by Shae Banks
“Hear me out,” I said, holding up my fork, freshly loaded with frittata. “You can’t leave half used products for the next guest. You can’t rewrap a bar of soap. It’s all such a waste. And how many hotel wash products just leave your skin dry and your hair feeling like it still needs a good wash?”
“Are you sure you shouldn’t have worked in advertising?” he asked, cutting into his own food.
I frowned. “You think I’m stupid.”
“No. Really, no.” He turned to face me, abandoning his meal, and shook his head. I’d never seen him this interested “Bekah, this is incredible. I’d never thought of any of this, please carry on. Please.”
He sounded so enthusiastic “Really?”
“Really. They keep it. Why?”
Not feeling as enthusiastic, I said, “Because it’s thrown away anyway. You provide them because it’s necessary, but if you present them to the guest as another positive experience, and this time they get to take it away with them. A reminder of their stay. Something to talk to their friends about. Yes, they’re advertising someone else’s products, but that feeds back into the local economy, it builds a business relationship with a local company, and the idea is that we get roundabout trade.”
He was staring at me. “What?” I asked confusion starting to seep in.
“Nothing,” he said, looking back at the laptop. “With all these changes, who are we targeting?”
“Middle to high-earners south of Manchester.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“Because they’re the ones looking for country breaks. They want the outdoorsy, country experience, but won’t abandon their home comforts. They want to be pampered. They want the eco-friendly, responsibly sourced, blah blah blah”—I waved my hand in the air— “but they want to be comfortable while they do it. We can’t provide pain free fell walks, but we can pamper them when they come back.”
I clicked another tab. “This boutique hotel is booked six months in advance. It’s ultra-modern, which is not what we’re about at all. We don’t have room for hot tubs in the bedrooms, but it ticks the boxes for its target market. We’re looking at couples, late twenties and up, looking for pleasant countryside, local history, good food, and relaxation. The Georgian has that, the changes are just cosmetic.”
When he didn’t say anything, I finished my breakfast, wiped my mouth with the napkin and drained my coffee. It wasn’t until I reached for his empty plate that he spoke, “Okay. And the bedrooms?”
I shrugged. “Two is the one you push for romantic breaks, you know how people like a four poster.”
“The others?”
“I’ve only been in two, three, and six, but if the others are much the same it’s just a case of color coordinating the towels and robes. It’s more work for housekeeping, but with only five rooms it’s not unreasonable, and it adds to the bespoke feel we’re trying to achieve.”
He took the plates from my hands and put them on his nightstand then turned back to me. “And you can do all of this on twenty-five plus salaries?”
“I–I don’t know. I’d have to fully cost it, get quotes from decorators… Is the original parquet flooring under that carpet in the lounge?”
“Yes. It needs some work…”
I nodded. “I’ll need quotes before I can give you a working figure, but that isn’t even the issue. The issue is the additional staff you need to get everything up and running. Even if you reduced hotel bookings to weekends from October to March, you still need the staff and people don’t really go for seasonal jobs. No security.”
I closed the laptop while he tilted his head. I put it on my nightstand as his breath warmed the shall of my ear. “You, Bekah Daniels, are a bloody genius. How did you keep these talents hidden for so long?”
I smiled, turning to face him and kissed the corner of his mouth. “I wasn’t hiding anything, you just didn’t bother to look.”
He kissed me back, far more forcefully, lowering me onto the pillows and murmured against my lips, “I’m looking now.”
“Hmm? And?”
“I like what I see.”
Chapter Nineteen
Two days later, I was sitting at a table in the hotel dining room.
Lee’s face was a picture when he walked in and Callum and I were waiting for him.
“What’s happened?” he asked, sitting down.
“Nothing yet,” Callum said, placing his hand beside mine on the table and brushing my thumb with his little finger. “We wanted you to look over some plans and tell us what you think.”
“We?” He said looking from Callum to me. “Fucking hell, Callum. Took you long enough.”
I looked at Callum to see a small smile tug at his lips.
“Yes, well, Bekah has some ideas and your opinion would be valuable,” he said, pushing the folder over the table. “Drink?”
Lee took the folder and slouched in his seat as he started reading. “Yeah, I’ll have a pint.”
Callum went to the bar. “Bekah?”
“Umm, yeah. I’ll have the same.”
He raised his brows but pulled out three pint glasses and poured the drinks.
“Been a while since we had a drink, Bekah,” Lee said quietly. “Missed you.”
“Yeah. I got a bit... well, I’m back to normal now, I think.”
“Hardly,” he said, tipping his head toward the bar. “How’d that happen?”
I shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure.”
He nodded. “Well, I’m happy for you. What’s all this?”
“We just got talking, and I mentioned how much potential this place has,” I said, looking up at the ceiling. “He asked me to explain, so I did. The next thing I know, he’s asking me down here after work, has this lot printed, and you’re here.”
“And I want to know what your opinion on the plan is,” Callum said.
Lee flipped ahead a couple of pages. “This is a business plan?”
