Page 5 of One More Baby for the Boss

Marjorie looked skeptical. “Everyone finds that out in training.”

“I really didn’t know.” She wasn’t sure how the oversight had happened, only that it had.

Marjorie picked up another piece of paper. “This one says that you poured their coffee and didn’t come back to take their order for almost twenty minutes.”

“That must be from my first day, when I was here on my own during the lunch rush. I did my best, but I don’t know how anyone could have handled all those tables in a timely manner.”

Marjorie sighed. “Be that as it may, no one should have to wait twenty minutes to order. That’s not how we do things at Sunny Side Up. We pride ourselves on treating people like family here — would you make your family wait twenty minutes to eat if they were hungry?”

“Well, no, I wouldn’t, but—” What could she say? It wasn’t as if she could bring up what had happened to her family. Marjorie wouldn’t have made that comment if she had known, but she couldn’t have been expected to know. And besides, Alex really didn’t want to talk about it.

Marjorie held the papers up. “Shall I continue?”

“Please don’t.” She couldn’t stand to sit here and listen to a documented list of all the ways she had fallen short. She knew she had done her best, and she wasn’t to blame for the circumstances, but even so, she hated hearing it.

“So you agree, then, that this isn’t working out,” Marjorie said.

“What?”

“When I hired you, I expected something better,” Marjorie said. “You’ve got diner experience, and I thought that meant I would be hiring someone who knew what she was doing. I thought you’d adjust easily to the pace and the routine here, but now I think I was wrong about that.”

“Are you firing me?” This was a record. Alex had been fired a few times before, but never after only one week.

“I think it’s for the best that we part ways,” Marjorie said. “It hasn’t been a good fit. I’m sure you’ll be successful somewhere else, but a place like this depends on people knowing how to be where they’re needed at all times. Too many balls have been dropped since you got here.”

“But it’s only been a few days,” Alex said desperately. “I’ll get better, Marjorie. I just need a little more time, a little more experience. I’m just getting started.”

“You have plenty of diner experience,” Marjorie reminded her. “If that hasn’t prepared you adequately for this job, I’m not sure there’s anything that will. And I’m not willing to gamble the success of my restaurant and the satisfaction of my customers on the hope that you’ll figure out what you’re doing soon enough not to drive them all away. I’m sorry, Alex. We gave it a shot, but I have to let you go.”

Alex looked down at her feet. Even though this was always meant to be a temporary thing, even though she had felt no real attachment to this job, it was always humiliating to be fired.

“I’ll need you out of the apartment in two days,” Marjorie added.

Alex’s head jerked up. She hadn’t thought of this. “Out of the apartment?”

“I need to rent it out to someone who works at the restaurant,” Marjorie said, only the barest hint of sympathy in her voice. “You knew when you moved in that the apartment went hand in hand with your employment here. Now that you no longer work for me, I need you to vacate it for my next hire.”

Alex swallowed hard. She had no idea where she was going to go — but it was a fair request on Marjorie’s part. Shehadknown that the apartment was part of her employment package. But she’d never expected to lose it so soon. “I’ll be out by morning,” she told Marjorie, knowing it wouldn’t take that long to pack the few things she owned.

Marjorie nodded. “All right,” she agreed. “And I do wish you luck in your future endeavors, Alex.”

“Thank you,” Alex whispered.

She kept her head lowered as she left the office and walked through the restaurant. Her car was parked in a public lot half a mile away, and she would need it if she was going to be moving out today. She would go get it, she decided, and then bring it back and pack up her things. She didn’t want to linger here any longer than was absolutely necessary. It was humiliating, and she wanted to get away from this place and everyone who had known her here as quickly as she could.

She hurried through the restaurant and out the front door, feeling the sting of tears as they started to form in her eyes.

She would have thought, after all this time, that she would be used to bad luck. And she knew she would land on her feet, as she always did. But this had been an embarrassing failure, and Alex couldn’t wait to put it behind her.

CHAPTER 3

ELIJAH

“Dad,” Jack said. “Dad!”

Elijah looked up from his phone. He’d been scrolling through the reports from one of his livestock managers, but now he turned his attention to his son, who was staring out the window.

“What is it?” Elijah asked. “Everything okay out there?”

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