Passionate Chef, Ice Queen Boss / Rescued in a Wedding Dress: Passionate Chef, Ice Queen Boss / Rescued in a Wedding Dress

‘THANK you all for staying back for this meeting.’ Scarlett uttered the words and let her gaze travel over each of the employees present. It was the end of her second day at Rosa’s restaurant. The dinner hour was over, tables and chairs stacked, the kitchen clean and tidy. For the next few minutes it would be the site of their meeting.

Scarlett’s office was not tidy. It was covered with bookwork, sheaves of account invoices and receipts. Amongst it were Lorenzo’s records of kitchen expenditure. He was very thorough, and in fact so far his bookkeeping was the easiest to understand of all of this.

When Lorenzo had delivered his bookkeeping records to the office, he’d apologised for his words about her that morning. He’d clearly figured out she’d been standing there, had heard it all. He’d explained he’d wanted to scare the boy into behaving better but not make him feel as if he didn’t have a friend in Lorenzo if he needed one.

Scarlett had…admired him for that and realised he hadn’t been out to hurt her feelings with his words. She’d suggested the police needed to be called in to try to make sure the mother was safe. Lorenzo had surprised her with his wisdom in the matter.

Let Dante get out of there first. Once he’s safe, I will make the call to the police myself. I’ll ask them to check on Dante’s mother when they’re certain the boyfriend won’t be around, though it’s quite possible he isn’t harming her.

He had seemed extremely uncomfortable with the topic.

Well, this understanding man was part of the Lorenzo Scarlett had known and…

Scarlett reached behind her and twisted her hair ribbon through her ponytail before she forced her hand back to her side. What she’d felt or hadn’t felt about Lorenzo in the past was irrelevant now.

‘I know it’s late and I’m sure you’d all rather be at home now so I’ll keep this as brief as possible.’ When she felt certain she had the absolute attention of everyone there, she went on. ‘I’ll repeat this meeting with the remaining staff tomorrow.’

Scarlett reached for a small sheaf of papers on the bench and handed it to the nearest person. ‘If you’d take one of those and pass the rest down the line?’

While her printouts circulated, Scarlett drew a breath and squared her shoulders. Her gaze, whether she wanted it to or not, shifted to Lorenzo. He stood right at the end of the group and was the last to receive his copy of her printout.

Why did he get to look not even slightly dishevelled after a long shift at work? And why was she noticing how Lorenzo looked anyway?

‘Everyone, what you have in your hands is a new streamlined roster, and two pages outlining expectations of you as a staff member of Rosa.’ From her discussions today with Isabella, Scarlett suspected much of the necessity for change in these areas came down to Luca being too lenient in certain respects.

In the end, the how of it didn’t really matter. Scarlett had Luca’s agreement that she was to set things straight here, and she would.

Her gaze fell briefly on Dante. She wished the boy had got his bruises falling off his bicycle, as Lorenzo had done taking spills from his motorcycle years ago. At least Lorenzo had worked out Dante’s problem. He’d done his best to give Dante a lifeline without harming the boy’s pride. That had been kind.

You mustn’t soften towards Lorenzo just because of that act of kindness. He’s still a love rat.

‘Work conditions, pay conditions, holidays and negotiation of time off in this establishment have all been extremely generous to this point.’ Scarlett made a concerted effort to keep her thoughts on the task at hand. ‘The conditions have been far more generous than the accepted norm in restaurants in this country.’

If there’d ever been written employment contracts Scarlett hadn’t been able to find them. She suspected Luca would have made verbal arrangements and felt those were enough. Only by studying the rosters and what people were getting paid for hours of work, what paid holidays they received and so on, had Scarlett pieced together that her uncle had indeed been giving away too much too easily around here in his commitment to ‘treating his staff well’.

Lorenzo seemed to be the only one who worked properly for his entitlements, and, in his case, he kept meticulous time sheets and never asked for overtime despite working longer hours than his weekly wage suggested he should. Since starting here four months ago he’d yet to take any extra day off that he wasn’t fully entitled to.

Muttering started from a few people as they looked at the rosters.

Scarlett had expected that, but it was best to make these changes now rather than later. They wouldn’t salvage Rosa in and of themselves, but they were one step in the right direction at least. ‘I’d encourage you to take your handouts home and examine them. I’m certain when you do that, you’ll see that the conditions are on a par—’

‘This roster means I have to start an hour earlier.’ The woman who made the comment spoke over Scarlett’s words. She was a waitress who worked lunch shifts only. Late thirties, with high-school-aged children and a husband who ran a small farming concern not far out of Monta Correnti.

The woman turned to Lorenzo. ‘It doesn’t suit me to be here earlier. I have to do my housework after the family leaves for school and work each day. When you tried to change this, Luca said—’

‘Excuse me.’ Scarlett said the words firmly and waited for the woman to glance her way. ‘I recall speaking with you earlier today. In fact, I’ve spoken with each and every staff member, explained my presence here and let you all know that, for the extent of my stay, Luca has handed the reins of control of Rosa to me.’

