Things were going very smoothly at the restaurant. Lauren was a quick learner. She knew most of the ins and outs of the kitchen now. Though she wasn’t quite ready to handle all the responsibilities of a sous chef, she was getting there fast. Ben figured at the rate she was going, she could run the restaurant most nights probably by next year.
He should have relished having free time to himself, but instead he dreaded it. What in the hell would he do? He had no hobbies to speak of. And he would rather be strapped to an electric chair than spend eighteen hours a day watching TV, which is what he would probably end up doing. Maybe he could spend more time with Annie and Kristopher, but what were they going to do together? He really couldn’t think of any activities they would all enjoy.
He thought maybe just before Christmas he would take them to Disneyland. It was far away, but not too far. He had just bought a pager, so if the restaurant was in a jam, they could call him and he could fly back up in a few hours. Perhaps they could visit Gennie in Los Angeles. Maybe she could help him come up with things he could do with his son.
Another reason he was reluctant to leave Lauren was that he enjoyed working with her. They usually didn’t say much to each other, but they were always side-by-side and he liked it. He felt like he was spending quality time with her and he would definitely miss that.
He left the more vigorous work to Lauren. For the past few days, his arms were killing him and he had no idea why. He took some aspirin for it, but it didn’t seem to work. He had to take frequent breaks, which he hated, but he felt he had no choice. Between the dizziness, arm pain and today, chest pain, it was getting to him and interfering with his work. He wanted to go to the doctor and get it checked out, but he never got around to scheduling an appointment. He decided that if it didn’t clear up by next week, he would go to the doctor and get some medication that would get rid of the annoying symptoms.
As he was drizzling sauce over a filet of sole, he became dizzy again and instead of one plate, he saw two. When his vision cleared up, most of the sauce was on the prep table instead of the plate.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled. “Someone get me a roll of paper towels, pronto!”
One of his kitchen staff handed him an unopened roll. His arms were aching so much that he had to suppress a yelp as he tore the wrapper off the roll. It hurt just to clean the mess up. He tried drizzling the sauce again. This time he managed to get it on the fish just before his vision became blurry again.
He smacked his head and groaned in frustration. One of the servers looked at him with concern as she grabbed the plate, but didn’t have time to inquire what was wrong.
“Are you all right?” Lauren asked him. She was at the stove, cooking four things at once.
“Yes, I’m just annoyed with myself, that’s all. I can’t see a damn thing to save my soul and my arms are killing me. Oh yeah, it also doesn’t help that I have a baby dragon sitting in my stomach that’s immune to antacids.”
“Why don’t you take a break, then?”
“I took a break an hour ago.”
“Take another break.”
“I can’t.”
Lauren looked back at him. “What do you mean you can’t? You’re the boss.”
“What’s going to happen out here?”
“Well, for one thing,” Lauren’s voice had a note of impatience, “Things are going to be a lot faster because we won’t have someone who’s too sick to work screwing everything up!”
Wow, Ben thought, my attitude is rubbing off on her.
“If you put it that way, all right. I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
Ben went into his office and gulped down four more antacids. The baby dragon had his burners turned up on high and wasn’t letting off. He plopped down on his chair and closed his eyes. As soon as he did that, he swore he felt something inside his chest explode. He opened his eyes and the sensation came again. Whatever was happening to him, it wasn’t good. Then everything fell totally dark and silent.
Chapter 81