Cale frowned and hesitated, but then said, "I suppose you'll be cooking tomorrow as well?"
"Yes." Alex nodded. "We're open Wednesday through Sunday, with Mondays and Tuesdays off. Surprisingly, a lot of people book for Sunday dinners, but Mondays and Tuesdays are slow, so it seemed best to take them as our weekends."
His frown deepened. "Then I'm off on Saturday and Sunday and you're off on Mondays and Tuesdays?"
"Yes." She grinned. "So don't be surprised if I drop in to see how things are going here once in a while on those days."
Cale nodded and relaxed a little. "I'll look forward to it."
Alex snorted. "Yeah right, cause everyone enjoys their boss hanging over their shoulder."
He smiled faintly. "You can hang over my shoulder anytime."
"I'll remind you of that when you complain that Idon't know how to delegate and hover too much," she said with a forced laugh, and then did up her coat. "Now, come on, you need to go catch a nap before you meet your cousins. I feel guilty enough about your lack of sleep. Besides, I need to get to La Bonne Vie, the other La Bonne Vie," she added, and frowned and muttered, "I should have called it a different name. It gets confusing in conversation."
Cale stood to shrug into his own coat, and suggested, "Call them Bonne Vie One and Bonne Vie Two."
"Good idea." Alex turned to lead the way out of the office. But she paused in the door and turned back to smile at him. "Thank you, Cale. For everything. For a guy named after food, you're pretty brilliant."
He paused abruptly, a startled expression claiming his features. "What?"
She grimaced, "Just teasing ... well mostly. I do think of the vegetable every time I say your name."
"The vegetable?" he asked in a choked voice.
Alex grimaced. "Yeah. Kale with a K is a green leafy veggie, a type of cabbage as I recall," she murmured, turning to head out the door.
"Call me Cal," he said grimly, following her.
Alex smiled faintly, but was searching her mind for something else to say. For some reason she had a terrible urge to babble around the man now, and knew it was out of discomfort over what had happened in the office. Finally, she blurted, "Is Cale short for anything?"
"No."
"It's Scottish, isn't it?" she asked as she crossed the kitchen to the back door and pushed it open.
Cale hesitated, and then admitted, "My mother loved poetry, and Calliope was the muse of eloquence and epic poetry. She hoped if she named me for the muse, I'd grow up to be a poet rather than a warrior like the rest of my brothers. She thought that Cale would be a good male version of the name."
"Warrior?" Alex asked, glancing at him with surprise as she turned back to watch him lock the door.
"My English," he excused himself, sounding oddly grim. "I meant soldier. My brothers all grew up to be soldiers."
"Oh, your brothers are older than you then?" When he turned from locking the door, she added, "I'm pretty sure you have to be eighteen to be a soldier. If they were soldiers when she named you, then they had to be at least eighteen or so when you were born."
"I am much younger than my brothers, oui." He took her arm to walk her across the parking lot. It was only four o'clock, but the sky was already starting to darken with the threat of nightfall. That was one thing Alex hated about winter. She didn't mind the cold so much as the short days.
"Well, have a good dinner," she said with forced good cheer as she unlocked and opened the driver's door.
"Yes, and you enjoy your cooking." He held the door as she slid in behind the steering wheel.
"Oh, believe me, I will." She assured him, then said, "See you Monday," and pulled the door closed.
Alex started the engine, gave Cale a little wave, and pulled away, smiling happily to herself.
Cale Valens was awesome. She couldn't believe her luck. He'd done more to turn things around in one day than she could ever have managed at all. Getting reimbursed for the tiles was the bomb! Alex could actually breathe again. She'd felt like she was drowning for weeks now, but right that minute she felt on top of the world, and it was all thanks to Cale.
God, he was good. And she got to cook again. She really had to call Sam and thank her for sending the man her way. He was an answer to a prayer. He gave her hope that this having two restaurants would work out after all. Now all she had to do was keep her hands off the man and avoid a sexual-harassment suit.
Chapter Seven