Page 82 of Tasty Cherry
Raya clears her throat, and I spot her looking at me.
Right, the test.
I focus on the questions and start plowing through them.
Handwashing. Food temps. Food-borne illnesses. Perishable items. Cleaning solvents.
The room quiets, only broken by the occasional scratch of pen on paper or a muffled cough.
Ilsa finishes first, walking confidently to the front like a star pupil showing off. The proctor compares her pages to his answer sheet.
“Perfect score,” he says. He takes a moment to type in her information from the front cover. “You’re all set.”
Raya walks her to the hall. “Hunter will meet you in the restaurant. Go in through the back.”
I check my booklet. One more page.
Brooklyn finishes, passes, and is sent to the kitchen. Then I’m done.
I only miss one question, the safe time of transport of frozen foods. Even so, I’m annoyed to have checked the wrong answer.
Raya points to the door of HR. “Have you been back there yet?”
“No.”
“Suze will be at her desk near the door. She’ll tell you what to do.”
“Thanks.”
Owen stands up as I’m leaving. Maverick doesn’t appear to have turned a single page. Yikes.
I walk down the hall, but when Raya is out of sight, I pause to text Sebastian.
What’s the deal with Maverick?
He doesn’t respond right away. He might be with a guest.
This will have to wait.
I open the door to HR. It’s a big room with three women at desks, plus a larger, closed office near the back.
A woman in a flowing maxi-dress printed with daisies stands up. She’s grinning a mile a minute. “You must be our intern! I’m Suze, the administrative assistant. I’m the one who handled all the applications.”
I remember her name now. I extend a hand for a shake. “So glad to put a face with the emails.”
“We’re so excited you’re here. Everyone’s all abuzz at who might be the event manager. We’re so glad Havannah decided to hire more help. She’s going to have her hands full with that baby!” She gestures for me to follow her. “This here’s Georgia and Emily. Our head of HR is Jessie, but she’s not here at the moment. You’ll meet her later. Everyone, say hi to our intern Mila!”
The other women wave from their computers.
For a moment, I wonder which one of them would call me in if someone ratted out me and Sebastian.
Suze leads me to a spot on the side wall with a small table and chair near a wall of filing cabinets. “We keep hard copies of quite a few documents. Jessie thought it might be useful for you to get an idea of what we do here if you learned the system and put some things away. Mostly applications, vacation requests, timesheets, and things like that. Stuff that was taken to meetings, or needs physical signatures, you know. Nothing too sensitive.”
“Okay.”
“Familiarize yourself with all the labels, then here are a few stacks of things. We put newest in front.”
“Got it.”