Did this woman think she could turn to Lorenzo and usurp Scarlett’s authority? It sounded as though she’d already used Luca’s generous outlook to undermine Lorenzo’s authority, too.

That can’t have been easy on the head chef, Scarlett admitted silently. She held the woman’s gaze. ‘I am your boss now and, while you are always welcome to discuss any concerns with our head chef in his role as Assistant Manager, it’s not appropriate to do so as you’ve just done, ignoring my authority in the process.’

‘Well, I merely wanted—’

‘Miss Gibson is quite right.’ Lorenzo seemed to be having his own battle. His fingers were clenched about the copy of the paperwork he’d received as his gaze took in the small group of faces. ‘If changes need to be made here, perhaps it’s best to be grateful that you still have a job. I’ve only been made aware of these changes now, as you all have, but, at first glance at least, they still seem fair and equitable to me.’

His eyes gentled as he looked at the other woman. ‘Perhaps you can rearrange your schedule so you clean your home after your shift instead of before it.’

When the woman looked ready to argue again, Scarlett spoke. What was her name? ‘Maria, I’m sorry, but it doesn’t suit Rosa to have one of the wait staff arriving to start a lunch shift when everyone else is run off their feet already and your presence was needed an hour earlier. Are there special circumstances for why you absolutely can’t make it earlier?’

The woman dropped her gaze and muttered beneath her breath, but eventually shook her head.

‘All right.’ Scarlett let her gaze travel over the group. ‘Across the board I’ve streamlined the rosters to maximise staff availability at the busiest times of the day. As staff are paid on a Thursday, this new roster will start straight after pay day, this Friday.’

She drew a breath. ‘Within the next week we’ll be getting ourselves up to date with written employment contracts for all staff members. It’s in your best interests, as well as Rosa’s, to have these in place so you know things will have to go through due process if there are ever problems.

‘You’ll all see that I’ve made it part of your conditions here that you don’t try to swap rosters at the last minute unless there’s a case of genuine emergency. Those will be assessed if and when they arise. Rosa will function best if we run a tight show.’

That about covered the roster side of it. ‘Please read the written conditions. You’ll be expected to adhere to those from now on. Cuts in the number of paid holidays et cetera simply bring Rosa into line with industry standards.’

Scarlett wound the meeting up. ‘If any of you wish to discuss any aspect of the new conditions after you’ve read them, you are most welcome to book a meeting with me to do so. Thank you, and goodnight.’

They filed out. Good staff, many of them, and possibly a few less than great ones. Let them go to their homes, read the conditions, take the time to absorb them and hopefully realise they were, indeed, quite reasonable.

Lorenzo was the one person who didn’t file out with the others. ‘That was unexpected.’

Scarlett drew a breath. ‘These steps have to be taken. I thought you understood that.’

‘Of course.’ He spread his hands. ‘As your assistant manager, I could have supported your cause better if I’d known your plans. That’s all.’

Scarlett had forged ahead without consulting him or asking for his support. She admitted this. Emotionally, she didn’t trust him and yet, when it came to Rosa, Isabella trusted Lorenzo. Luca trusted Lorenzo. The other staff seemed to trust Lorenzo. Could he be a wonderfully supportive assistant manager to Scarlett? Could they work together like that, despite their past history?

‘I will try to keep that in mind in future.’ In this moment, that was the best she could come up with.

Tomorrow. She would force herself to totally assess all of this tomorrow. Scarlett cast a longing glance at the door. ‘It’s, um, it’s getting late. We should be going.’

Scarlett needed to go, so she could stop being aware of the fact that they were here alone. Alone, together, for the first time in five years. She was pushing that knowledge down as hard as she could, but it was still there.

Why couldn’t she simply respond to him in the same way she responded to anyone? Only treat him as a co-worker. Her tummy was suddenly in knots and…

‘I’ll walk you to your bedsit.’

He already knew of this? ‘How do you know—?’

‘This is Monta Correnti.’ He gestured to the restaurant. ‘And this is Rosa, which is owned by Luca, who is a member of your family, which makes your presence here the topic of a great deal of interest amongst staff and patrons alike. Did you think the news that you’d moved out of Lisa’s villa and into your bedsit wouldn’t travel all through the restaurant in minutes?’

He shook his head. ‘All the family gets talked about here, Scarlett. A week ago, it might have been “The Angel of New York’s” baseball career, but your presence gets its degree of attention, too.’

Scarlett had not as yet met Luca’s sons, Alex and Angelo, born to an American woman. Her Italian family certainly knew how to keep life complicated, though Scarlett wasn’t at all sure that she wanted any time under the Rosa staff’s microscope!