“Of sorts. It isn’t as though I need to go cap in hand to the bank, but I did need to see it laid out. I had a friend look it over yesterday afternoon, and she thinks it’s sound. That leaves discussing with you and setting the ball rolling.”
I glared at him as he set down my drink. “You’re actually doing this?”
“We are doing this if Lee is onboard.”
Lee took his pint and took a sip. “What’s this got to do with me?”
“I can’t do it without you,” Callum said candidly. “I can’t work seven nights a week and wouldn’t trust anyone else in my absence. I’ve given your role a lot of thought. You’d be head chef three nights, and we’d share responsibility one night per week plus share breakfast duties until we find someone who could handle that alone. You would be heavily involved in the recruitment process. Of course, your salary would increase as a result.”
Lee blew out his cheeks and took several large gulps of his lager. “I take it you’re getting a promotion?”
I looked down at the table. “General manager.”
“This is mental.”
“Yeah.”
Callum sat quietly, letting us talk, and Lee picked up the folder again and scanned the pages. “Isn’t this a bit... well, it’s a bit posh, isn’t it?”
I laughed. “There’s room for something a bit more upmarket. I mean, there are loads of restaurants, bars, things like that, but there’s nothing like this on the west coast. It’s a gap in the market, and this place is more than equipped to fill it. With the two of you in the kitchen and the rest of the building fixed up to meet the requirements of a boutique hotel, we could bring new visitors to the town and really show off what the area has to offer.”
“Fucking hell, Bekah. You’ve really thought about this, haven’t you?”
I shrugged. “It’s what I always wanted to do.”
He took another drink. “You’ve been out of college two years. I didn’t think you were that serious.”
“You knew this was what she wanted to do?”
We both looked at Callum.
“Maybe you should have come on some of the staff nights out, mate. Could have saved a shit load of time. All right, yeah. Four nights, a few mornings. Can’t say we don’t need the money.”
Callum gave him a questioning look.
“Aimee’s pregnant. This couldn’t have come at a better time for us, honestly.”
Callum got up and extended his hand. “Congratulations. That’s such wonderful news. How far along is she?”
Lee got to his feet, shaking his hand. “Three months. We were just leaving the hospital when you called. Everything’s fine, just a case of getting ready now.”
Callum was obviously thrilled. I wondered at it. They were obviously good friends, but I thought such an announcement at that moment in time would be something of an inconvenience. They may be friends, but Callum was running a business. He needed his chef. But the opposite was true, he was so genuinely happy for him.
“Pass on my congratulations.”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling like I was hugely underreacting.
He looked at me and smiled. “Thanks. So, this is really happening?”
“Looks like it,” I said.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Callum said, turning and heading to the hall.
When he was gone, Lee sat down and said, “Seriously? What the fuck just happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said in a loud whisper. “We got talking on Monday morning, I left, I’ve been at work two days, and now I come home to business plans and job offers.”
Lee raised his eyebrows. “Home, eh?”
I rolled my eyes. “May as well be these days.”
“Funny you should say that,” Callum said, coming back into the room and handing us each several sheets of paper stapled together. “Because the manager needs to be on site.”
I scanned the front page as he sat down. A contract of employment.
“Obviously, the salary reflects that accommodation and all utilities are included. And Lee, yours includes a cover clause. Take them home, have them looked at by a third party if necessary. I need answers by Monday.”
“When the baby comes—”
“You can interview your own temp,” Callum said immediately.
“Got a pen?”
“You’re not going to have it checked?” he asked, surprised.
Lee shook his head. “Nope. Salary looks good, four nights a week plus mornings which won’t take up too much time, and a three month notice period. It’s fine.”
“And pension,” Callum added, producing a pen.
“Oh, well, that’s a nice bonus,” he said and signed the final two sheets, tearing off the back one and folding it. “Bekah?”
I took a breath and picked up my drink.
“What aren’t you sure about?” Callum asked.
I shrugged. The honest answer was all of it. So many things had happened and so much was changing. Okay, I was, technically, qualified for the position, and yes, it was what I’d always wanted to do, and I had been there for years. I knew the place. I knew the customers. I knew the target market, and I knew all the staff. But I couldn’t say that. Callum had taken all of my ideas and run with them. I didn’t want to disappoint him. “It’s a bit... Well, it’s a bit sudden.”
Lee laughed. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
There were several things.
If it went balls up, I was out of a job. All jobs.
How would I manage to pay bills then?
Where would I live?
Would it make things difficult between Callum and I? We’d been working together for years, and he was still my boss, but making me responsible for a massive part of his business was nowhere near waiting his tables. If something went wrong, I’d be accountable. To him.
I didn’t want to risk what we had. It was too new. Too fragile.
