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“You just heard me call, it’ll be here, go sit! That’s an order,” Natalie said, pointing at the chair.
I rolled my eyes and settled into the chair. Today was my Cafe opening and I wanted everything to be perfect. Scratch that, I needed everything to be perfect. I had put everything I had into this, money, time, and sweat, and I planned on making it work.
It was just very unfortunate that the breadsticks hadn’t arrived. I needed them!
“Should I order them elsewhere?” I asked Natalie, who was busy stringing tinsel from post to post. The tinsel really wasn’t necessary, but you didn’t dissuade Natalie when she had an idea in her head.
Natalie walked over and knelt in front of me, her eyes soft as she looked up at me from her perch on the floor. She took my hands in hers and squeezed slightly.
“Listen, Becca, everything is ready, it’s going to be perfect. I mean look at this space, it’s stunning and you did this all on your own. It’s going to be fine.”
The space was stunning, I could admit to that at least. I had spent months and months on the space, but the result made all that work worth it. I roved my eyes over the space, the counter was one long stretch of teakwood, with chairs arranged in front of it.
There was an open space in the middle to allow for freedom of movement, with tables grouped on either side of the passage. Natalie said it made the cafe look modern. I agreed with her.
When it came to seating, I wanted my patrons to be comfortable. And I wanted to be able to cater to a select number per evening. The cozy chairs and tables, though built more with comfort in mind were beautiful. Surprisingly, they seemed to work even though we had gone with a more modern look for the café.
“They still haven’t arrived, Nat, why are they taking so long?” I asked, my voice catching.
“Maybe because someone forgot to call and place the order early enough, calm down Becca. This is sort of your fault.”
I winced and then smiled. This was sort of my fault, yes, but they had promised it would be here within the hour and it certainly wasn’t.
Every arrangement was done, most of the meals were cooked and ready, the guests would be arriving within the hour, and we needed the breadsticks earlier.
“Besides, it’s only the soft opening tonight, you’ll still have time to impress the public,” Natalie added.
“You forget that this is where we get most of our guests for the grand opening, Nat, this needs to be perfect,” I said.
“The guest list is great Becca, now stop being a worrywart, it’ll be fine.” Then she turned to the windows and smiled. “See? The breadsticks even made it here on time., It’ll be fine.”
I scrambled off the chair and made it outside in a rush., The breadsticks were indeed here. I planned to top them with cinnamon, sugar, and icing to serve as part of the rollout dessert. Nat had even suggested they use them as an appetizer. So yes, they were very important.
“Miss Hamilton?” The delivery boy asked when I made it to the van.
“Yes, that’s me,” I replied.
“Here,” he said, handing me a sack of the breadsticks, “you’ll need to sign for them, of course.”
He pointed out where to sign on the clipboard he was holding and then wished me a good day when I had appended my signature to it.
I walked back to the door, straight to the kitchen, where I got to work on them. Thirty minutes later, they were ready. By then, Natalie has finished her decorations. We were ready.
“Abby, if you could take the meals out of the microwave,” I said.
Abby and Delia were my two permanent staff and while they had been joined by One Temp, I wanted them to handle most of the serving and kitchen arrangements, they would, after all, have to do most of it.
Abby nodded and made her way over to the microwave while I walked to the door and looked outside, none of the guests had arrived yet.
I heard my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I dug it out and placed it against my ear.
“Hello Steve, any reason you’re not here yet?” I asked.
“Good day to you too ma’am, I got stuck at work again, but I’ll be there soon,”
Steve was the other half of our trio. Steve, Nat, and I had been friends for as long as I could remember.
“Is Nat there?” He asked.
