Page 209 of Wanted Beta

“Hey,” I greet them. “How was the trade show?”

“I can’t believe what a badass Catherine was,” Ben says, shaking his head. “The discounts she got for me were crazy. I can afford to stock some premium fabrics now.”

“Which works out nicely for me,” Catherine adds, beaming. “Considering I’m branching out into design.”

“Oh my God! That’s awesome. You have to show me.”

“I will, when it’s ready.”

“Okay, okay. I can wait.” I grab menus and lead them into the dining room. “The carbonara is amazing tonight, by the way. Enzo made some tiny changes, and wow, you won’t even believe how good it is.”

“It was already perfect,” Ben says, sounding vaguely disappointed.

“Oh, it was,” I admit, “but now it’s even more perfect. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”

“We believe you,” Catherine assures me.

I get them seated and tell them I’ll speak to them later.

Then, I assign a waiter to their table, and I head into the dining room.

“The new girl out front is not working out,” I start, stopping when I see Gio and Arrow coming in through the door that leads to the corridor with the apartment entrance.

“Yeah, I don’t think she understands landlines,” Jack says, as if he hasn’t seen Gio.

“Who are we talking about?” Gio asks.

“The new receptionist,” I tell him. “She kind of sucks.”

“We have to give people a chance.”

“Well, she’s been here a week and so far all I’m doing is sorting out her messes.”

“I’ll try to train her again.” Gio sighs.

I kind of love how determined he is to give everyone a fair try, and honestly, people management is not my thing. It’s more his thing, which was a cool realization he had once we had to take on actual staff, about two days after re-opening.

It was a major success.

All the local critics gave glowing reviews. We even got a few celebrity diners.

My parents showed up to grudgingly congratulate me, after Catherine called them.

They left here kind of shocked by how well this place was doing.

As for Rourke’s parents, well, they found out and tried to book a table.

We’d already considered that might happen and blacklisted them, so they were denied.

It was pretty funny to listen to his mother going crazy on the line asking to speak to her son.

Jack handled that one well. Hopefully we never have to hear from her again.

“Order up,” Jack calls out as he puts plates onto a tray.

One of the waiters’ steps into the kitchen, grabs it and leaves again.

“How did you do that?” I ask.

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