Catering With Benefits (3) - An Appetite for More - 4. I Stepped out of Line.

“You’re doing fine Mr Prentice, but you will have to be up and about tomorrow, because you need to start your physio.” Doctor McGuire told his patient.

“And after all that will I get back to normal?”

“Triple by-pass surgery after a major heart attack takes a toll on your body. At your age I recommend you slow down some and especially remove stress from your daily life.”

“But I own a restaurant, bar and function centre.”

“Do you work there every day?”

“Yes, sometime seven days a week.”

“That will have to stop, or you’ll be back here in six months and that’s if you don’t die on the job. You certainly have to slow down and lead a less stressful lifestyle.”

“Thank you doctor, I’ll give that some serious thought.”

“That’s good and before you are discharged, I’ll also refer you to a counsellor who can help you reduce your stress levels.”

As the doctor left, Romel arrived to take the patient’s regular vital sign readings.

“Good morning Mr Prentice. Is Doctor McGuire happy with your progress?”

“So far, but he wants me to slow down and not work so hard. I don’t know how I can do that and run my business as well.”

“What sort of business do you have?”

Prentice explained about his business to Romel and concluded that he may have to consider selling up and retiring.

“That may well be the best solution Mr Prentice.”

“You are probably right, I’ll have to talk to the wife about it.”

 ***

A week later after Prentice had discussed retirement with his wife and she happily agreed, he called, Warwick Hall, his assistant manager to advise of his decision.

“What will happen to all of us Mr Prentice?”

“It’s not going to happen tomorrow Warwick, and even when it does I hope to sell it as a going concern, so the new owner will need staff. I want you to tell everyone of my decision but also tell them not to worry. I will try to get a deal that means they keep their jobs.”

“Thank you Mr Prentice, but it’s still a worry.”

“I understand that, but hang in there till I’m back and we’ll discuss it more then.”

***

Craig’s and Justin’s business ‘Catering with Benefits’ had grown enormously over the past three years, from a one man part-time business when Craig first catered for a doctor’s cocktail party for 10 people, to now catering for Cynthia’s Medical Research Foundation with guest lists exceeding 100. Justin was now a full partner in the business, they had a crew of 25 casual staff on-call and Justin recruited additional special staff as required. When they outgrew Craig’s flat as a base for their business, Craig’s grandmother offered them the opportunity to move into her four bedroom house with a triple garage. That gave them additional storage space and a large kitchen for food prep. However, they were now in need of administrative help such as invoicing, accounts payable, payroll and bookkeeping. Until now they had done all administrative work themselves with Justin’s mum, sometimes, helping out with accounts work.

In the early days, Craig could just give a quote over the phone or by email, but he was finding it increasingly necessary to visit clients and venues to be able to quote on larger functions. This took up more of his time and left less time for office work.

“Justin, I think it’s time for us to consider getting an admin assistant to help with the paperwork and take calls for us when we are busy.”

“My mum’s happy to continue doing the accounts.”

“I know, but she already has a full-time job teaching and I don’t want to overload her with more work.”

“So what do you have in mind?”

“I think we need an all-rounder who can deal with simple requests from clients and handle correspondence as well as do some payroll and accounting.”

“Shall we advertise for someone?”

“Only as a last resort; I would rather find someone by recommendation or word of mouth. I would prefer someone we know or is at least known by a friend, because they will be working in our home. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with a complete stranger.”

“I see what you mean, I would not feel good about leaving a stranger in our home when we are not here. So where do we start looking?”

“We could mention it to our friends and see if any of them have some ideas.”

“We could discuss it next time we get together or we could send an email, that way we could explain exactly the qualifications we are looking for.”

“Great idea Justin, let’s put down some requirements and then we can write a message.”

After the boys jotted down the required qualifications and a brief description of the job they composed a draft message to send to their friends.

“Craig, are we going to need this person full time or just part time?”

“Maybe part-time to start with, but that might depend on who applies. Most people want full-time work and we might not be able to attract the right person for just a part-time job. We should be flexible about that.”

“OK, I get it. Now I’ve made a list of people to send it to. I was thinking, Romel and Edward, Tristan, Raj and what about Thomas and Andy, they have plenty of contacts in business.”

“Sure, we’ll start with them and see how we go.”

“Alright, I’ll send the message now.”

“Good man.”

“Wow, this is exciting, we really are businessmen now, advertising for an admin assistant.”

“Well, Mr Businessman, while you do that, I’ll open a couple of beers and we can toast to a successful search.”

***

Over the following week they received replies from all their friends. Some had no one to recommend, some said they would ask around and two replied with suggestions. Thomas said he would ask his friend Alma if her partner Brenda might be interested as she already did that type of work. Justin had a chat with Brenda by phone, but she was only prepared to look at a full-time position and the salary she wanted was beyond their budget.

