The Key She Could Never Give Me Chapter 05

The Key She Could Never Give Me Chapter 05

By the time I reached the city, the rain had just stopped.

I sat on the edge of the bed for a while, staring into space.

My phone lit up.

It was a message from Director Claire Donovan.

[Be here at eight tomorrow morning.]

[Your hand still hasn’t healed. Don’t push yourself.]

I stared at the two messages for a few seconds, then slowly locked the screen.

The training was more intense than I’d expected.

During the day, I studied restaurant operations.

At night, I worked in the kitchen, practicing kitchen tasks.

One day, the instructor started talking about backups during rush hours.

He’d barely started before I’d already written down every problem I could see.

The trainee beside me leaned over to look.

Then he froze.

“What did you do before this?”

“Kitchen.”

He stared at me in disbelief.

“You worked in a kitchen and you know all this?”

I smiled.

I didn’t explain.

During the second week of training, Director Claire Donovan called me in and sent me on site

visits with an experienced general manager.

By the third week, she handed me the proposed changes for several locations.

“Take a look.”

I sat in the conference room and spent a long time revising them.

When Director Claire Donovan finished reading my edits, she closed the file.

Then she looked at me.

“Blake, back there…”

“You were really just working in the kitchen?”

I looked up.

i

“According to the staffing chart.”

She studied me for a moment.

Then she smiled.

“You’re good at more than just grinding through the hard work.”

“You know how to run a location.”

For a second, I went still.

Back then, whenever people talked about me, they always said the same thing.

Blake could take it.

Like being able to endure the hard stuff meant I should just keep enduring it forever.

This was the first time anyone had seriously told me I was actually good at what I did.

Meanwhile, things on Sloane’s side fell apart fast.

A vendor I used to know sent me a message.

[Blake, ever since you left, Ms. Bennett’s been putting out fires every single day.]

I read it.

I didn’t reply.

After that, I heard bits and pieces from other people.

Orders kept going out wrong.

Inventory deliveries kept coming in wrong.

Equipment broke and no one followed up.

When employees called out, there was no one to cover their shifts.

Jase had the general manager title.

But whenever something went wrong, he still went straight to Sloane Bennett.

Customer complaints went to her.

Employee problems went to her.

If something happened at Emma’s school, he went to her too.

Once, he said to her over the phone,

“Sloane, maybe you should just call Blake back. He’s been sulking long enough, don’t you

think? We can’t let the restaurant suffer over his little drama.”

There was a long silence on the other end.

A month later, we had our final training assessment.

I ranked first.

Director Claire Donovan called me into her office.

A set of keys sat on the desk.

“There’s an underperforming location in South Fairmont.”

“It’s been losing money for six months.”

“We’ve gone through several general managers.”

“Nothing’s turned it around.”

“Go give it a shot

“You’ve got three months.”

I looked down at the keys.

I didn’t reach for them right away.

I’d waited for keys before.

A one-bedroom apartment.

Then a two-bedroom apartment.

Then a three-bedroom house.

Every time, I waited.

And every time, the keys ended up in someone else’s hands.

Director Claire Donovan pushed them toward me.

“This time, they’re for you.”

I reached out and wrapped my fingers around them.

My palm tightened.

“Okay.”

“I’ll get you results.”