Page 30 of All Mine (The All Mine #1)

Isabella

Girl Gang WhatsApp group

Rosie : Late-night opening at ours tonight if you want to come and listen to Story Stars?

Isabella : What’s Story Stars?

Wren : We eat snacks while the kids listen to someone read them a bedtime story.

Rosie : FYI. Grapes count as snacks too.

Isabella : You mean, you drink wine while someone reads a book out loud?

Wren : Yup. It’s a winner with all the parents.

Rosie : Come over. Unless you’ve got something else to do.

Wren : Or someone else to do.

Isabella : I’ll be there. But after 6 p.m. I’m meeting the team Amber has put together.

Wren : Is Gabi still here? Bring her along.

Isabella : No, she got called back to work at the weekend. Throwing herself off a tall building or something similar.

Wren : And how are your nipples?

Isabella : In solitary confinement.

Rosie :

The waiting staff filed into the restaurant, taking in the new floorboards laid from reclaimed wood, the whitewashed walls, the stripped-back wooden windowsills.

Amber led the way. Isabella overheard snatches of whispers, how different it looked, how much nicer, and glanced round at her handiwork as if seeing it for the first time.

The main dining area was almost complete.

It was the kitchen, bathrooms and backstage areas that were still majorly under construction.

Plus, there was still the damp problem in the wine cellar.

The group collected in the middle of the room and Isabella hung back in the doorway of the kitchen, watching them.

They all looked to Amber for directions already, which would be helpful when she was organising their rotas and training.

It was a mixed bunch. Men and women, ages ranging from what looked like eighteen to retirement.

Amber spotted her and beckoned her over.

‘Everyone, this is Isabella.’

Everyone turned to look at her.

‘Hi,’ she said, before opening her arms wide. ‘Welcome to Tutto Mio.’

Amber stepped out of the huddle to stand beside her.

‘Isabella, before I introduce you to your team, can you tell them a bit about what you want Tutto Mio to be?’ Isabella felt a surge of excitement at the words ‘your team’.

It was a real ‘pinch me’ moment. A team of people to help bring her dream to life.

They were looking at her expectantly, and she clasped her hands together under her chin.

‘I want Tutto Mio to feel like being at home with your family,’ she began and saw the raise of an eyebrow from one woman. She smiled and carried on, sure of the image she had in her head.

‘I don’t want tables pushed through in an hour and a half if they’re not finished.

Your mother wouldn’t shoo you away from the dinner table, would she?

She’d want you to linger, to talk. To have another glass of wine, or a coffee, or the dessert you didn’t think you wanted earlier.

That’s what I want for our diners. I want them to have time to be together.

‘We’re going to have the best homecooked Italian family food there is. You can be sure of that. And I want everyone who comes in here to leave with a full tummy, a happy heart and a smile on their face.’

Nobody cringed at the sentiment of it. There were in fact nods and smiles in response. There was an energy in the air; she could feel the buzz already.

‘So, let me introduce you to everyone,’ Amber said. ‘It might seem like we have a large team, but you’ll understand why in a while. I’ll be managing the daytime shift, and Sinead will manage the evening shift.’ Sinead, a woman who looked to be in her fifties, waved cheerfully at Isabella.

‘Hello, so,’ she said in a lilting Irish accent. ‘Pleased to meet you, Isabella. This is an opportunity, to be sure.’

‘Nice to meet you too,’ smiled Isabella. ‘Tell me about yourself?’

Sinead smoothed her dress over her thighs.

‘Well, I’ve five boys.’ She glanced at the woman next to her, bringing her into the conversation.

‘Great hulking lads they are now. And the last one, Aaron, recently moved out– he’s gone to London to join his brother Tony.

The others are in Dublin, Dubai and Derry can you believe?

’ The woman next to her smiled sympathetically.

‘And Barry, that’s my husband,’ she clarified to the man in a suit on the other side of her, ‘well, he works evening shifts so I’m on my own.

’ She turned back to Isabella as if that answered everything.

‘And where have you worked before?’ Isabella asked, wondering if she’d not been clear with her question.

‘I worked in the school kitchen for a while.’ Sinead nodded, as if that clinched the deal. Her smile was so wide, you couldn’t help but like her. But was she waiting staff material?

Isabella flicked a look at Amber, who nodded encouragingly and said, ‘The other staff will have regular shifts, a mixture of daytimes and evenings working with either myself or Sinead. We’ll sort the rotas out around their needs.’