Tristan called Justin and recommended his boyfriend Snowy.

“Get him to give me a call.” asked Justin.

“I’ll pass the message on later when I meet him after his dance class.”

“Has he joined dance classes now?”

“Yes, he is always looking for ways to make money and he thinks with a body like his he might be able to get into stripping if he learns to dance.”

“That’s very interesting; I look forward to seeing him do that.”

“I think it might be some time yet, he has only just started dance classes, he has a long way to go.”

“Just the same, he has a great body for stripping.”

“You’re not wrong there... hey, have you ever thought of stripping for an audience?”

“I do it all the time, just without music.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

 ***

That evening Justin told Craig that Snowy was interested in the job. “Shall I arrange an interview?”

“Just put that on hold for now.”

“Why, don’t you like Snowy?”

“It’s not that, but it occurred to me today that we already have someone suitable on our payroll.”

“Who?” asked Justin.

“Juanito, he’s studying accountancy and we know from his waiting work that he’s a good worker.”

“Why didn’t we think of him before? He’ll be perfect and can still back up as a waiter when needed.’

“It also means he understands the operational side of our business. That will be a huge advantage while learning the admin side.”

“Shall we ask him for an interview?”

“Before that I’d like to have a chat with Romel. I heard a few weeks back that he was doing sex work again.”

“Really, so would that be a problem?”

“It’s not the sex work as such, but I’m concerned about his availability and if it might be too much for him to study and have to prioritise many part-time jobs. On a per hour basis, sex probably pays better then bookkeeping.”

“I see what you mean.”

***

“We did have a stern talk to him about this.” said Romel “But I’m happy to say that he has seen the light, for now at least. Edward has him on a short leash. If he steps out of line I don’t think Edward will take it well and Juanito may easily find himself on the street, and I don’t mean that in the sex worker sense.”

“You mean Edward would throw him out?”

“Unfortunately, yes. He takes loyalty and commitment very seriously and Juanito agreed when we asked him to live here and help with his college tuition fees that he would give up the sex work.”

“He says he has and he hasn’t been going out at night.”

“How’s it going with Raj?”

“That’s another thing we spoke to Juanito about. Raj is very inexperienced in relationships and could be easily hurt. I didn’t want to see that happen, especially as I am close to them both, but Raj ended it a few weeks ago. I am guessing Juanito could not convince him of his feelings.”

“Maybe that’s for the best. I like Raj a lot and want to see him in a happy relationship.”

“But why all this interest in Juanito?”

“Oh, sorry I should have said before. We are looking for someone to do our accounts and general office work, so we thought Juanito might be suitable, especially as he’s studying accountancy. However, I need to be sure he doesn’t have any other work on.”

“I agree, between waiting and accounts work with you, plus study, that should be enough for him. It’s very generous of you to think of him.”

“I won’t let on we have spoken when I call him for an interview, but I would ask that you keep me informed if there is anything I should know about other activities.”

“Sure thing Craig, I get it.”

***

The interview went well and afterwards, Juanito was asked to wait in the living room while Craig and Justin had a private discussion.

“What do think?” asked Justin.

“We know he’s a hard worker, and he already has two years management and accounting studies completed with excellent results, before he came to Australia.”

“And we won’t have to offer him full-time employment while he’s studying.”

“Yes, that will save us some money, plus we get a partly trained accountant for the cost of an office assistant.”

So are you happy to offer him the job?”

“Yes, and you?”

“I’m willing to give him a go. We’ll make it clear that he is on trial for three months. Seem reasonable to you?”

“Sure, shall we tell him now?”

“Why not?”

Juanito was invited back into the office and offered the position subject to the conditions explained.

“Guys, you mean I’ve got the job?”

“If you want to accept it.”

“You bet I do and thanks. I already like working with you guys. Finally I can put some of my training to productive use. Oh, you guys have really made me happy.”

Craig offered, “Welcome to the team Juanito. We are looking forward to having you release us from many of our office duties.”

“...and keep us in line if we don’t get our paperwork done properly.” added Justin.

“Yes, I’ll certainly do that. I like to have everything in its place and done on time.”

“I think I’m going to like that, Juanito.” replied Craig.

“Oh, Mr neat ‘n tidy here will love it.” said Justin with a big smile directed towards Craig.

“Good, now we need to set aside a few days to familiarise you with our system here, such as it is, and then it will be up to you to reorganise as you see fit to maximise efficiency. We’ll be quite flexible about the hours you work so that you can fit it around your studies.” added Craig.

