Quality Ingredients

Chapter 5

Lisa sat at her desk in her office at Houm with her face in her hands trying to calm her racing mind.

Indra had the day off and Roan was handling prep. She had expected him to come in and try to be pals with her after their semi unprofessional night at the bar together where she told him she was cool with him dating her cousin, then she was all over a beautiful woman right in front of him. Much to her pleasant surprise, it seemed to have the exact opposite effect.

He was early. When she showed up at ten, he was already well into prep. He had on his whitest chef jacket and his hair was very neat. He was working with the staff incredibly calmly and signed for the delivery and put everything away himself. When she tried to help him, he reminded her with a knowing smirk that Dr. Park told her to go easy on the arm, then sent her on her way.

She breezed through paperwork. Indra and Kai kept such detailed and pristine records that it was mostly verification and filing on her part. She had done all of the ordering and silently checked in on Roan's prep a few times. Without her questioning it, he asked her to check his proteins and coached Emori to have Lisa taste her sauces throughout the day to make sure they were prepared to Lisa's specifications and standards.

Tuesdays were traditionally quiet. He handled himself during dinner service very well, and Lisa used the slow day every week as a vehicle to train Roan to be Indra's replacement when she and Indra inevitably moved on to the next thing. He didn't know it was happening, but she did.

Lisa usually spent the afternoon and evening in the office and made herself available if he needed it, but sat back and let him solve his own problems. He had a ways to go, but he was full of potential and she hoped he'd recognize that and get his head out of his ass soon.

Lisa checked in with all of her other locations on Tuesdays and went over all of their numbers. She spent a few minutes on the phone with each head chef if time allowed.

The head chef of Polis in New York was fine, as usual. That place was so solid and her chef there really knew what he was doing. He was old enough to be her father and reminded her of it often. They always enjoyed their catch ups and he always told her she needed to spend more time in New York. There was always a new restaurant he wanted her to try on her next visit.

The chef at Nightblood in Vegas was too busy to talk long, but in a good way. They were more profitable than ever this year. He was glad to hear things up north were going well. He told Lisa she was overdue for a visit and he wanted to hit the tables with her the next time she was in town.

Her chef at The Flame in Miami was in great shape. Her new Sous Chef was getting settled and the saucier she hired three months back was doing some great things. She encouraged Lisa to make a trip down to warm her bones back up as soon as the weather turned up north.

Trikru's chef de cuisine in San Francisco was absolutely killing it. She didn't have much time to talk to Lisa as her head chef was on vacation, but she had great ideas for the winter menu already and hoped Lisa would make a trip out soon to go over it and visit some local farms to help her make good choices. She had a sommelier on staff that was changing the game in town and wanted Lisa to come for a tour of wine country to pick out the 2017 bottles like they had done every year.

The chef in charge of War Paint in Los Angeles had such a solid crew that she admitted to Lisa that she was sitting in the office with her feet up that day. She wanted in on the San Francisco wine trip, asked after Aden and Sana, asked if Lisa was seeing anyone, said it was a waste of a perfectly hot bod that she wasn't, then emailed over her weekly reports.

Lisa had built an empire that ran itself without her and provided her with nothing to do but stew in her own thoughts and doubts.

Roseanne's phone number, folded and wrinkled on the order ticket from Blake's Bar, lay on her desk with Lisa's cellphone beside it. Lisa hadn't pinned Roseanne to be so slick. She put the ball completely in Lisa's court. Roseanne didn't have Lisa's number, so she forced Lisa to make the move. The magic of the beers and the food and the dingy bar lighting was gone and now she had to be a sober, solid adult and send a pretty girl a text message.