by Joyce Jordan
Miami Hot
by Joyce Jordan
Copyright © 2014 Joyce Jordan
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in ay form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
To contact the author:
[email protected]
Table of Contents
Chapter_One
Chapter_Two
Chapter_Three
Chapter_Four
Chapter_Five
Chapter_Six
Chapter_Seven
Chapter_Eight
Chapter_Nine
Chapter_Ten
Chapter_Eleven
Chapter_Twelve
Chapter_Thirteen
Chapter_Fourteen
Chapter_Fifteen
Chapter_Sixteen
Chapter_Seventeen
Chapter_Eighteen
Chapter_Nineteen
Chapter_Twenty
Chapter_Twenty_One
Chapter_Twenty_Two
Chapter_Twenty_Three
Chapter_Twenty_Four
Chapter_Twenty_Five
Chapter_Twenty_Six
Chapter_Twenty_Seven
Chapter_Twenty_Eight
Chapter_Twenty_Nine
Chapter_Thirty
Chapter_Thirty_One
Chapter_Thirty_Two
Epilogue
Other_Books_By_Joyce_Jordan
Note_from_the_author
Chapter One
Moira jumped from one station to the next making sure her desserts were coming through the right way. She was in charge of a three person team and as the person in charge it was her responsibility to make sure every dessert served was perfection. And today of all days, perfection was what she needed. She was serving the dessert tray to the King International executives. Her boss was confident in her, but she was all nerves.
“Don’t be nervous, you will do great,” her boss, Stu said. He took her hands, rubbed them together, “Settle down. Breathe in. Breathe out.”
Moira did the breathe in and out with Stu and suddenly felt calmer. “Sorry, I just don’t want to mess this up. I know you have faith in me, and I want to make sure I don’t embarrass you in there today.”
“I know kid, but you have been here for two weeks now. And everyone loves your desserts,” Stu replied. He moved his hands to her shoulders and squeezed. “Honestly, we are having more people in the cafeteria since you joind us, and half of them never used to eat the desserts we served before.”
“Thanks. I’m glad to put what I learnt into practice and that people really enjoy my treats.”
“I never had any doubt especially with you under my brother’s tutelage. He was the best,” Stu said with a smile.
“Yes, he was,” she said and sighed. “Thanks for calming me down, but now I have to prepare my tray because I think I’m up next,” Moira squeezed Stu’s hand and walked over to the large walk in fridge.
One of her team members, Christi Sanchez, walked in to join Moira, pushing the dessert cart with empty plates. Moira was glad of the team Stu had put in together for her. Chisti was the youngest and still attending college. Moira had decided that each time they had to personally serve the executives at King International, her team members would rotate and today was Christi’s turn.
“Everything else is ready. We just need to load the desserts onto the cart,” Christi said as she entered the walk in fridge behind her.
“Thanks Christi. We can’t afford for anything to go wrong today. Not with the CEO of King International there,” Moira told her making a quick inventory of what was already on the cart.
“Nothing will go wrong. You have already double checked, triple checked everything in the last thirty minutes alone,” Christi replied. “Besides, if all else fails, you can just bat your eyelashes at him and he will be putty in your hands,” she added laughing.
“Excuse me?” Moira said turning to look at her. “Is that what they are teaching you at college these days?”
“Don’t give me that look,” she replied with a smile. “The senior Mr. King fell in love with your treats two weeks ago. And since then, you have been making him pastries, desserts and every sweet temptation under the sun. He is already putty in your hands, and I have no doubt the son will follow too.”
“Well, let’s not rush to conclusions. Not everyone has a sweet tooth.”
“I guess you are right. But sweet tooth or not, you have got to admit that is one hunk of a man,” Christi said with a dreamy face.
“Earth to Christi! Earth to Christi!” Moira said while fanning Christi’s face with her hand. “You can dream about him after the desserts have been served. For now, I need your total focus.”
“Okay boss,” she said with a salute.
They worked together placing the desserts ordered by the lunch group. Moira grabbed the dessert wines she had chosen to go with the desserts and placed them on the trolley. They covered the desserts and waited for the head chef to give them the go ahead to take the desserts in.
Not wanting to just sit and worry more, Moira joined her other two members, Jeff Best and Vinny Pacheco, who were dipping the eclairs in chocolate for the lunch crowd. They all worked for Stu Ford, who ran a few kitchens under Ford Kitchens, in some large and medium sized companies. Everybody pretty much stuck to serving the same company, but when short stuffed, sometimes Stu would move people around. But for the last two weeks, Moira and her team had been working together and had developed a great respect for each other.
At first she had been afraid that she may not fit in especially with everybody thinking she got the job because Stu was her uncle. Not by blood, but she had grown up calling him uncle as he was her dad’s friend. Unfortunately her dad and Stu’s brother had both passed away four years ago trying to save a woman trapped by fire in her apartment. Once everybody realized Moira had some skills and was not just being handed the pastry chef title, everybody seemed to loosen up. In another two weeks, Stu wanted to add some of her most sought after desserts to the other kitchens he ran, so that even added the pressure she was under.
