Special Occasion Stories - 8. A Christmas opening

I stepped out onto the balcony and took a deep breath of the frigid air.

Why did this have to happen to me? The restaurant was supposed to have been opened two months ago. But, no. instead, it was Christmas eve and I had a grand opening to prepare for.

First, it had been the wrong furniture had been delivered. Then the right items had been out of stock and had to be shipped I from another factory’s warehouse. Then the butcher I was sourcing my meat from shut down.

Apparently, there had been a death in the family and the owner had moved back home to deal with the details.

The icing on the cake had been when the fire alarm had developed a fault and the engineer had had to rip out half the wiring to find the problem. I’d then had to have a contractor in to re-plaster some walls and refinish some of the wooden rails that had gotten damaged.

Things couldn’t get any worse…could they?

“Boss,” called Carla from the doorway.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” I turned to go back inside and froze when I saw her face. “What’s happened now?”

“Donny, Harry, Lauren, and Gina won’t be here tonight. Two have got food poisoning and the other two are out with the flu.”

I didn’t scream but it was a close thing. I wished I had a glass in my hand, because I would have sent it flying over the balcony and taken great satisfaction in hearing it smash to the ground below.

“I’ll deal with it. Thank you for coming to tell me. Get yourself back to the kitchen and help Fran with prep.” I kept my tone even and waited until Carla had fled back the way she’d come before I gave into the urge to grab the ends of my hair and pulled…hard!

I made my way to the office and started ringing around all the bank staff I had on record. Of course, they already had work for the Christmas period. Those that didn’t. had already made travel plans and either wouldn’t be in the country soon or were already gone. My cell phone rang and a familiar tune filled the air.

“Hi Love,” I answered with a smile.

“How’s the setting up for the opening going?”

“Ah, don’t ask.”

I knew Andy heard the desperation in my voice because his tone became concerned and alert. “What’s happened?”

I listed everything that had gone wrong so far.

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

He hung up before I could ask anything, and I dropped my phone to the desk.

***

Less than an hour later Andy walked through the doors. He was followed by Zara, Josh, Cade, Liam, and Marcus.

Within minutes everyone had a job and the restaurant was finally taking shape.

The rest of the evening sailed by. The customers were happy, the food was good, and the atmosphere was electric.

Zara locked the doors at the end of the night and let out a loud whoop.

“We did it,” she yelled and picked me up to spin me around. Soon everyone was cheering, it had been a great night.

***

“Eric you're needed out front.” I looked up to see Maria hovering by the office door.

I put the money in the safe and headed back out to the main dining room. When I saw what awaited me I froze.

In the center of the dining room, a single table had been set up with a red rose in the middle and gleaming cutlery. A quick glance around told me we were alone in the room and I was very glad of that when my gaze fell on Andy.

He was standing holding a red rose…and wearing very little!

He had on a pair of tight red boxers, a Santa hat, and a long red scarf. Hmmm, the things I thought I could do with that scarf and something solid to tie it to.

As I watched he dropped to one knee and held out the rose to me.

“I don’t have a ring, as I thought you’d want to help me pick them out. But, Eric I love you and I want to ask…Will you marry me?”

I crossed the gap in three strides and pulled him to me.

“Of course, I will Santa.” I then swallowed the shout he let out with a kiss.

This was going to be a great Christmas.