Menu for Romance

Back out in the kitchen, the dish sanitizers had stopped rumbling, and a solitary Steven was hanging the whiteboard back on the wall.

“Everyone else gone?” Major paused to glance over tomorrow’s menu.

“Yes, Chef. I’m about to call it a day, too, unless you need me for something.” He glanced pointedly at Major’s attire.

Have Steven hanging around for the interview? “No. It’s already after four o’clock. Go on home.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Steven slung his denim chef ’s jacket over his shoulder, tucked his knife case under his arm, and swaggered from the kitchen.

Major gave him half a minute’s head start then stepped out into the warehouse-sized, sky-view room. Just as one set of elevator doors closed behind Steven, another set opened.

Though he thought he’d prepared for it, the sight of Alaine Delacroix once again disarmed him. No woman had the right to be so distractingly beautiful. She held the door while the burly guy with her muscled out a large duffel bag and a couple of equipment cases.

Major jogged over. “Can I help with any of that?”

The guy looked up at him, apparently offended. “Naw, man. I can get it.”

“Chef O’Hara, it’s good to see you again.” Alaine extended her hand.

Heat rushed into Major’s face when he took her hand in his enormous paw and tried not to hurt her. “Ms. Delacroix. Welcome to Vue de Ceil.” He swept his arm toward the room.

Alaine strolled past him. “It looks so different. I’ve only been here at night—and with five or six hundred other people, like at New Year’s.”

More like eight or nine hundred, but who was counting? He followed her. Alaine Delacroix was the kind of woman who could be admired from afar but not someone Major had any interest in getting to know better on a personal level.

Not like Meredith. He didn’t have to worry about hurting Meredith on the rare occasion that called for him taking her hand in his—which he wished happened more often. He also didn’t feel like a prepubescent boy at his first school dance around Meredith the way he did right now. And to put final nails in the coffin in which he would bury his reaction to Alaine, he decided he much preferred strawberry blonds with nutmeg-colored eyes to brunettes with eyes so dark he couldn’t distinguish the pupil from the iris.

“...your office?” Alaine stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face him, those dark brown eyes gazing at him askance.

What about his office? Oh, the interview. “Right through here.”

He led her down the service corridor and pushed open the Enter Only door into the kitchen, motioning for her to pass through ahead of him—and for the overloaded cameraman to do the same.

“Wow. I’ve seen some professional kitchens on TV before, but this one takes the cake.” Alaine ran her hand along the stainless-steel countertops. “Nelson, we’ll want to get some footage of this kitchen. In fact—” She whirled around to look at both men. “I know we discussed filming the cooking segments in the executive kitchen downstairs, but I wonder now if maybe we should do it up here.”

Nelson thunked the equipment cases down on the floor and crossed his arms. “I’d have to see the other space to find out which one’ll be easier to light.”

Alaine returned to her perusal of the kitchen. “Mrs. Guidry said they’ll help us out with getting some new lights installed if our portables won’t be sufficient.”

Major felt as if he’d walked into the middle of a movie. “Cooking segments? I wasn’t supposed to have prepared a cooking exhibition for today, was I?”

“No, no. Your weekly guest spot for my show.”

“Oh.” Now he really needed to talk to Meredith. It wasn’t like her not to tell him when she made decisions that impacted his work. And even if the decision had come from farther up the food chain, the least Meredith could have done was to give him a heads-up. She was his boss after all.

“After we finish the interview, can you show us the other kitchen?”

“Sure.” That would give him a good excuse to see if Meredith was back yet and talk to her. He had to talk through this restaurant thing with someone. He couldn’t talk to Forbes—Forbes was representing his parents in the business deal. Meredith was the only other person he trusted.

Then why can’t I bring myself to tell her about Ma?

He pushed the wayward thoughts aside and led Alaine and Nelson into his office. He’d think about his relationship issues with Meredith later. Much, much later.

* * *

“Hey, kiddo. Good meeting this afternoon?”

Meredith looked up from her computer at her dad’s voice. “Yeah. I think we’ve got that wedding reception in the bag.”

“How much are they wanting to spend?”

“At least six figures.”

“That’s my girl.”

Yep. That’s when her parents were proud of her: whenever she brought more money into the company coffers. “It’s not signed yet.”

“I’ll put the pressure on the father of the bride—I’m playing golf with him Saturday morning. You hooked the fish; I’ll just reel it in.” He leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb. “Major was down here a little while ago looking for you. Said he needed to talk to you.”

Meredith’s insides cringed, but she kept her expression neutral. “Yeah, I’ve got a couple of e-mails from him that I haven’t gotten around to yet—it’s been such a busy week.”

“Well, before you talk to him, there’s something you should know.” Her father rubbed the back of his neck. “Your mother and I offered to become investors in a restaurant with Major. He’d still work for you as the head of the catering division while the restaurant is in the start-up phase. But as soon as it opens, he’d be running the restaurant full-time.”

Meredith took several deep breaths to try to settle her churning stomach. Major was going to leave B-G? She wouldn’t get to see him every day. She might not see him ever again.

But you’re supposed to be getting over him, remember? Maybe this is God’s way of helping with that goal.

She cleared her throat. “I see. I guess I’ll have to ask him to help me find a replacement executive chef.”

“He hasn’t accepted the offer yet, and we’re not pushing him to make the decision quickly. Let him get through the Hearts to HEARTS banquet.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Meredith dug her thumbnail into the opposite palm. “Anything else?”

“He said he needed to talk to you about the financial report for New Year’s Eve, too.” Dad gave her his stop-sign farewell wave. “See you tomorrow. Don’t work too late.”

“’Night, Daddy.” As soon as he disappeared, she rubbed her forehead. Her head—and heart—split in two: one part of her wanting to be happy that both she and Major would have a chance to move on, move forward; the other part mourning the loss of what she’d always wished would happen.

Major’s Jeep—that old green thing he called Kirby—had still been in the garage when she’d driven in a few minutes ago. Steeling herself to see him for the first time since making her New Year’s resolution, she left the B-G corporate offices and got onto the elevator before second thoughts hit.

The orange, red, purple, and navy of sunset gave Vue de Ceil the aura of a cathedral. She paused for a moment just to appreciate the view.

Is this a sign, Lord? A sign that I’m doing the right thing by letting go of my childish crush on him? Of course it was. As was the fact that he would leave B-G to start a restaurant, and she’d rarely—if ever—see him again.

She entered the kitchen through the Exit Only door, since it was closest—and then stopped. Voices came from Major’s office. His, followed by—a woman’s. Meredith took a step back, bumped the door, and covered her mouth with her hand. He was up here alone with a woman?

He said something; then both he and the unknown female laughed. The refrigerators and other equipment in the kitchen made too much noise for Meredith to clearly make out the words, and through the cracked-open