Page 43 of Escape To Paradise
“I’ll be back after. We just have another seven-day charter. We go back to Grenada after. I’ll call you then.”
“Good. I can’t wait to see you again.”
Julian stopped in front of The Flamingo and kissed me. I got out of the jeep with his backpack in my hand. He then drove away, and I switched to business mode.
I stepped into The Flamingo. It was still closed. It would usually open after 3 p.m. and stay open until 1 a.m. Maverick was nowhere to be found. Instead, one guy was sweeping the floor.
“Hey, have you seen Maverick?”
The man stopped what he was doing. “Oh, hello,” he greeted me. “Are you looking for Mr. Maverick?”
“Yes, where is he?” I asked.
“He’s not yet here. He’ll be back soon. I guess you’re Miss Harper?” The man extended his hand.
“Yes, I’m Harper. Just call me Harper,” I replied.
“My name is Viktor. I’m the cook,” he said with a smile.
I took his hand and shook it. “Nice meeting you.”
“Mr. Maverick told me you’re going to train me on the new menu?” Viktor spoke perfect English.
“Yes. That’s me.”
“Okay. I printed out the menu and your list of ingredients. We’re going to the market to shop for the ingredients.” Viktor had a nice sounding Caribbean accent, which I found charming.
“Yes, let’s do it.”
I followed Viktor as he led me to his car, which was an older Nissan Sentra model. The market was close by, so it wasn’t long of a drive. I remembered I put fish and beef tacos, beef sliders, and chicken wings on the planned menu. During our drive to the market, I interviewed him about his cooking experience. Apparently, before Maverick hired him as the chief cook, his only experience in cooking was cooking for his family. He was a food vendor when Maverick hired him.
“You mean to say he hired you on the spot?” I asked incredulously.
“Mr. Maverick saw me at the market. He said I seemed trustworthy and asked me about my cooking experience. He offered a lot of money and, of course, I said yes.” Viktor laughed. “He’s a very generous man. I thought he was crazy at first, but he’s a good boss.”
“And how long have you guys been doing this?”
“Well, for six months now. I’m glad he found you. We could use having a better menu for his bar.”
“So, he bought this bar and hired local people to work for him?”
“Yeah, someone else owned the bar, but it’s changed hands so many times. The last owner was friends with Mr. Maverick, and they were gambling. He leveraged this bar on a bet. When he lost the bet, the last owner forced him to assume ownership of this bar.”
“Yeah, this doesn’t seem like a good investment at all.”
“Well, Mr. Maverick is making it work. I am going to be helping him achieve that.”
“Good luck to him. That place really needs a lot of work.” I had seen The Flamingo enough to know that it needed major renovations.
The market was full of smells and sounds that were unfamiliar to me. It was sensory overload. It was a novel experience, which I cherished. Viktor did the shopping, and I just followed him as he bought the ingredients from the local vendors. The vendors were friendly, and some even tried to convince me to buy what they were selling. I didn’t carry cash with me, so I had to refuse.
After thirty minutes of walking around, Viktor finished his shopping. I helped carry the plastic bags as we went back to his car. When we got back to The Flamingo, Maverick had just alighted from his vehicle, a Toyota truck. Maverick looked disheveled. Usually well groomed, he looked like he hadn’t shaved since the last time I saw him.
Viktor parked the car beside Maverick’s truck, and we got out. Viktor tried to carry most of the plastic bags with him, and I carried what he couldn’t.
“Good morning, Boss.”
“Morning, Viktor,” Maverick smiled at Viktor.
