.
The staff cheered.
“Then let’s get to work!” Betty cried.
By the time Hayley opened the doors to the restaurant forty-five minutes later, there was already a crowd of hungry customers milling around outside. They poured in and filled up all the tables, a few stopping to silently mourn for a few moments in front of the portrait of Chef Romeo Hayley had found in his office and hung over the fireplace in the main dining room before the start of the dinner rush.
More cars pulled into the gravel parking lot, and Hayley knew by five-fifteen she was going to need more help. It was time to call in reinforcements. She phoned Liddy and Mona to hurry over and help. Mona was bored at home alone, so she was easy to convince, but Liddy was a harder sell because she was on her way to a women’s-only Yin-restorative yoga class. In the end, Hayley knew they would both show up for her, and they did.
She assigned Liddy the hostess role, in charge of reservations and seating customers. Betty and Devon were overwhelmed, and so Hayley had Mona take a few tables as a waitress. She knew it was a risk. Mona was not what you would call a people person, but Hayley had little choice. Liddy was chipper and friendlier, or at least she could fake it better, so she needed her face to be the first one customers saw as they entered the restaurant.
True to form, Mona had barely been at it for ten minutes before she was flagged down by a man with spaghetti sauce all over his face. “Could I have another napkin, please?”
“Maybe if you ate more like a human being instead of a wild animal, you wouldn’t need so much paper to wipe your face! Think of all those poor, wasted trees! Can’t you see I’m busy?”
Hayley instantly marched over and pulled Mona aside. “Mona, you cannot talk to the customers like that!”
“What do you mean?”
“You were unnecessarily rude to that gentleman!”
Mona glanced over at him, genuinely confused. “Who? You mean Harry Bunker? Oh, please.” She yelled over in the man’s direction. “He loves it when I abuse him! Don’t you, Harry?”
He smiled and waved at Mona before wiping the marinara sauce off his face with the sleeve of his shirt.
Hayley stared at Mona, dumbfounded.
“Excuse me,” said a woman sitting at a table behind them. “Could I get another glass of Merlot?”
Mona folded her arms. “Really, Darla? That’ll be your third one already and you haven’t even been served your appetizer yet. Are you that anxious to get a second DUI?”
Hayley held her breath.
But Darla just laughed and handed the empty wineglass to Mona, who then turned back to Hayley and barked, “Now if you’re done complaining about my obviously winning personality, I have food to serve!”
Mona turned out to be right.
The ruder she got, the more the customers loved it.
It was part of her shtick.
She was a novelty.
A couple of tables even requested her as their server.
And so Hayley left her alone.
She made her way over to the hostess station, where a mob of people crowded the area by the door with dozens more still waiting outside.
On her iPad, Liddy was perusing a diagram of the restaurant with all its tables. She noticed Hayley standing beside her. “We were already overbooked, and now we have a bunch of walk-ins. I told them it was going to be at least an hour and a half on the waiting list, but no one’s leaving to go somewhere else.”
“I wish Chef Romeo was here to see his restaurant so busy,” Hayley said wistfully.
“I’m sure he knows,” Liddy said with a sorrowful smile.
The rest of the evening was a blur.
By the time the last customers left around ten-thirty after polishing off their homemade tiramisu, Hayley’s feet were throbbing, and she finally plopped down in a chair to catch her breath. Kelton ambled out of the kitchen, Lenny wiped down the last of the tables, Liddy cashed out the register, and Mona popped open a bottle of Chianti as she, Betty, and Devon pooled their tips.
“What a night,” Hayley said, declining the glass of wine Mona was trying to hand her, too exhausted to drink. “Chef Romeo would be very proud of all of you.”
“Thank you for allowing us to do this tonight,” Betty said to Hayley. “We all appreciate it.”
“It just goes to show that Chef Romeo was right about this place. It was going to be a huge hit in town,” Kelton said, smiling.
“Well, we can’t stop now,” Liddy said offhandedly as she studied her iPad screen.
“No, this was a onetime thing,” Hayley reminded her. “What we did tonight was in honor of Chef Romeo, but I’m afraid the future of his restaurant is out of our hands.”
Liddy set her iPad down on a checkered tablecloth. “We are fully booked for tomorrow night. What do we say to all those people who could not get in tonight and want to come and eat and pay their respects tomorrow?”
“Hayley, we made more tips tonight than the last three weeks combined. I have rent due and Devon needs to pay for his tuition. We can’t stop now. At least until someone tells us to.”
She was hopelessly outnumbered.
Even her BFFs were standing firm with the staff.
Although neither would probably admit it, they had a lot of fun tonight. And why should she be responsible for laying off Kelton, Betty, Devon, and Lenny, devastating their finances as long as there was a way for them to keep making money, at least in the short term?
It was against her better judgment.
But it wouldn’t be the first time Hayley bucked her judgment.
And it certainly would not be the last.
“Okay, see you all tomorrow,” she sighed.
In celebration, Mona opened another bottle of Chianti from the wine rack.