The Restaurant

by Pamela M. Kelley

  “I used to think that, too,” Emma agreed. “After all he’s been here as long as any of us can remember.”

  They were silent for a moment, and then Jill reached for the half-full bottle of chianti in the middle of the table and refilled each of their glasses.

  “Okay, so let’s talk about you now.” She focused her attention on Emma. “What are you going to do about Peter? Can you work things out, do you think?”

  Emma still hadn’t shared the dirty details with them yet. The timing hadn’t felt right. It didn’t seem appropriate to whine about her marriage woes when they were writing Grams obituary and making arrangements to bury her. But now—well, she supposed Grams would have quite a lively opinion about the matter.

  “Grams was never a big fan of Peter. I wonder if she somehow sensed something?” she mused.

  “Was he unfaithful?” Mandy asked, and Emma just nodded. It was still too hard to say the words.

  “No kidding? Who was she?” Jill exclaimed, clearly surprised by this revelation. Emma smiled wryly.

  “He,” she corrected. After allowing a moment for that to register, she added, “It was his friend Tom. His very good friend Tom.”

  “The one who recently moved to Phoenix?” Mandy asked.

  “The very same. They evidently ‘experimented’ in college. Whatever that means. I don’t really want to know. Peter said it freaked them both out, and it didn’t happen again, until just recently, when Tom was transferred to Phoenix and looked him up.”

  “That’s really scary. How do you deal with that kind of news?” Jill asked.

  “Not very well,” Emma admitted with a nervous laugh. “If you’re me, you run away and hide and you question it from every possible angle. But there are no good answers.”

  “Well, you need to take a vacation and figure out what you’re going to do next.” Mandy reached over and grabbed her hand. “Stay with me, as long as you like. We have plenty of room.”

  “Or come to Manhattan. We can have a blast, go shopping and out to eat, whatever you feel like doing,” Jill offered.

  “Thanks, both of you. I’ve been thinking a lot about this though, and what I’ve decided is what I really need to do is focus on work, and keep busy. I’m flying home tomorrow night and moving out. I have a room already booked at a spa in Scottsdale and am going to go apartment hunting. I can’t stay in our house anymore, not with Peter or even without him. There are too many memories there.”

  She saw the sympathy in their eyes and anger at Peter on her behalf, which was understandable and she loved them for it.

  “I don’t hate Peter. He is who he is and I know he never meant for this to happen, but I just can’t be around him anymore. It’s too hard.”

  Mandy wasn’t ready to give up though. “Think about staying here a few more days at least. You can easily reschedule your flight. Let us take care of you for a bit and let yourself relax and recharge.”

  Emma was too exhausted to protest. It was easier to put the decision off. “I’ll think about it and will let you know tomorrow.” They were meeting at the attorney’s office at eleven to go over the will. Emma didn’t expect that to take long. Grams had a modest savings account and the house and had always told the girls that whatever she had would go to the three of them equally. She figured she could probably suggest a nice lunch with Mandy and Jill, and then she’d be ready to head to the airport. She was anxious to get on with her life.

  Chapter 4

  Alvin Eldridge had been Gram’s attorney for over thirty years. He was an older man, nearly seventy, with plenty of snow-white hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were cheery as he welcomed the girls into his small office on Main Street. It was an elegant old building with a distant view of the harbor.

  “Come in, come in.” He ushered them into a conference room and offered water or coffee, which they all declined. Once they were settled comfortably around the table, he opened a thick manila folder, handed a copy of the will to each of them and started reading through it. Everything was pretty much as expected right up until the end. He paused, and they thought he was finished, but then he leaned forward and said with much drama, “There is an addendum to the will, which your grandmother instructed me to save until the very end.” He handed a single sheet of paper to each of them.

  “She has a bit of a surprise for the three of you. I understand that you are not aware that she is or rather was the sole owner of Mimi’s Place, one of Nantucket’s finest restaurants?”

