“I did.” Brad scanned the display case and pointed. “Looks like there’s one left.”
“Oh, goodie. Are these the ones with the cream cheese filling?”
“They are.”
“So delicious. Hiring you was the best decision I’ve made yet.” Diane patted his shoulder.
“I’m glad you think so. I’ll admit, I was worried when that interview with your friend at theTimeswent south.”
Diane nodded. “Yes, sorry about that. She said you had some contact she wanted to use. I honestly did not expect that to happen.”
“She almost seemed more interested in my friend at the Food Channel than me.”
Diane sighed. “Yes, well. Heather is more relative than friend. She is my late wife’s niece. She’s been working her way up toward being a food reviewer at theTimes, but after Mr. Russo was a judge onChampion Chef, she’s been kind of obsessive about following in his footsteps. Of course, she also gave one of Billy Watts’s restaurants a bad review.”
“Yeah, I heard. First rule of making friends at the Food Channel is not to say anything bad about their talent.”
“Right, precisely. She wants to be a big name in food journalism. If she were smart, she would have done the feature story on the café, just a nice fluffy piece about the new chef doing creative things with cat treats and human treats, and called it a day. Alas.”
“So you’re not mad at me.”
Diane patted his arm. “Nope. Plus I saw that Lindsaydidget on TV and figured you had something to do with that. Lindsay deserves good things.”
Brad was surprised Diane knew Lindsay well enough to say something like that considering she didn’t work here, but Diane and Lauren were close. Diane seemed like more of a mom than a boss.
“Anyway, Bradley, I did want you to know, I genuinely appreciate everything you do for the café. I heard you adopted one of our cats, too.”
“Yes, Hamilton. He seems to have made himself at home in my apartment.”
Diane grinned. “Yeah, cats do that.”
Lauren cleared her throat. She’d put Diane’s carrot muffin on a plate, and beside it sat Diane’s travel mug with the tag from a new tea bag hanging out of it.
“Oh, delightful. I’m looking forward to this. That zucchini thing you made last week was delicious, too, