Meredith slipped through the busy cooks and porters to join her. “How long have y’all been here?”
“Since nine this morning. Well, not me, because I had to do my show. But Pricilla and Nelson were here at nine to start filming prep. I brought everyone else with me after the show wrapped. Good thing this was Major’s regular day for filming and that the banquet is our feature for his segment this week.”
Meredith moved out of the way as a prep cook came out of the walk-in refrigerator behind them with a crate of pears. “My mother said something to me about Major and me meeting you at the studio Friday?”
“Yes—didn’t my intern call you?” Alaine shook her head, her plump curls bouncing around her shoulders. “I’ll have to have a word with him. You and Major are my featured guests on the show Friday.”
“On the show— on the show?” Meredith’s legs wanted to give out on her.
“Yes. It’s going to be clips of the event—and all of the stuff we’ve filmed up until now—interspersed with live chat with the two of you about it. Don’t worry; you’ll be fine. You did great in our interview.”
“Yeah, well, that was just the two of us in my office. I’m sure you’ve got a bunch of people in the studio watching when you do your show.” She stuffed her hands into her pants pockets to keep from wiping the sweat on the ivory fabric.
Alaine patted her shoulder. “It’ll be okay; I promise.” She glanced over at the prep cook who was in the process of peeling and coring the pears. “What are those for?”
“Poached pears with ginger crumble. One of the three dessert choices the diners were given.” She was particularly glad Mrs. Warner and the board had stayed away from the two desserts containing tropical fruit. Though she trusted Major’s staff to be cautious about cross-contamination of foods such as raw meats, most prep cooks didn’t worry about cleaning and sanitizing a work surface between cutting up different types of fruit. And if someone who’d been working on the tropical fruit touched something else that then touched something Meredith might eat that night...
She shuddered. The memory of the last time she’d eaten something that had been cut on the same surface as kiwi wasn’t pleasant. Her throat had been sore from the breathing tube for nearly a week afterward. But at least it’d kept her from suffocating when the swelling from the allergic reaction nearly closed her windpipe.
“How did that whole thing work? I know you and Mrs. Warner narrowed down the choices from what was presented to the board a few weeks ago.” Alaine pulled her pen from behind her ear, ready to write on the steno pad in her left hand.
“Once we narrowed that down, I had menus made up giving each banquet attendee a choice of starter salad, protein—from red meat, poultry, seafood, or vegetarian—and dessert. The menus will be at each place, and the wait staff will take the guests’ orders as they serve beverages.” Meredith glanced around for Major but didn’t see him. She didn’t really need to talk to him, but coming up to ask Alaine about Friday had been all the excuse she’d needed for an opportunity to bump into Major.
“But all of the meals are served at the same time?” Alaine scribbled on her notepad.
“Yes. Dinner service is at seven o’clock sharp.”
“How do you know how many of each dish to prepare?”
“Based on the percentages of how many chose similar dishes last year,” Major said, and Meredith turned, heart thrumming. “Hey, there.”
“Hi.” She wanted to think that the warmth of his smile, the soft expression in his eyes were for her—but who was she kidding? No man in his right mind would look at her like that when she was standing next to someone like Alaine. Just as she’d only seen that kind of expression in men’s faces whenever she was with Jenn.
“What brings you up to the kitchen? Everything okay?” Though he looked at Meredith, his attention was most definitely divided between her and what was going on in his domain.
“I needed to ask Alaine a question about Friday.”
“Yeah.” He crossed his arms as his gaze wandered over his staff. “That sort of took me by surprise, too. But it’ll be easier to do it together.”
“Chef!”
“Gotta go.” He squeezed Meredith’s shoulder and disappeared into the intricate ballet dance of a frenzied kitchen.
“I guess I’d better head back downstairs and get back to work myself.” Meredith sighed.
“What are you working on today?” Alaine looked as if she wanted to follow Meredith back to her office, which was the last thing she needed.
“All of the last-minute details—confirming all vendors and deliveries for items not arriving until late tonight or tomorrow, coordinating with all departments involved to make sure the work is getting done”—her cell phone started ringing—“and fielding lots of phone calls.”
Alaine grimaced. “I won’t keep you, then. See you around.”
“See you.” Meredith answered the phone as soon as she stepped out into the nominally quieter hallway. “This is Meredith.”
“Mere, it’s Corie. You’d better get down here. I’ve got the florist on the phone—he says it’s urgent.”
“I’ll be there in a minute.” Instead of risking the stop-and-go pace of the main elevators, Meredith opted for the freight elevator across from her, which let her off just across the hall from the executive kitchen on the fifth floor. She swiped her security card and dashed through the dim kitchen and dining room to her office.
“Which line?” Three of them flashed, signaling they were on hold. “Two.”
Meredith took a deep breath. “This is Meredith Guidry.”
What had sounded like an emergency turned out only to be a glitch with the schedule for delivery of the centerpieces. She dealt with it and moved on to the uniform supplier on line one and the symphony director on line three, who wanted to inform her she was getting four violins and two violas instead of three and three as originally planned.
In a brief respite between phone calls, Meredith finally took the aspirin she’d been thinking about taking for her headache all afternoon.
Corie knocked on her open door and stepped inside the office. “I just got off the phone with Giovanni’s. The pizza is on its way.”
“Great. Thanks for handling that.” Meredith picked up the phone and dialed the extension for the Vue de Ceil kitchen.
“Catering division, Steven LeBlanc speaking.”
“Steven, it’s Meredith. Is Major easily accessible?”
“Sure. Hold on just a second.” The freight-train sound of the busy kitchen was replaced by soft classical music for a moment until Major picked up.
“Hey, Mere. What’s up?”
“The pizza’s on the way here. How do you want to handle sending folks down to eat?”
“Let’s send the facilities staff down first. It’ll be easier for them just to stop what they’re doing and take a dinner break. Once they’re fed, I’ll have my crew come down as they get to stopping points. I’ll send a couple of porters down with the ice chests of sodas, but other than that, the executive dining room should be set up for buffet service.”
“Mind if I keep your porters and have them help sort pizzas and get everything organized?”
“I figured you would. They’ll be down in a minute.”
Meredith rubbed the back of her neck. “Remind me why we decided against canceling lunch service today?”
“We?” He chuckled. “I thought that command came down from on high.”
“Hmm. Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“See you in a bit.”
“Bye.” Her hand lingered on the receiver for a few seconds after she hung up. How would she do this without him? She almost snorted at the irony. Maybe if he did decide to start the restaurant, she should take Ward up on his offer to work as his interior designer so she didn’t have to find out how horrible this kind of event would be without Major at her right hand.
She leaned back in her chair and let her eyes wander over the features of her office—wrecked though it was currently. Seeing Corie, Pam, and Lori bustling around in the outer office warmed the cockles of her heart. And though right now it seemed crazy, she was actually excited about the banquet tomorrow night. She couldn’t wait to see the looks on the board members’ faces when they walked in and saw how the thousands of candles sparkled off the glass walls and ceiling.