Page 12 of Escape To Paradise
“Good luck. She’s going to be your new boss.” Zofia smirked.
“I don’t mind. It’s all good,” Kathleen replied, and to me, she said, “Follow me!”
I set my luggage on the floor and followed her to the galley. She showed me the kitchen, which was bigger than I had expected. Of course, it wasn’t as big as my kitchen.
The mention of the word ‘kitchen’ suddenly made my heart sink. I missed my restaurant. I missed my staff. And most of all, I missed Benoit. I hadn’t spoken to him since I left. I let my lawyer, Kyle, handle all the affairs. He was our lawyer for our business, and with the separation, he was dealing with that as well. Kyle had been e-mailing me almost weekly, giving me updates, and he said it would take months for him to ‘uncouple’ my business ties with Benoit.
The galley had all the equipment—stainless steel counters, two ovens, a microwave, a Kitchen-Aid mixer, a freezer, a pantry, and a refrigerator. We also had a wine refrigerator and a dishwasher. It might not be an enormous kitchen, but it had all the essentials.
I looked at the food stocks and asked Kathleen where we restocked them. She showed me the food inventory and the menu that was planned out by the previous chef. I would have to check our supplies to see when we should restock.
“Whatever happened to your previous chef?” I asked.
“Well, she got sick and couldn’t work. That was like a month ago. We thought she could go back to work, but unfortunately, she must rest for several months. Not sure if she’ll be back. But now you’re here,” Kathleen explained.
“Wow, and how were you guys doing without a chef?”
“It wasn’t easy. We did hire someone momentarily from one of the islands to help with food preparation. The chef I worked with before had great organizational skills. She already had a menu planned out for several weeks. I just followed it and had the help of a local cook with cooking and food prep. It wasn’t easy, but we managed.”
“Wow, good for you,” I said, sounding really impressed. I would have hired someone like Kathleen back in Georgia. She was the person I needed on my team. “You guys got lucky in hiring another chef.”
“Yes, we really did. It was like sending out an SOS. James, the recruiter we hired, was superb about posting jobs. We’re glad you’re here now.”
“I’m glad, too.”
After the kitchen tour, it was Zofia’s turn to give me a tour of the guest rooms. The yacht could accommodate twelve guests. I peeked into one of their rooms and discovered it was more spacious than the one we were staying in. There were four staterooms on the yacht, and the rest were double beds. The staterooms had an oak finish and a full bathroom, with a bathtub and shower.
After the tour, I returned to our room and suddenly felt claustrophobic. It wasn’t like the Victorian-era house I had in Savannah that had three floors, and I had a giant bedroom with a King-sized bed. I felt some self-pity because of my current state.
But then I looked at Kathleen and Zofia’s faces.
“It’s really going to be fun,” Kathleen said. “You’ll enjoy feeding the guests. The perk, of course, is the downtime when we can explore the islands and swim all day!” She mentioned she had been doing this for three years, and it seemed like she loved her job.
“This is the best job ever! I really enjoyed it. Plus, Captain Yousef is so chill. And Paul, too. We really have a good crew this time,” Zofia added.
It was hard to dwell on self-pity while looking at these ladies. They seemed genuinely happy living this simple life, enjoying themselves, and didn’t mind these small quarters.
“You girls are just a bundle of sunshine, aren’t you?” I said.
“Of course, we’re in the Caribbean. We’re in paradise!” Zofia said cheerfully.
“Maybe I need to have what you guys have. A little sunshine in my personality.”
“Time for me to prepare lunch,” Kathleen announced.
“You don’t want me to help you?”
“If you want to. But I think, officially, you’re just onboarding. Today is just technically your orientation day. So maybe you should relax. There will be plenty of work once we start.”
I started tapping my feet. “I’m not used to doing nothing. I can’t be idle.”
Zofia looked at me with her dark brown eyes. “You should just learn to relax. Go with the flow. We’re not on city time here. We’re on island time. It’s a different lifestyle.”
“Oh, okay.”
“I’ll fix lunch, then you can just relax there. Read a book, or maybe you can go to the office and browse the internet,” Zofia suggested.
“That’s a good idea. Where is it?”
