at his CV. How the hell do I pronounce this? ‘E-og-han?’
He grits his teeth. ‘Owen.’
I’m confused. ‘Oh sorry. It says here E-og-han.’
He clenches his jaw. ‘That’s how they spell it here, in Ireland.’
‘Oh. Oh...of course it is.’ Why the hell would they spell it like that? The Irish make no sense.
Well that’s a good start.
‘So... could you tell me a bit about yourself?’
I look to Ella. She’s glaring at him like she just smelt gone off fish. So the feelings mutual; we don’t like this guy.
‘I’m a chef. What else do ye need to know?’
Well he’s bloody blunt.
I look down at his CV. There’s lots of pubs listed here. He can’t have worked at all of them, can he?
‘You’ve got a lot of previous experience here. Can I ask why you’ve never stayed at a place over a couple of months?’
‘Because the owners were eejits.’ He still has his arms over his chest, his face set in a grimace. This man is horrible. He must have been asked to leave every job.
‘So what you mean,’ Ella interrupts, ‘is that you find it hard to get on with people?’
He narrows his eyes at her. ‘Food is my thing. Not people.’
I glare at Ella, we need to at least be polite and not lower ourselves to his standards.
‘Well, on that note can you make us an omelette?’
He frowns. ‘That’s it. You just want an omelette? Not something more complicated?’
‘Yes please. Just the omelette,’ I insist, my jaw tense. Right now I’d prefer to crack a raw egg over his head.
We leave him banging about in the kitchen and walk back to the bar.
‘Well he’s a damn loon.’ Ella laughs.
I bite my lip. ‘Yeah, but who else do we go with?’ I reason. ‘The other two are a definite no.’
She raises her eyebrows. ‘We haven’t tasted his omelette yet. It could be shit too.’
‘Let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt, yeah?’
The more I think about it, the more I think Ella’s right. We need to be serving food here to bring in a crowd that’s going to pay the bills until we can sell.
‘Oi!’ he calls from the kitchen. ‘I’ve got your omelette.’
I grit my teeth and follow Ella in. On a plate in front of him is the most beautiful looking omelette I’ve ever seen. Dammit. Well, it might look nice, but it could taste awful.
I grab a fork and take a bit, popping it into my mouth. My god, it tastes amazing, and I don’t even like eggs. Damn, we’re gonna have to hire this tool.
Ella takes a bite and her eyes say it all. She agrees.
‘This is amazing,’ I admit. ‘When can you start?’
‘I’ll start tomorrow.’
It doesn’t escape me that he told us rather than answered the question.
‘I assume you girls have a food licence?’
We turn to each other. Ella’s confused face mirrors mine.
‘Food licence? I thought if we hired someone you’d have all of your qualifications.’
He flares his nostrils. ‘Jeyses, you girls know nothing. Even if you’re not preparing food you need to take a food and hygiene course in order to get a food licence. Surely you’ve been told that.’
Oh crap. We just assumed if we hired a chef we wouldn’t need to actually take the course ourselves. That was the whole point of hiring one In the first place.
‘Right.’ Ella nods, biting on her bottom lip, forehead creased.
‘And… how would we go about taking these courses?’
He huffs. ‘I’ll give you the details of the course. If you’re at least booked on we should be able to serve food in the meantime and not get in trouble.’
‘Okay great, thanks.’
Look at him, already being helpful. He might end up being great after all.
Chapter Eight
Wednesday 23rd September
Well the chef is... different. Okay, he’s a total arse. Seriously, he doesn’t even say good morning, he just grunts. He’s a bit like a pit-bull, but his food is amazing. He’s got quite a few customers through the door. Plus he’s helped us book onto that food hygiene course and he does keep the kitchen clean.
After a fairly busy lunch time I tell Ella I’m going for a quick walk to clear my head. Get away from chef more like. It’s annoying to admit, but on a sunny day it is actually beautiful here. There’s still leaves on the trees, turning yellow and orange and waiting to fall. They rustle in the breeze and blow some of my stresses away with their sound. I close my eyes and take a deep