First Class Menu by Aj Harmon, Christopher Harmon Read Free Book Online

watched the
door all evening waiting for him to come in and he never did. But he’d called
Aaron about the gallery. She was slightly irritated that he hadn’t called her.
But then she told herself that Aaron was a family friend – of course he would
call him. Lindsey tried to concentrate on her order forms.
    *****
    Lindsey didn’t have to be in the restaurant on Friday
evening. As Executive Chef, she created the dishes served, prepared the menus,
sometimes did the food ordering, and on a rare occasion, like earlier in the
day, arranged the employee schedule, but she didn’t actually have to do any of
the line cooking or kitchen supervision. She had employees that took care of it
all. As she sat at the end of the bar at six o’clock, watching the ‘after-work’
drinkers leave and the couples arriving for an early dinner, she felt pathetic. Just slightly pathetic , she told herself.
    She was thirty-five years old and an Executive Chef of not
one, but two very successful Manhattan restaurants. She was at the top of her
profession and loved her job. Aaron had guided her, mentored her, and now
trusted her with two of his five restaurants and she would never do anything to
lose that trust. She was head-hunted often and always felt flattered when the
outrageous offers would come, but they were always for the west coast and she
couldn’t leave her city, her home. And she wouldn’t leave Aaron.
    She was also divorced. The marriage had lasted just over two
years. She was way too young and she and Lewis hadn’t spent enough time
together. It was doomed from the start. He’d been the Executive Chef at the
first restaurant she’d gone to work in after culinary school. It was love at
first sight…for both of them. But working eighty hours a week didn’t help their
relationship and it quickly crumbled. She’d left after the divorce and Aaron
had hired her. She hadn’t looked back. She would never date anyone in the
restaurant business again. It was too hard and held too many bad memories.
    She only really ever met people in the restaurant biz, and
that is why she sat alone, at the bar, on a Friday night, when she could be
anywhere else but at work. She didn’t have anywhere else to go. She didn’t have
anyone else to be with.
    Her cell phone ringing snapped her out of her melancholy.
    “Hi Trudy,” she smiled into the phone. Trudy was the foster
mom Lindsey had spent her teen years with and the woman who had made a huge
impact in her life. She had given her direction and the permission to speak her
mind without the threat of retribution or punishment. Trudy had been the only
mom she’d ever known. “You always call when I need to hear a friendly voice.”
    They spoke for a few minutes and then Lindsey hung up. Trudy
had just called to say hi, something she did weekly, just to stay in touch. She
hadn’t lived with her for over fifteen years, but the bond they had forged
would never be broken.
    Trudy and her husband Trevor had not been able to have
children of their own. They’d tried for years but couldn’t afford in-vitro or
other expensive medical treatments or even adoption so they had decided to be
foster parents. They were well into their seventies now and hadn’t taken in any
children for the past several years but Trudy tried to keep in touch with most
of them. She had been Lindsey’s angel, rescuing her from a neglectful foster
home that she’d been in since her mother had over-dosed when Lindsey was three
years old. She’d stayed there ‘til she was nine. She was fed and housed and had
clean clothes to wear, but there was no love, no attention, nobody to make her
feel special. And then one day, her case worker had picked her up and taken her
to Trudy and her life changed…instantly.
    Lindsey finished her drink, said goodbye to some of the
staff and went home to her apartment. After pulling a T-bone steak from the
refrigerator, allowing it to come up to room temperature before she cooked it,
Lindsey