Page 37 of Tasty Cherry

According to the schedule, all this week’s rounds last until Friday at noon, with Friday afternoon reserved for a review session for their Colorado food management testing on Monday.

Maybe she’ll move Maverick back to HR tomorrow if he behaves. The dish room was never a rotation, just a general kitchen tour. The chefs don’t want non-cooks in the main kitchen any more than necessary, although the interns will rotate through scheduling and ordering under the food service umbrella. They will also do a brief rotation as hosts, seating people in the restaurant, as well as helping with banquets.

Raya is going to make Maverick serve appetizers on trays. I can feel it.

Maybe I should check on him, too. Clue him in that he has to fly right or she’ll make him want to quit.

I shut down the scheduler when I hear voices. It’s Jessica, showing Brooklyn and Mila the small break room where the front desk clerks can take a moment between waves.

Maybe they’ve already seen this office. I should sit tight until they pass.

But no, Jessica pops in, stopping short when she sees me. “Oh! You’re in here! The door was open!”

“It’s fine. I was heading out.” I stand to leave, but Mila and Brooklyn crowd the door.

They all move inside as I awkwardly try to squeeze past. My arm brushes against Mila’s. Everything ignites. I forget all my determination to stay away from her. I want to grab her hand and take off with her.

Jessica gestures toward me. “Sebastian or Raya will meet with guests here if there’s a complex problem or if the guests get too feisty to stay in the lobby. Sebastian, you want to tell them about the security involved?”

I was about to make my escape, but I turn around. Mila and Brooklyn move farther into the office.

“Sure. There are multiple places you can call for security if there’s a problem that is escalating. There’s a button by each kiosk at the front desk. There’s another inside the door you passed through to get to these offices. And there are several in this room, since this is where we bring people who are behaving angrily or erratically.” I move aside the hanging vines of an ivy plant to reveal a red button. “This is one. There is another beneath the desk.”

“I haven’t seen any security,” Brooklyn says. “Where are they?”

“Everywhere,” I say. “In the lobby during the day, we have one in plain clothes. That is usually Hank or Jared during the week, Lonnie or Mitchell on the weekends. We don’t like a big show of security when guests arrive, although there is always someone in uniform patrolling the parking lots. And there are others in uniform walking the castle. They are the ones who will arrive at a button push. We make very deliberate decisions surrounding when we show a uniform, and when we’re trying to simply de-escalate without presenting an authority figure.”

“They don’t talk about this stuff in hospitality school,” Brooklyn says.

“It’s different for every hotel,” I tell her. “And it can vary here depending on the type of events happening.”

“I heard a rogue princess came to one of the haunted balls,” Brooklyn says.

I rock back on my heels. “That definitely happened. That was an all-hands-on-deck security situation.”

“Wild.” Brooklyn grins at Mila.

I catch Mila watching me and heat surges through my body.

I better get out of here before I do something dumb.

“I’m going to check on the interns in room service,” I tell them. “Jessica, show these two how to work the system when it’s slow. Have them give it a go when there isn’t a line and the right sort of guest comes up.”

“Will do, boss!”

I give them all a salute, then take off down the hall before yet another member of the Castle Hotel staff recognizes that I’m losing my mind over one of our new interns.

15

MILA

Ishould be focused on my new job.

I should be giving Jessica all my attention as she shows me and Brooklyn how to sign into the hotel check-in system and search for guests.

But I haven’t missed how Sebastian looks at me. Surely everyone else can see it, too.

“We’re going to get a small rush after lunch of the people who paid for late check-out,” Jessica says, and I force my attention back to her. “We won’t have you try the system then, but when it slows down. Our job comes in waves.”

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