“In regard to that, will it be OK if I work at nights sometimes as all my lectures are at day time?”

“I don’t see any problem with that. We’ll give you a key so you can let yourself in whenever you need to work here. That is why we didn’t want a complete stranger for the job as you will be working in our home.”

“Craig, I think it would be a good idea if we get Mum over to meet Juanito and get him up to speed on how she does our accounts.”

“Agreed and we’ll also introduce you to Gran, who lives down the back. If you’re going to be here alone sometimes, she needs to know who’s here.”

“I look forward to meeting her. Romel and Edward have talked about her and like her very much.”

“There is one more thing Juanito. It’s a bit personal, but we need to be sure we understand each other.”

“Sure, what’s that?”

“We need to be sure you are only working for us. Accounts will be your main role and we can give you waiting shifts as well to fit around study. However, we don’t want your availability to be compromised by other work. Do you understand me?”

“I know what you mean and I have given that up entirely. I stepped out of line and Edward made it quite clear, it was my last chance.”

“I heard you and Raj have ended your relationship?”

“Yes, I tried to do some patching up there, but Raj didn’t see it that way.”

“Raj is a good friend of ours, so anyone that hurts him, hurt us.”

“You’re not the first to tell me that. You guys really are protective of each other.”

“We are, and as a part of our group you’ll benefit from that also.”

***

After Juanito left, Craig and Justin went out into the garden with their beers and congratulated themselves on finding their admin assistant so quickly. “Justin, that will take a lot of pressure off us now but there is something else we need to consider.”

“You mean with the business?”

“Yes, I need a much bigger kitchen. We really are pushing this domestic kitchen way beyond its capabilities now we are doing such big events.”

“And that extra equipment you put in sometimes blows the fuses, when they’re all on together.”

“I know, this house was never wired for commercial equipment.”

“How do we do that? Do we renovate here?”

“Probably not the best idea. We really need a commercial kitchen and we wouldn’t get council approval for that in a residential area.”

“Where do we look for that, can you rent a commercial kitchen?”

“Not that I l know of, but I’ll talk to Dad’s estate agent and see if he has any ideas on what’s available in a commercial area.”

“There’s also something else we need and that’s a bigger vehicle to transport all our food and gear to venues. We really need a van.” suggested Justin.

“I agree, shuttling back and forth with two cars is wasting a lot of our time.”

“What if we trade in your car for a van and we’ve still got mine er, Gran’s as a back up.”

“Good idea, my car’s getting on. I think we should do that soon. It’s an easier project than looking for a kitchen.”

“Can we go tomorrow? I’m all excited now, I’ve never bought a car before.”

“It won’t hurt to start looking around at dealers.”

“Great, I’ll do some research on the net tonight and then we’ll have some idea of what’s available before we go shopping.”

“And I’ll call Romel and see what dealer he used for his car.”

<>

Romel’s phone went to voicemail so Craig called Edward to check what shift Romel was on.

“I’ll get him to call you tonight, he’s on day shift. Is there anything I can do?”

“I just wanted to ask him if he’d recommend the car dealer where he bought his car.”

“Are you in the market for a new car?”

“Sort of, we actually want a van to move our supplies to venues, now that we do such large functions.”

“Sweetie, listen to mother. You certainly don’t want to deal with the prick that Romel bought his car from. But it sounds like you’re looking for a commercial vehicle, so that’s probably a different section of the dealership. Just steer clear of a salesman called Oliver.”

Edward told Craig about Oliver and then thanked him for giving Juanito an opportunity.

“You guys certainly are moving on, office assistant, new van, what’s next for you two?

“We’re also on the lookout for a commercial kitchen.”

“Oh, the question was meant to be rhetorical. There’s no stopping you guys, is there?”

***

Snowy called Justin that afternoon, but Justin had to tell him the position had already been filled.

“Sorry to hear that Justin, I would have liked working for you guys.”

“As it turns out we already had someone doing waiting work for us who is studying accountancy, so it’s worked out very well.”

“Ok, maybe something else will come up.”

“Snowy before you go, what sort of work do you do if you are available for other part-time work?”

“I don’t work very often, I just get a bit of kitchen work now and then. I’m actually studying cooking at the North Ryde Catering School and looking for an apprenticeship, but nothing’s come up yet.”

“Hey, that’s interesting. I’ll mention it to Craig. He might know someone looking for a cook.”

“Thanks Justin, you’re a good guy.”

“I’ve just had an idea, why don’t you and Tristan come over for a meal and we can talk more about your various skills.”

“Why do you say various?”

“Tristan told me about your dance lessons and what you hope to do with them.”

“Oh that, yeah maybe someday, I’m still a bit bumble footed really, but it’s good exercise.”