Did Amber mean she’d sort the rota out around the restaurant’s needs? That would surely make more sense.

‘So, let me introduce the rest of the team. Paul, would you like to start?’

Next to Sinead, Paul lifted his hand. Wiry, white-haired and impeccably dressed in a suit, he must have been early sixties. His moustache was finely tuned into a curl on either side of his mouth. He tugged his waistcoat straight and cleared his throat.

‘I’m Paul Metcalfe, and I’ve lived in Honeybridge my whole life,’ he said in a rich tone, deeper than you’d expect from his slight frame. ‘I’ve got a deep love of wine, Italian wine being the finest in the world.’

‘I agree!’ Isabella said, adding it to her mental to-do list. Sort the wines. Maybe he could help with that.

‘And where have you worked before?’ Isabella asked.

‘I’ve not worked since my wife was wheelchair-bound with multiple sclerosis twenty-five years ago,’ he said, shaking his head.

‘But the house is too quiet now that’s she’s passed away and I’m a fast learner.

’ Sinead leaned over and clutched his arm, making a clucking sound, while someone else put a hand on his shoulder.

Isabella nodded, taken aback by this but unsure of the direction this was going. Amber just nodded again, as if she knew something that Isabella didn’t. Isabella held her tongue and waited for the next person to introduce themselves.

The youngest girl stepped forward. Probably eighteen.

‘I’m Harry, short for Harriet,’ she said, daring a peep from under her fringe.

‘I’m in my second year at college. I’ve done my Duke of Edinburgh award.

You have to do volunteering, physical challenge and learn a skill.

’ She glanced more confidently at Amber and Isabella caught the encouraging nod from her friend.

Harry took a deep breath and continued: ‘For my volunteering, I helped at the Heart of Honeybridge nursing home. I went in at mealtimes.’

‘Ah, great,’ Isabella said, smiling in relief. Someone with waiting experience. ‘Were you serving the meals?’

Harry bit her lip. ‘No, I wasn’t allowed in the kitchen to collect the trays, some kind of training rules. But I sat with the older people while they ate and talked to them. They were lovely.’ Isabella started to wonder what on earth was going on.

Next it was Meryl, a single woman in her twenties. She stepped forward confidently and shook hands. Please, Isabella silently prayed, please have some kind of serving experience.

‘I was abandoned as a baby,’ she said. She said it matter-of-factly, but Sinead’s eyes filled up immediately. ‘I was in the care system until I was adopted at the age of five.’

Isabella’s eyes widened.

‘My adopted mum and dad already had six children. Three older, three younger, and I slotted right in the middle.’

Isabella was starting to think she was in some kind of alternate universe.

Meryl carried on, chin up, eyes bright. ‘I’ve never waitressed but I know I’ll be good at it.’

The three remaining members of ‘the team’ looked at each other, waiting to see who’d go next. Isabella wondered what sort of ‘team’ this was going to be. She glanced at Amber again. Had she made a big mistake?

Next Naomi, who had set up a community network to check on your neighbours as a school project and it was still going five years later.

After her, Denzil, with a highly autistic son who had started at the local residential college and left him and his wife with an empty nest.

Lastly, a woman with sun-streaked hair and a smattering of freckles.

‘I’m Angie from Australia,’ she said with a broad grin. ‘I miss the sun!’ Everyone laughed. Isabella winced.

Not a single day of serving work between them. Nobody had ever taken an order or placed it with a kitchen. Nobody knew how to carry plates balanced up their arms or clear a table in one go. It was clear nobody knew how to tot up a bill, suggest a wine, or use a payment card machine.

Eight faces beamed at her. Amber nodded expectantly. Isabella blew out slowly.

‘Can I see you for a moment?’ she said, indicating the door with a nod of her head.

‘Be right back,’ Amber said happily to the team.

Isabella pulled the door shut behind them and they both stood in the empty shell of her kitchen.

‘What do you think?’ Amber asked, looking pleased with herself.

Isabella considered her words. She didn’t want to lose a friend.

‘They all seem like lovely people,’ she started.

‘Right.’ Amber nodded.

‘All with interesting backgrounds.’

‘I know,’ Amber agreed.

‘And you’ve obviously gone to great lengths to find them,’ Isabella said at the same time as wondering where on earth Amber had found such a random group of people.

‘They’re the best.’

‘But they’re not waiting staff.’ Isabella exhaled.

Amber’s wide eyes got wider. She blinked, once, twice. The silence grew between them, and Isabella imagined she could also hear the group in the restaurant holding its collective breath.