“I have to warn you, Lea without an H, I have had the best cappuccino, so you have some stiff competition.” I looked up at her. I smiled for the first time in about a month, thinking of the cappuccinos that Griffin always made for me.

When she returned with the piping-hot drink, it was the best thing I had tasted in months. It was frothy and beautiful, and she garnished it with a chocolate G for Graemmer.

“What do you think? Do I get my raise?” she asked.

“You surprised me. I have a job offer for you. I would like you to help me in the office with all these bills and restaurant orders for a few hours every morning. I’ll give you a raise plus an extra day off. When Elliott returns, we can keep doing our thing to allow him some free time to do what he loves best: creating memorable dishes. Deal?” We shook hands and forged a budding friendship. I couldn’t wait to tell Griffin he better up his game!

Lea and I were settling in to tackle the bills when the door opened. It was Elliott. He was back. But he didn’t look happy.

“What the hell, Bailey? I just got a call from the bank, and we are a month and a half behind on the mortgage. I got a call from the market that truffles that were supposed to be picked up last week didn’t get picked up. Now they’ve gone bad, so they canceled our order for this week, but we still got billed for them. Just what the fuck are you doing? I’ll never be able to get another loan if you completely trash my credit.”

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’m trying to do the best I can to run your restaurant. I can pay the mortgage right now, and I will go down to the market and pick up the truffles,” I said. His sudden barrage flustered me.

“I just wired the mortgage money for next month, which costs an additional twenty-five dollars, which pissed me off. And I went by the market to straighten things out with Bucky.”

“What can I do to make things better?” I said.

“Nothing. You’re a disaster at this, aren’t you? You should probably stick to the vision thing. I know this is not your forte. See you later.” When I looked up I noticed Lea had disappeared.