“Remember that night we were stuffing down pizza on the harbor wall?” Lee said. “Before I met Aimee. Before you finished college. I asked what you planned to do when you qualified, and you told me you wanted to be running a little hotel somewhere. You wanted to make people happy. The customers like you. I’ve heard some of them ask your opinion on the menu, and you’ve never steered them wrong. You’ve always gone the extra mile for them when you could have just done the minimum. Making small changes to desserts. Getting Danny to mix a cocktail we don’t have on the menu. If anyone can pull this together, Bekah, it’s you. This is what you’ve always wanted to do. Best of all, it’s costing you nothing, this crazy fucker is paying for it all, and you get to live rent free. Just sign the fucking contract.”
Callum’s expression was somewhere between annoyed and impressed. “You don’t have to—”
“Yes, she does, Callum. If this is all her idea, she’s already put most of the work in,” Lee said, putting the pen down in front of me.
Gulping the last mouthful of my pint down, I put the glass on the table and snatched up the pen. “If this goes tits up, Lee, I’ll kill you.”
When I looked up, he was grinning at me with his arms folded over his chest. “You’ll have to catch me first.”
Callum glanced at me and took my hand. “Okay. Well, we’re going to be closing for eight weeks as of Monday. I’m going to need menu plans from you, Lee, and we’ll begin the recruitment process immediately. Bekah, I have painters and flooring specialists booked for consultations tomorrow. You’ll need to discuss with the waiting and bar staff, as well as Louisa, and handle recruitment in housekeeping around her family needs.”
“Callum, you can’t close...”
“Have to,” he said, looking around the room. “If we’re doing this it has to be the entire ground floor. With no dining room, we can’t serve food.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You think it can be done in eight weeks?”
“Technically, it’s nine.”
Lee was chuckling. “Bekah, just go with it. Trust me, everything with Callum is easier if you just go with it.”
“That’s excellent advice, Lee. Champagne?”
“Yeah, fuck it. I’ll get a taxi home.”
They both looked at me.
I shrugged as Callum returned to the bar. “Put a dash of Chambord in mine. I can’t stand that dry, fizzy crap.”
“Has she always been like this, Lee?” Callum asked, popping the cork and pouring.
“Yep,” he said as he moved over to the bar and sat on a stool. “She loosens up after a few drinks, but she was always the serious one of the three of the sisters.”
I scowled, joining them. Of course, he remembered my older sister and how she was before marriage and kids. “Trust me, Ruth, isn’t how you remember her.”
Lee laughed and said to Callum, “Ruth is her older sister. She’s two years older than me and she was always… daring.”
“Daring,” I scoffed. “Should see her now. Married to a creep, walking around judging everyone. She’s a right bitch.”
Lee shrugged. “She was always a bitch. She was just loads of fun if you weren’t on her radar.”
“You’ve known each other a long time?” Callum asked, handing us champagne flutes, mine with a dash of raspberry liqueur.
“Lee’s mum lives around the corner from mine. We sort of grew up together.”
“I see.” The look he gave us was perfect.
We both burst out laughing. “God, nothing like that,” I said. “No. We weren’t friends until I started working here. He used to walk me home after nights out.”
“Why did you stop coming on those, Bekah?” Lee asked.
I looked straight at Callum. “I… uhm… I was seeing someone, and I—”
“Perhaps that’s something you should start back up?” Callum suggested. “New year and all that?”
I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”
“To new ventures and teamwork,” Callum said, raising his glass.
As all three glasses met, I felt a surge of
optimism. There was no reason we couldn’t pull it together. Was there?
Chapter Twenty
With Sunday lunch over and done, the kitchen scrubbed down for the final time, and the dining room all ready for the tables to be moved out, I made myself comfortable in my new living room.
I’d packed some clothes and essential bits and started the process of moving into The Georgian. My notice had been given at work, and Callum had hand delivered my notice to give up the flat for me. Because I was on a monthly rolling contract, I only had to give four weeks’ notice. With one month rent left to pay, and my salary increase from Callum immediate, I wasn’t at all worried. So I’d gotten settled in to my new abode on Friday after work at the gas station and that was it.
“Are you sure?”
I laughed and pushed him away. “Go. I’m fine. I have coke and snacks and whoever this guy is.”
“Dwayne Johnson?” he said, apparently surprised I didn’t know who he was.
I shrugged. “Yeah, him. I have friends over next Friday.”
“You didn’t know who he was?”
“Well, obviously, I’ve heard of him,” I said rolling my eyes for dramatic effect, “but I haven’t watched many movies recently. Get out. See your friend.”
He kissed me on the forehead. “It might be a late one, so I won’t come back here. I’ll let myself in first thing if that’s all right with you?”
I nodded, sticking my hand into the bag of tortilla chips. He never assumed he was welcome, which was weird. I’d effectively kicked him out of the place above the hotel when I signed his contract, and he’d been asking permission to come in ever since. “I’ll be here.”
Several seconds ticked by, and while I tried to concentrate on my movie I couldn’t.
“Okay, either sit down or leave but don’t hover, it’s creeping me out.”
“Sorry,” he said, turning away. “I just like the look of you in whatever that is.
I looked down at my tank top and panties. “You told me to make myself at home.”
“I did.”
“This is me at home.”
“You’re barely dressed.”
“I know.”