  “Grams owned Mimi’s Place!” Jill exclaimed as she looked up from the sheet of paper she was holding.

  “How could that be?” Mandy asked.

  “How come she never told us?” Emma looked at Mr. Eldridge for an explanation.

  “I was sworn to secrecy. I don’t think many at the restaurant, except for a select few knew either. Your grandmother wanted it that way. She never actively managed the place. It was always handled through a trust.”

  “So, what do we do with it? We sell it, right? None of us knows how to run a restaurant,” Jill stated.

  Mr. Eldridge cleared his throat. “Well, this is where it gets a bit more interesting. Your grandmother seems to have a plan in place. You can certainly sell the restaurant if you choose.”

  “Good, so you can handle that for us? Or put us in touch with people that can arrange for a sale?” Jill sounded relieved, and ready to be finished with everything. Emma was also hoping they could wrap this up today and she could be on her way.

  “Yes, of course. But there is a catch. You can sell the restaurant, but not just yet. Please see the last paragraph. Your grandmother spells it out in her own words.

  Mandy started reading aloud. “My girls, I know this will come as somewhat of a shock, but I am the sole owner of Mimi’s Place and have been for forty-three years, since I won the restaurant in a bet. A game of poker actually, but that’s too long of a story to go into here. As you know, Mimi’s Place is special to me and always has been. We’ve shared many wonderful times there and I hope that the three of you will learn to love the place as much as I do. The restaurant is yours to do with what you will, but before you can sell Mimi’s Place, if that is what you choose to do, all three of you must first work there in any capacity you choose for exactly one year.

  I also left a quarter of it to Paul Taylor, my executive chef for the last twelve years. You must all work with him, running the restaurant together. After a year, you can choose to sell if that is your wish. If you decide not to work together for one full year, then your shares will automatically go to Paul, as I know he loves the restaurant as much as I do. I trust that soon, the three of you will too.

  Mandy and Jill both glanced at Emma. They all knew Paul Taylor, but didn’t realize he was the chef at Mimi’s Place. Emma’s face had lost all color, but she quickly regained her composure and smiled.

  “Well, isn’t that a surprise? How nice for all of us, and for Paul too.”

  An hour later, Jill, Mandy, and Emma were sitting at a table at The Brant Point Grill in the White Elephant Hotel. There was a lovely view of the harbor but all three were staring at their menus, unable to make a decision.

  “Everything looks good.” Jill flipped a page of her menu as her cellphone buzzed again. The ringer was off, but every few minutes it buzzed. This time she didn’t get to it quickly enough, and it vibrated wildly, slithering across the glass tabletop until it collided with her water glass. As soon as she saw the number on the caller ID, she stood.

  “Oops… sorry, I have to take this one. It’ll just be a second.”

  Mandy raised her eyebrows at Emma as Jill started talking. “Hi Billy. No, he’s not closed. I can’t close him on a number until we know what the company is able to do.” She glanced at her watch. “I should be back by four. I’ll see you then.” She ended the call and as soon as she set the phone down it started buzzing again. She ignored it and turned her attention back to the menu, but less than a minute later she picked up the phone, checked
email and began furiously typing a response. When she finished, Mandy reached over, grabbed the offensive phone and dropped it into her oversized tote bag where the constant buzzing would be muzzled.

  Jill opened her mouth to protest, but Mandy cut her off. “You’ll get it back as soon as we’re done here. An hour off won’t kill you, my dear.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Jill picked up a crusty dinner roll from the basket that had just landed on the table. She ripped off a chunk of bread, smeared a bit of butter on it and popped it in her mouth.

  “Is it always like that?” Emma asked. She couldn’t imagine having a job where the phone rang off the hook. It was unsettling. She preferred peace and quiet and in fact did her best work in complete silence, which allowed her to concentrate so fully that she entered an almost trance-like ‘zone’ that was so familiar to writers and other artists.