Before long, Moira and Christi were rolling their dessert trolley into the boardroom where lunch was being served. All ten men and four women looked intimidating. These were the high power players within King International. The only one who turned and gave a smile was Mr. King senior – William as he preferred to be called.
Moira met William King on her third day at Ford Kitchens. He was semi retired and had come in to have a meeting with one of the other executives. Stu had told her about William’s sweet tooth but also how the doctors and told him he couldn’t have sweets anymore, and how he always complained that nothing tasted good anymore. She had made two different desserts specifically for William King that day, hoping one of them would be a good substitute for what he was used to. That day, he came back to the cafeteria and she packed the remaining desserts for him and promised to have a few delivered to him every few days. And thus a friendship had been born.
Today, she was meeting his son, Conrad King, for the first time. Apparently he had been out of the country for the last two and a half weeks. According to Miami gossip columns, he was the ultimate playboy. His saving grace was th
at he worked hard too and had pulled the company his parents had started from the millions in profit to the billions in profits.
Like a well oiled machine, Moira and Christi served everyone their dessert. They started with William King, at the head of the table, and went round, carefully double checking with their seating chart, making sure they didn’t serve someone something he or she hadn’t asked for. Fortunately, everyone in the room continued talking, so Moira didn’t have to make any eye contact. But she studied the faces of the group because she wanted to know what everyone thought of her desserts.
As soon as they reached the kitchen, Moira and Christi breathed a sigh of relief. They had survived, but it wasn’t over yet. Now Moira needed to know if everyone would enjoy what she and her team had made. Moira almost dropped the tray of cheesecake she was transferring from the fridge to the counter when she saw the head chef come into the kitchen fifteen minutes later.
“What’s wrong?” she asked with a frown.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Alan replied quickly. “Rave reviews all round. I have some requests for a few to go boxes.” He handed Moira a list and continued, “Here is the list of the names and the desserts they want.”
“Really?” she asked and looked at him. At his nod, her smile widened and she did a little dance. “I’ll have this packed right away.”
“Great. And they should be done with their desserts by the time you bring those boxes in,” Alan said as he walked away. “Oh, and those should be charged individually. Just stick an invoice to the side and have another delivered to their secretaries and they will take care of the payments.”
“Okay,” she said with a huge grin on her face. She motioned for Christi to come and join her. “Guess what?” she asked Christi when she was close by.
“By the huge grin on your face, I am guessing that it was a success?”
“Not only that, but we have a few to go boxes to pack. So how about, I pack and you ring up the totals according to the list Alan made?”
“Are you kidding me? The head of marketing, Jerry, wants a full cheesecake?” Christi asked in shock. “I sure hope he will be sharing with his family.”
“I hope so, because too much of a good thing can make you sick. And it wouldn’t be good if he ended up blaming us.”
Together they worked and had their to go boxes piled on their dessert trolley in less than ten minutes. This time when they entered the boardroom everybody went quiet. Moira almost panicked were it not for the smile on Alan’s face. She turned to look at the executives sitting around the table and found everyone smiling, except Conrad King. No one said a word for what seemed like ages, until William King stood up and clapped his hands, then suddenly everyone was clapping too.
“Alan, please let me have the pleasure of introducing our new pastry chef?” he asked, to which Alan smiled and nodded.
“Ladies and gentlemen. This here is Moira Peters, a new member of Ford Kitchens. Since I tasted her pastries and desserts, I no longer order desserts when I eat out. My doctor has never been happier about my health because I no longer have to cheat by eating the wrong sweets.” Everybody laughed at his last statement before they proceeded to congratulate her on a job well done.
“Thank you. I have a great team and Christi Sanchez here is one of them,” she replied looking towards Christi beside her.
She wheeled the trolley to the side cabinet and placed the boxes on top as Christi basked in words of praise from everyone. They quickly loaded up their little trolley with the used dessert plates and forks. Moira couldn’t work fast enough. She could feel his eyes, Conrad’s eyes, on her. She refused to look up and lock eyes with him again. He certainly had finished his dessert but she wasn’t sure what his true thoughts about it were. Despite the fact that everybody else had loved what they had offered for the dessert choices, she would still have loved for the CEO to approve. He obviously carried a lot of weight of which company they chose to cook food for their employees in the company cafeteria. Stu had only won that bid a couple of years ago, and she would hope he didn’t lose it due to her.
Unfortunately her willpower deserted her when she closed the door as they left. It was like some force pulled her and the next thing she had locked eyes with him again. When he smiled at her, she understood what Christi had been blabbing about. The smile alone was enough to make even a grandma swoon and drop her panties. The ding of the elevator saved the day and pulled her from the eye-lock. Moira hastily pulled the door shut and hurried to catch up with Christi who was pulling the trolley into the elevator. And fortunately for Moira, Christi was still on a high of the praises they had just received that she didn’t notice how flustered Moira was when she joined her in the elevator.
