Page 12 of Eden's Comfort Kitchen
Eden hesitated. She could have told the truth: she’d come from a job where she’d sold luxury properties in the city dealing with clients with bank balances that dwarfed the economies of many small countries, and she’d made a lot of money doing it. She’d also spent a lot of that money too, on things she’d never needed. She’d spent so much of it she was constantly trying tofind it from other places. Now that she considered it, she realised it was quite ridiculous. But this didn’t seem the moment for that kind of honesty.
‘I was in admin,’ she said, seizing on something that was a half-truth. ‘A bit different to this, I suppose. But I’m a hard worker, and I’ll have a go at most things.’
Ralph nodded thoughtfully. ‘Could you start this weekend? It wouldn’t be guaranteed shifts, but there’s usually plenty over the summer, so you won’t go short.’
‘I’m not doing anything at all really; I can start whenever you like.’
‘The weekend will do just fine.’
‘Brilliant! Thank you! So are there rules…I mean, like a uniform or anything?’
‘God, no!’ Ralph threw back his head and laughed. ‘Just wear whatever you don’t mind ruining with spilled beer. Don’t dip your fingers in where they’re not meant to be, get here on time, don’t complain when you have to clean sick from the toilet walls and we’ll get on just fine.’ He looked at Livia. ‘Have I covered everything?’
‘More or less,’ Livia said, beaming at Eden. ‘What do you think?’
‘That’s all good with me,’ Eden said.
Ralph nodded and started to make his way round to the serving side of the bar. ‘Welcome aboard. Let’s have a tot to celebrate – what are you drinking? On the house, this one.’
‘Oh, well…I just got this gin, so…’
‘Another gin then.’
Eden watched as Ralph discarded the measure and poured some gin into a glass. There had to be a treble or even quadruple in there.
He turned to Eden. ‘What’s your mixer?’
‘Lemonade,’ Eden said. ‘Thank you.’
With a broad, beardy grin, he plonked the finished drink onto the bar in front of her before helping himself to a neat measure of the rum Livia had fixed into the optic earlier. Knocking it straight back, he nodded at Eden and Livia before heading towards the door he’d come in through not ten minutes before.
‘I’m going to be plastered after this lot,’ Eden said, looking with some bewilderment at the two glasses of gin in front of her.
‘He might look a bit scary, but Ralph’s a sweetheart,’ Livia said. ‘He’d do anything for anyone, and if you work for him, he looks after you.’
‘I got that impression. I only hope I don’t let him down – I wasn’t joking when I said I’d never done any work like this before.’
‘Not even when you were a teenager?’
‘Unfortunately not. You don’t think it will be a problem, do you?’
‘Like Ralph said, it won’t take long to get the hang of it. Actually’ – she nodded towards the entrance – ‘here’s little Elsie. You could have a go at doing her rum and Coke for her if you wanted to pop your bar cherry.’
‘Would I be allowed? I haven’t officially started yet.’
‘Ralph wouldn’t let a little thing like that bother him. I reckon if you’d said so, he’d have set you on tonight – he was just being polite.’
Eden took a swig of her gin and coughed. She’d picked up Ralph’s nuclear measure and it was just as strong as she’d feared. ‘Maybe I won’t just yet,’ she said as her eyes watered.
Livia laughed. ‘Chicken! Don’t worry – come the weekend, we’ll make a proper barmaid of you.’
CHAPTER FIVE
Four more doubles on top of Ralph’s freebie and Eden was more than tipsy.
‘Hang on…’ Livia called as Eden pulled her jacket around her shoulders. ‘If you hang on for half an hour, last orders will be up and I’ll have the clean-down finished. I’ll be able to walk home with you.’
‘Yours or mine?’ Eden slurred.
