We’re flying to Florida, getting on a boat, and relaxing for seven days.”
“Sounds like heaven.” Angie rubbed the top of her shoulder.
Hope frowned. “I mean, if I can get the time off. I don’t want you to think I won’t still want my job.”
“Of course you can have the time off. But I think your job will be over as soon as you graduate.”
Fear filled her eyes. Then she nodded. “I understand. You’ll probably want to hire another student for the dishwasher job.”
Angie could see the wheels turning in Hope’s head. “Darn right. I mean, I can’t have you doing dishes when you’re supposed to be a chef, right? I think, though, we’ll get a freshman so the kitchen doesn’t get filled up with trained chefs too fast.”
“Filled up?”
“If I hire you as a line cook, and then the next student does as well as you do, I’ll have to hire them too. Then we’ll have way too many cooks in the kitchen. And you know what they say about that.”
Hope took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a minute. “I thought you would fire me, not promote me.”
“Why would I do that?” Angie leaned back as Ian set a plate filled with a too-large burger and a matching pile of crispy fries.
“Because she’s totally annoying and needs to go out into the world to find out that things aren’t really as cushy as they are working for you.” Matt set Hope’s plate down and then shoved five or more fries in his mouth. He made wavy movements at her. “Fly little bird. Fly.”
“Stop being mean.” Hope took a big bite of the burger, then leaned over and breathed on Matt’s face. “Here’s onion breath for you.”
“Cooties…girl cooties…”
Ian glanced over at Angie. “I take it you’ve had to deal with this all day?”
“Yeah, typically I have Estebe to put down the hammer, but these two aren’t afraid of me. So, they sniped at each other all during prep and service.” Angie dipped a fry into the “special sauce,” which appeared to be Thousand Island dressing. “Maybe I should fire one of them. I need to up my street cred.”
“You have no street cred, and you wouldn’t fire either of them anyway. Especially since when they aren’t talking all the time, they do a great job.” Ian glanced over at the other two, who had stopped eating and were watching the exchange. “What? You think we don’t talk about you behind your back too?”
“Harsh, man.” Matt glanced at his watch. “Fifteen minutes before the next winner is announced. Hopefully we’ll have a quiet night. I don’t care if we win at this point. I just don’t want to lose—or have someone on the team poisoned.”
“We locked up the trailer, right?” When Matt nodded, she relaxed a little. “Just do me a favor, and if there is an open container or an unfamiliar snack that shows up, don’t eat it.”
“What if the bottle says ‘Drink Me’ on the side?” Hope took another fry and pointed it at Angie. “Or maybe there’s a note?”
Ian glanced at Angie. “Is she for real?”
“She’s teasing. But just to be safe, throw away anything that looks suspicious. I’d hate to have my employer rates go up because I had to pay out a death claim on our life insurance.” Angie dug into her burger. This was too good to let go to waste.
“Wouldn’t that be workman’s comp?” Ian asked conversationally.
Angie wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I guess you’re right.”
Hope and Matt exchanged worried glances.
“What do you two know that we don’t?” Matt asked, his fries gone and his hamburger forgotten for the moment.
“Oh, so much—but I think you’re talking about more recent events.” Ian looked up from dipping his last fry. “Just listen to your boss, and don’t be stupid. David Nubbins is dead from a suspected poisoning. You don’t want to follow in his footsteps.”
By the time they got back to the Restaurant Wars section, the area was crowded with people. Apparently a suspected murder