Rest in Pizza by Chris Cavender Read Free Book Online

it, as he said, “I’m sorry, I should have guessed. Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, but we’ve got a ton of work to do before the event tomorrow. Why exactly are you here?”
    “I asked her to come over to lend a hand. She’s going to be helping us out as one of Chef Benet’s assistants,” Cindy said. “She runs A Slice of Delight just down the promenade.”
    “Right, the pizza place,” he said with a worried expression on his face. “I have to tell you, the chef is not at all happy about that.”
    Okay, somehow this conversation had started off badly, but I wasn’t going to keep it that way. “I’m sorry. I introduced myself before, but I still don’t know who you are.”
    “I’m the assistant to Chef Benet,” he answered a little too stiffly for my taste.
    “I didn’t ask you what your job description was. Let’s try this again. I’m Eleanor Swift. And you are?” I asked with my brightest smile.
    The young man sighed as he returned it and shrugged. “Forgive me. When I’m setting up for one of the chef’s events, I kind of get in a zone. I do apologize, and I’ll try to be a little less intense. My name is Oliver Wills, by the way.”
    “So, how long have you worked for Benet?” I asked.
    He flinched as I said the chef’s name. “It’s Chef, always Chef, and nothing but Chef. He won’t even answer to his name, if you can believe that.”
    “From what I’ve heard about him, I have no trouble believing that all,” I said, still smiling.
    Oliver laughed. “You think you know what he’s like, but you’re wrong. He’s a thousand times worse than his reputation.”
    What an odd thing to say about an employer. “If you don’t mind my asking, why do you continue to work for him, then?”
    Oliver looked as though he’d contemplated that very question a million times before. “He’s a celebrity, and I’m just a nobody. Not that I’m not a good cook in my own right,” he added hastily, “But Chef has the fame, and the reputation, and at our little network, that seems to be what matters most. Talent and ability both take a backseat to star power.”
    “How sad,” I said. “It shouldn’t be that way.”
    Oliver smiled as he turned to face Cindy. “You know what? I like her.”
    “I do, too,” Cindy said with a relieved expression. I wasn’t sure how Benet was going to be, but Oliver seemed nice enough once we broke through his frosty shell.
    It was time we all got busy. “Now, what can we do to make Benet, er, Chef, happy?”
    “If I knew that, I’d have my own show by now,” Oliver said with a smile. “The test kitchen isn’t going to arrive for another hour. Would it be possible for us to visit your pizzeria while we’re waiting? I need to do some recon work there, too.”
    “You’re not going to tear the place down, are you?” I asked.
    “Not me, but I can’t speak for Chef.”
    Oliver and I started to walk out, when Cindy asked, “Do you need me? If I may, I’d rather stay here while they’re setting the kitchen up for tomorrow’s demonstration.”
    “Stay,” Oliver said, and then paused a moment to add, “I’m sorry if I was too hard on you before. Working for Chef has a tendency to do that to people.”
    “You’re forgiven,” Cindy said with a broad smile.
    After we left the bookstore, I said, “I’m curious about something. I was under the impression that celebrity events were planned well in advance. This kind of happened at the last minute, didn’t it?”
    Oliver nodded. “Tell me about it. We were all set to debut the book in New York for the morning talk-show programs, but Chef decided at the last second that he had to come to North Carolina.”
    “And you don’t know why?”
    Oliver frowned. “No offense, but he turned down a massive amount of exposure, something that’s completely out of character for him. Plus, if he had to go someplace in North Carolina, why here? Bookstores in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Asheville all put in requests