  Jill laughed. “That’s nothing. You should see what it’s like in the office. It’s crazy, but I do love it.”

  She really seemed to, Emma realized as she saw the glimmer of excitement in her sister’s eyes. Jill was so successful and amazing at what she did and was clearly anxious to get back to it. Emma shuddered at the very thought of what her sister did for work, though. Not in a million years could she call absolute strangers on the phone and persuade them to consider changing jobs. Emma had phone phobia. She dreaded calling anyone that she didn’t know very well, for even something as simple as scheduling a doctor’s visit.

  Not for the first time, Emma marveled at how very different the three of them were. She knew that she was the quiet, creative one. Jill, the aggressive business woman and Mandy was just so polished and organized that she made everything look easy. Even now as she took charge to get the three of them focused.

  “Here comes the waiter,” Mandy said as he approached their table. “We need to make some decisions here. What does everyone want?”

  “I have no idea.” Emma was having a hard time deciding until another server walked by carrying two gorgeous leafy salads topped with grilled scallops. “That looks delicious.”

  “It is,” the waiter assured them. “The scallops are local, from Nantucket Bay. The chef brushes them with an orange butter sauce before they go on the grill. There’s also sliced avocado, pecans and crumbled goat cheese with an orange, sesame, and ginger vinaigrette.

  Emma closed her menu. “I’ll have that.”

  “Me too,” Jill and Mandy both said at the same time.

  “Can you tell we’re related?” Jill asked with a grin.

  “It’s an excellent choice.” He smiled as he gathered up their menus.

  “Okay,” Mandy began. “Seriously, what are we going to do? None of us have run a restaurant. And both of you are scheduled to be on planes home this afternoon.”

  “I have quite a bit of restaurant experience actually,” Emma said. She’d been thinking about nothing else since they’d left the attorney’s office and for the first time in weeks, she felt a bit of excitement building. Maybe Grams was onto something with this strange request.

  “You worked as a server. You’ve never managed a restaurant,” Mandy corrected.

  “True, but I worked as a server for several years. At The Barnacle, some of the wait staff had been there for over twenty or thirty years. When it was slow, we used to sit out back and discuss how we’d do things differently. This might not be such a crazy idea after all. A year goes by quickly and it’s not like we really have a choice.” She looked around the table, then added, “Unless we’re willing to just walk away and let Paul have Mimi’s Place.”

  “Well, that’s another factor—Paul. How do you feel about working with him?” Mandy asked.

  Emma sighed. She’d been shocked at the news initially, but she didn’t see why it needed to change anything.

  “That was another lifetime. I’m sure Paul and I could find a way to work together. We both moved on years ago.”

  “I don’t see how it’s possible though.” Mandy was always the voice of reason. “Jill runs a multi-million dollar business in Manhattan and you live clear across the country, and I’m just a stay-at-home wife and mother. I really don’t see how this could work.”

  “First of all, you’re not ‘just’ a stay-at-home mother. Look at all those incredible charity events you’re always pulling together. Not everyone can do that. And I don’t have to live in Phoenix, especially now that I’m getting divorced.” Emma turned her attention to her other sister. “And Jill, you’ve said many times that you could work from anywhere, that all you need is a laptop and a phone.”

  “Well yes, but…”

  “So, theoretically you could work from here?” Emma pressed.

  “Theoretically, I could,” Jill conceded. “But it would be difficult.”

  They were all silent for a moment, and then Mandy leaned forward in her chair. “But not impossible.” She was obviously warming to the idea.

  “Besides, New York isn’t far at all. You could probably get back there once or twice a month if you wanted to,” Emma added.

  “There’s three of us,” Mandy began. “We can split our time up, so we won’t have to always be there together.”

  Jill was surprised that Emma and Mandy seemed to have done a complete turnaround on Grams’ crazy idea. Her ears picked up a faint buzzing sound and realized that somewhere deep inside Mandy’s purse, her cell phone was ringing again. She sighed. It might be nice to have a break from the constant grind, and it would only be for a year.