They cleaned up and made plans for the next day’s breakfast and lunch menu then Moira left for the day.
Chapter Two
Moira arrived at her doctor’s office with barely a minute to spare. The doc was running late, so she ended up being seen at 3:30pm, a full half an hour later. Just as she was settling onto a chair in the exam room, her mobile beeped and vibrated. The caller ID told her it was coming from Kings International. She hoped nothing was wrong in the kitchen.
On answering the phone she was surprised to hear Mrs. Klusky, Janet, as she preferred being called. When she met her, she insisted Moira call her Janet, otherwise she would feel her age if referred to as Mrs. Klusky. To which they both laughed since everybody knew she was sixty years old.
“Hi, Janet.”
“Moira, sorry to bother you, but it’s always easier to get hold of you on your mobile than the kitchen extension.”
“No bother Janet. What’s up?” Moira asked.
“Mr. King wants to see you. Can you come up now?”
“Are you calling about William’s treats? Christi should have brought them to your office.”
“No dear. I got them. It’s Conrad who wants to see you, not William,” she replied.
Okay. Maybe I need to visit an ear doctor too, Moira thought.
“Moira dear, are you there?”
Moira shook her head and asked, “Conrad, as in Conrad King?”
“Yes dear. None other.”
She cleared her chest, despite the fact that it didn’t need to be cleared. “Do you know why?” Moira queried Janet.
“He didn’t say. How soon can you be here?”
“Janet, I’m sorry, I can’t make it. Not today,” Moira told her still wondering why he wanted to see her. “I left the building almost an hour ago.”
“I see. I’ll let him know. Goodbye dear.”
Moira said goodbye to Janet just as the doctor came through the door. She hated any doctor visits, but since it was recommended to have at least one annual visit, she always had hers done during the first few weeks of the year. With the preparations she had to go through preparing to start with Ford Kitchens, she hadn’t managed to make it in the first week of January. But the last week wasn’t too bad. At least she could be done with this and forget about it for the rest of the year.
“Moira. How are you doing?” Dr. Simmons asked her.
“Great! I just started a job with uncle Stu. Been busy, so I wasn’t able to make it last couple of weeks.”
“That’s good news. Congratulations! How is Stu doing? And Sam?”
“They are both good,” she replied.
“Ummmm. Just make sure they both come in for their physicals,” he said and winked at her. “Now let’s see your chart. Your weight is good. Blood pressure too. We will do a pap smear then some blood tests. Is that okay with you?”
Moira agreed then Dr. Simmons told her to wear the paper gown on the exam table. He left and was soon back in about five minutes with a nurse. He did the breast exam, belly exam [no she wasn’t pregnant, she told him. Hadn’t had sex in ages, but he still checked] , neck, ear, throat, prodded her all over before he moved on to the pap smear. Despite the fact that Moira had been having the pap smear for over five years now, she still always felt uncomfort
able with it. She had no idea how her best friend – Serenity Segal thought it was a breeze.
“All done. Once you get cleaned up, go to the back and get the blood work done, then I will call you with the results.”
“Thanks Dr. Simmons.” She liked the fact that it was always a one stop shop. She didn’t have to go to a lab for the blood work.
As soon as Moira was done, she went straight home. She arrived just in time to see Sam before he left for his job. Sam’s dad and her dad had been friends since before both Sam and Moira were born. They had been firefighters who when they worked different shifts, they prefered to have the other baby sit the other’s kid and from there their kids grew up together and were raised as brother and sister, by single dads.
Moira’s mum had been robbed and murdered about a year after her birth, and Sam’s mother, had died in childbirth. Naturally when both men died in an apartment fire almost four years ago, Sam and Moira stuck together like glue. At first they had lived with uncle Stu but had moved out a few months later not wanting to cramp his bachelor lifestyle. They had both used the life insurance money and equity from the sale of both dads homes to continue funding their education as per their dad’s wishes.
Now Sam worked as head of security at an uptown hotel but was mainly focused on their in-hotel nightclub and other stand alone nightclubs. And she had managed to get that pastry chef training she had always promised her dad – Andrew Peters and uncle Clay – Sam’s dad, she would. After college she had taken a couple of years and continued training with world famous chefs until she decided to join uncle Stu. Now she needed to prove to herself, uncle Stu and everyone else that this job wasn’t handed to her. She worked hard for it. And as they say, ‘the proof is in the pudding’, so hopefully today was one of those steps in proving her right.
“Hi Sam. Just came from Dr. Simmons.”
“I know, I know. I’ll make an appointment with him soon. Tomorrow,” he said coming to her. “I promise,” he added at her raised eyebrow.
“Make sure you do.”
“Congrats kid. Stu told me the luncheon was a success.”