Jessica's Fate

Chapter 131

I went to the hotel early with Cam, he'd reassured me that Carrie was working the day shift which was great because I had a lot to go over with her and a meeting with Cam's manager to discuss what Chef wanted to take charge of, if this business venture was really going to take off.

"Are you excited?" He grinned at me.

"What gave it away?" I laughed.

"The fact you're bouncing at this time of day with no coffee yet."

"Yeah, I'm excited." I admitted. "This is a huge opportunity and I'm so thrilled about getting to take charge of something of this nature."

"You're going to be great."

"Sure."

"Hey, why the doubt? I swear you just went from hopeful and excited to uncertain. What gives, mon ami?"

"I just..." I shrugged. 'I guess I'm trying to reign myself in a bit because what if it doesn't work out? If your boss doesn't see it the same as chef which is that we're not here to push Carrie out of a job but they have to work with us, right?" I frowned. "This could be a big deal. Your hotel chain could reach out and contract with a local baker in every city."

"Yes, they sure could." Cam agreed.

"So if this is the first test of how it would happen, then I have to make sure it's successful and I have basically seven months to make it happen. Start, train, produce success for both the patisserie and hotel before I just turn around and leave."

"It's going to go well." Cam pulled me to a stop before kissing my forehead. "I tried to do as much poking around as I could when you first told me about wanting to hire Carrie away from the hotel. That's not going to be a problem and I think in the long run, that works better for her too."

"How so?"

"What if she wants more training? Or to maybe be the head pastry chef within a couple years after you leave? Wouldn't she be qualified to do it at that point? Be able to go visit the patisserie for any additional training your chef decided she would need before promoting her? If she wanted to leave hospitality baking behind, would she be able to successfully land in one of his shops or start her own someday?"

My eyes widened and I pulled out my notebook to quickly jot everything down that he'd just said. "You're right. I hadn't even stopped to think about what opportunities need to be available to Carrie. I'll make sure I ask her what her thoughts are for her future. That's a very good point, there is absolutely the potential to make a very full and successful career for her."

He grinned. "Good. Just wanted to look out for one of my best employees in all this. I hate the way they've treated her. It's ridiculous all this budget on buying things for desserts when she's been there the whole time. She can bake... follow a recipe and turn things out, it's just not as skillfully and beautifully classic as what you can produce."

"I taught myself a lot of stuff in the year off that I had before going to school. Working at a restaurant that allowed me to do desserts for them worked. I've had a business back home really since I was 18 and did parties."

We started to walk again. "Thanks for making an effort to find out what she wants. I know she's a shade disappointed to not get a promotion but at the same time, she's been very curious and excited about what could happen if this partnership occurred so I'm pretty sure she's going to be down for whatever the two of you work out."

"Good to know." I paused to let him open the door for me as we walked into the hotel.

He showed me into the conference room he'd reserved for Carrie and I for the day and went to find her and rustle up some coffee and available baked goods for us to discuss and eat while we talked about everything. I sat and formulated a few more thoughts and questions to ask her that hadn't occurred to me until Cam and I were talking on our walk to the hotel this morning.