  “So Mandy, are you saying you want to do this too?” Jill asked when the waiter arrived with their salads.

  Mandy took a bite of a scallop before answering. “Oh, these scallops are amazing.” She paused for a moment, savoring the flavor. Then she put her fork down and spoke, her tone serious. “Yes, I want to do this. Grams wanted it for us, and I can’t help but think that the timing is a good thing, sort of meant to be. I’ve been thinking for a while now that I wanted to do something, maybe find a part-time job now that the kids are a bit older.”

  “Okay, so what do we do now then?” Jill asked.

  “I think you and I should still fly home as planned,” Emma began. “I really only need a few days to get things settled, pack and fly back. I can go back in a few months to take care of anything I missed. How much time do you think you’ll need?”

  “Well, Mandy’s right. Manhattan really isn’t that far, so I should only need a few days too. Especially since I’ll be going back more often.”

  “Where do you think you want to stay?” Mandy asked. “There’s plenty of room with me, or of course there’s Grams’ house. It has four bedrooms, and you’d be just a short walk from Mimi’s Place.”

  “I’d love to stay at Grams’ place I think,” Emma decided. “With that many bedrooms, we could each use one as an office too, if we like.”

  “Works for me,” Jill agreed.

  “I’ll call to schedule a meeting next week with Ray and Paul to go over everything.”

  “Okay, then it’s settled.” Jill lifted her water glass. “To Mimi’s Place.”

  Emma and Mandy clinked their glasses together.

  “To Mimi’s Place.”

  Jill strode into her office at a quarter to four.

  “I’m so sorry about your grandmother. How are you doing?” Amy’s face reflected concern and care. She was a stellar receptionist, in her mid-fifties and was so naturally kind and caring that she had a calming effect on everyone from nervous candidates to Jill and Billy and the rest of the staff.

  “Thank you, I’m doing okay. Is Billy in?”

  “He’s in his office with Tony and Nicole. They seem excited about something.”

  Jill headed back to her office, which was down the hall from Billy’s. As co-owners, they each had a corner office with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city.

  As she walked through the office, various employees offered their condolences. The energy level was high as usual. Everyone was either on the ph
one or tapping away on their keyboards. Jill caught a glimpse of the ‘board’, where everyone tracked their placements for the month and saw that the overall number was up considerably. They must have closed several deals in the last few days. She dropped her bag and coat in her office before going to see Billy.

  Tony and Nicole, two of their recruiters, were still in his office, the three of them gabbing away as she walked in.

  “Hey! How are you?” Billy got up from his desk and walked over to give Jill a big hug.

  “I’m fine. So, what are you all celebrating?”

  Billy’s eyes lit up as he glanced at Tony and Nicole before answering. “These two just set a record for the biggest placement in our company’s history.”

  “They filled the MacGregor search?” It had to be. Typical fees were in the twenty-five to thirty percent range of the candidate’s starting salary, but this client offered to pay forty percent to ensure that they were given the highest possible priority, given that this was also an extremely difficult search and they wanted an added incentive to stay focused and not give up.

  “That’s right. A $420,000 fee!”

  “Congratulations you two! That’s quite an accomplishment.” Tony and Nicole were two of their top performers. Tony, the seasoned recruiter, was grinning like a little kid, and Nicole who was still considered a ‘rookie’ with less than two years of experience was beaming.

  “On days like this I really love this job!” Nicole exclaimed, then added, “and it still amazes me sometimes how much we’re paid to just find people. I know there’s way more to it, but still it’s a lot of money.”

  Jill was thrilled for all of them and even after her many years in this business, it still amazed her too at times how they were able to command the fees that they did.

  “Billy, when you have a minute, could you swing by my office? I need to talk to you about something.”

  He immediately looked alarmed. “Is everything okay?” and then, “Am I in trouble?”