“Good enough,” she said. “We have three other meats anyway, so we can do without the lamb.”
“Exactly. I know the budget here is extensive,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea sometimes to have one less meat a day.”
“I was wondering about that,” she said, “just to see if anybody noticed.”
“Right,” he said. “We could certainly do it for a few days and see what happens.”
“I was wondering about doing it every second day or maybe once every three days,” she said, “and putting in a vegetarian dish. Something even with a little protein that is heavy with vegetables.”
“I like the idea,” Gerard said. He was her number one assistant.
At that, she reached for the manifest Ricky handed her. She checked every item mentally against what recipes she needed it for with this week’s menu plan and then signed the bottom. “Ricky, I think we’ll need more lemons too,” she said.
He nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll add it to tomorrow’s order.”
Acknowledging the response, she turned, just as her phone rang. Pulling it out, she checked her Caller ID, seeing it was one her staff, then answered. “Stefan, how does it look today for you?”
“It is not good,” he said, his soft voice apologetic. “Mom’s having a bad day.”
Ilse pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand. “When can you come in?” she asked, not even believing that she was asking such a question. But Stefan was the only one looking after his mother, who had stage four breast cancer and was homebound. How did you even begin to ask somebody to come in when his life was falling apart like that?
“The hospice nurse will be coming this afternoon,” he said. “She’ll be here for about an hour, and then I’ve got Rosy coming over to sit with her.”
“So, you can come and help with dinner service then? That would work.”
“The thing is, it can only work if everybody shows up as planned,” he said hesitantly.
“I know,” she said. “Otherwise, maybe tomorrow morning.” After the call, she put away her phone and looked over to see the others quickly glancing away. “All right, you guys. What would you have me do?” she asked. “His mother is dying.”
With that, she turned and walked out, heading to her office. She knew they would talk about it because no kitchen in any of the big companies would allow this behavior. But she wanted to be more than just a company and more than just another commercial kitchen. She wanted to show the heart and the face of what Hathaway House stood for in Dallas and worldwide. For the patients but for the staff as well.
She’d worked here for years and had seen how important it was to set the right tone. She had seen the success and the growth that came with it. She’d seen it in her own staff too, but this was a hard thing to let attendance slide because of the precedent it sent. And she knew that, as the top dog, she would step in to do Stefan’s work. She didn’t have a problem with that and had done it many times before and would do it many times in the future. But it was a whole different deal when it happened over and over again.
As she sat behind her desk with the paperwork to review, Ricky came in and handed off the signed forms that he’d stapled together with the others. “Okay,” he said, “all these orders are clear.”
She nodded, glanced to make sure it was all in order, and popped them into a folder.
“What will you work on now?” he asked, walking back to the doorway.
“Next week’s menu,” she said, standing up and walking over to the huge whiteboard that already had the days of the week lined out with spaces for the meals on each day.
“Do you want a hand?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said.
Ricky closed the door quietly behind him, and she stood here in silence for a long moment, wondering if and when any of these staff issues would ever change. She hoped soon for Stefan’s sake, because his situation had to be just brutal. And her thoughts went from Stefan, with his dark hair and skinny body, to the dark-haired guy with the alabaster white skin and the frail body she had met earlier today. Keith, Robin’s brother.
He obviously hadn’t seen the sun in a year. His body had been beaten and torn first by the explosion and the associated physical and emotional trauma, then by all the surgical procedures trying to stitch him back together as well as possible. She had long been amazed at the versatility and the agility of the patients in this place but was stunned when she’d heard from Robin how many surgeries he’d had and what a mess his body still was at this point. She could only hope he would get through this.
She also hated the idea of him barely eating. That’s the chef in me, she thought to herself. Going to bed on an empty stomach went against the grain, and she knew he’d sleep better with food, but only if it was something his stomach would tolerate. She quickly checked to see in her New Patient Notice if Keith had any dietary restrictions prescribed, and there were none. A lot of things upset his system because his stomach had taken some shrapnel too.
The last of that had been surgically removed, but it was a different story to get his gastrointestinal system settled again. She remembered that she had a good potato soup in the kitchen, and maybe that, with some big slabs of toasted French bread, might go down just fine. But not a whole lot of protein was in that.
Frowning, she walked back out to the kitchen, got a small pot, and quickly warmed up some of the soup, adding cheese and some chunks of ham. When she had a good thick broth, she put it into a bowl, toasted some French bread, and added a little plate she’d prepared with some sliced meat and cheese. With that done, she called Dennis in.
He came walking through, wearing his bright, cheerful smile as always. She pointed at the tray and said, “Keith just arrived today. He hasn’t eaten, and he’s saying no to food, but, when I was talking to him, I was thinking food might not be a bad idea.”
Dennis immediately nodded. “That’s Robin’s brother, isn’t it?”
She smiled and nodded. “Yeah, and he does not look happy to be here.”
He looked at her in surprise.
She shrugged. “I don’t think he’s all that happy to be on the planet just now.”
Understanding lit Dennis’s face. They’d both been here for some time and had seen a lot of patients come and go, with some pretty serious physical and mental health issues. “I’ll take this and see if I can get him to eat a little something,” he said. He picked it up and walked out with the tray in his hand.
Gerard looked over at her. “Is he okay? The new guy?”
“First day. Traveling is brutal, and his surgical list is long enough for twenty-five people,” she said, with a shake of her head. “The fact that he’s even alive is pretty amazing, but his skin is pure white because he hasn’t seen daylight or sunshine in probably a year or more.” The others all winced at that. “We’ll see if he eats.”
She had just stepped back into her office when the phone rang with a call from Dani. “What’s up?”
Chapter 2
“Hey,” Dani said. “I just passed Dennis, and he said you were sending food down to Keith.”