Page 54 of Things We Need to Say
‘I don’t know. I’d have to check, but it would be good if I could. Thanks for your help, Liz. I really do appreciate it.’
‘Not a problem. We want you to win this after all.’
‘Well, I’m going to do my best.’
‘I’m sure you will.’ She paused. ‘So what do we do about Tia, then?’
‘I don’t know.’ Jay turned the heat off the sauce and poured it into a plastic container. ‘Stay out of her way as much as possible, I suppose.’
‘Good plan. We’ll have to start using the kitchen below your flat more, though it is rather small so it’s not ideal.’
‘But best not to give her any ammunition, at least until after the contract renewal.’
‘Agreed. The timing’s not great, though. If she does get her way and they charge us rent, it will come right at the beginning of my maternity leave.’
‘And we’ll already be out of pocket because we’ll be employing staff to cover you.’
Liz took a sip of tea. ‘How would you feel if we didn’t renew our contract at the end of the term?’
Jay sat down with a bump. ‘Gosh, I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.’
‘If we just had our own business to concentrate on, we’d have more control over our workload. Less profit admittedly, but less expense too.’
‘And we wouldn’t have to kowtow to Tia.’
Liz laughed. ‘Now, that would be a bonus.’
‘How do you think Alex would feel about us ending our contract?’
‘Not sure. But if it means I’ll be working less, he’ll probably be all for it as I’ll be less stressed. What does worry me, though, is can we earn enough with just our own private catering?’
‘I don’t know. We’ve been doing pretty well here at Diva’s so we haven’t really been pushing our own business that much. If we concentrated on that, maybe we could make it work. At least then we wouldn’t be splitting ourselves in two.’
‘I’ll have a look at the accounts and see what we’ve already got booked in, and then we can have a meeting early next week to see if the figures pan out.’
‘Yes, that works for me.’
‘And we can also discuss staffing levels. I definitely think we need to take on a temporary chef and I was wondering about front of house too. If we had someone solid out front, it would certainly make things run more smoothly.’
‘Perhaps. Did you have anyone in mind?’
‘The other week I was wondering about Emma. I know she said she wanted to learn the ropes of managing a hotel and stand on her own two feet, but she seems so unhappy in her job at the Rosemont. Do you think she would be up for it?’
‘I really don’t know,’ Jay said. ‘The situation with her line manager came to a head last week and Heather’s gone off sick. Another manager has taken over as Emma’s manager and she’s set her on a proper training programme. In fact, she started on Reception this morning. And best of all, Heather’s conduct is going to be investigated.’
‘Well, that is good news. I’m so happy for Emma, she didn’t deserve to be treated like that.’
‘I completely agree. It’s like a huge weight has been lifted from her.’
Jay got back up to tidy up the kitchen.
‘So you don’t think she’d be interested then?’
‘It won’t do any harm to ask her, but, like I said, she’s much happier now.’
‘Do you want to speak to her or shall I?’
‘I’ll do it, but I think we might have to have a Plan B.’
