Afraid he will recognize me by voice, I grab the arm of one of my two employees and pull her inside the kitchen area. “I need you to take care of him today,” I whisper, trying to keep my voice calm and collected. “Tell him I’m sick if he asks for me.” I’m the boss. I can’t show anything except complete confidence to those who work for me. If I panic, they panic and that’s never good for business. Not that we were doing well in the first place; hence the need to make every customer happy. Molly grins. “No problem.” She gives me a wink before heading through the doors to do as asked. I don’t know what bothers me more: the fact she doesn’t even question why I wasn’t taking care of him myself as I always did, or her jubilant and enthusiastic acceptance of my request. When she walks back a few seconds later, her perplexed look makes my stomach clench. “Something wrong?” “Ah, he asked me where you were and said he’s a creature of habit. He prefers you serve him.”
