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Yeah, sure, I texted back.I’ll be there in two hours.
FOURTEEN
Mia
AFTER SHOWERING ANDstuffing food in my face, I wavered for some time before grabbing a fresh Post-it note from the supply on the kitchen counter and jotting down a short message for Zalen. Hurrying back upstairs in the empty house, I stuck it to the couch arm where his note for me had been.
I think Julie would thoroughly approve of what you’re doing. Thank you for telling me about her and Jake.
Dressed in a faded sweatshirt and leggings, I grabbed a jacket and headed out, bracing for whatever awaited me at the Elderflower Inn. I hadn’t set foot in the place since the night I’d stood helplessly by as screaming patrons ran for the exit, fleeing a scuttling wave of cockroaches.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in. Worst case scenario, the dining room would be full of abandoned food filling the place with stink as it rotted on the plates. Best case, magical cleaning fairies would have descended in my absence, scrubbing the place from top to bottom.
Unsurprisingly, the reality lay somewhere between those two extremes. I should have known that Nat would do as much damage control as possible, probably with the help of at least some of the staff.
The dining room had been cleared; there was no whiff of decomposing food. Therewas, however, an unpleasant smell of chemical pesticide in the air. Bizarrely, I felt a brief pang of sympathy for the clueless roaches that had been dumped in a strange place, just long enough for a single night of wild partying before being summarily poisoned to death. I shook my head sharply, dispelling the image.
Nat poked his head out from the kitchen.
“Hi,” he said. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
The words sounded stilted, as so many of our interactions did these days.
“It’s my restaurant, too,” I told him mildly. “OfcourseI came as soon as I could. What’s up?”
He came fully into the dining room and gestured me to a table. Once we were both sitting down, he sighed.
“So, the good news is, the pest control company submitted a formal report to the health department, to the effect that they found no evidence of an established roach infestation in the kitchen or food storage areas. Combined with the police report about Joe, I’m confident they’ll let us reopen very soon.”
“Thatisgood news,” I agreed. “What’s the bad news?”
He blew out an unhappy breath. “The bad news is, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, we’re a roach-infested disease pit that probably bribed someone to get our Michelin star. And, yes, some guy actually posted a review to that effect on Yelp.”
I swelled up with outrage. Nat raised a hand, palm out, like someone trying to calm a wild animal.
“I know, I know,” he said. “But this is my point. We can’t afford to keep the restaurant closed while also continuing to pay the staff. But we can afford even less to open back up, with all the food costs and overhead, if no one’s going to eat here.”
I clenched my jaw, knowing that my instinct to rage and yell about the unfairness of it all wasn’t productive.
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “I get it.” With difficulty, I forced myself to take a couple of slow, deep breaths before continuing. “So... we need a third option. A way to get the word out that this was willful sabotage, and we’re the victims.”
Nat was watching me closely. I could see the misgivings in his expression.
“And if we make a fuss about it, will that open us up to additional retaliation from this dangerous street gang?” he asked pointedly.