Page 26 of Operation Sunshine
Ben pushed the door open a moment later, glancing around the kitchen with professional suspicion. “Anyone seen the updated inventory sheet?”
Chloe dropped a spoon, Raj swore under his breath, and Willow feigned a coughing fit.
Franco turned, enough to aim a sly half-smile at him. “I was about to help Ollie with it. But we could use your insight... if you’re free.”
Ben hesitated for the smallest moment, his eyes narrowing slightly, then nodded as if he’d clocked something but wasn’t quite ready to name it.
“I’ll be in the office,” he said. “Bring it in when you’re done.”
And with that, he vanished again.
The second the door swung shut, Ollie whistled. “Mate. He issoonto you.”
Willow looked gleeful. “Even better. That means it’s working.”
Chloe high-fived Franco without looking up. “You’ve got him exactly where we want him. Distracted, suspicious, and maybe a little turned on.”
Franco sighed, rubbing his face with both hands. “I can’t help thinking this is going to blow up in our faces.”
Willow nodded serenely. “That’s always a possibility. But until then, OperationDistractois a certified success.”
“I think we need a new name,” Raj announced. He grinned at Franco. “Operation Sunshine.”
The dinnertime rush of customers had slowed, and Ben had to admit it had been a busy evening. He sat at the bar with his laptop, watching everything but trying not to analyse every moment.
Franco was as effervescent as usual, whirling around the restaurant, talking with customers, laughing, joking…
Who needs electricity? He lights up the space.
Willow approached the bar, then leaned against it, a notepad in one hand, scrawling notes in it. “So… I was talking to Raj and Chloe, and we realised something.”
The conversation started the way all of Ben’s least favourite conversations began: casually.
Toocasually.
He looked up from his laptop. “Uh-oh.”
Willow grinned. “You’re getting predictable, you know that?”
“Not as predictable as whatever this is about to be.”
She ignored that. “We were saying it’s been forever since theteam’s done anything outside of work. You know, like something fun. A reset.”
Chloe appeared from nowhere, holding an empty tray. “Like the staff retreat, you mean. Marco used to do it every year. Franco remembers.”
Ben glanced toward the pass. “Franco?”
As if summoned, Franco slid into view with the exaggerated smoothness of a man far too ready to be mentioned. He raised a brow and gave a small shrug. “Guilty. Though I’m not sure if we bonded or just collectively suffered through damp tents and ‘trust exercises.’”
Raj piped up from the prep station. “Either way, it worked. Everyone came back less murder-y.”
Ben closed his laptop slowly. “I feel as though you’re all building toward something.”
More than that. It felt like a set-up.
“Just hear us out.” Willow inched closer to him, like someone trying to talk down a wild animal. “A one-day retreat. Nothing intense. Outdoorsy, maybe. Team building, firepit, snacks.”
“Thermos wine,” Chloe added.
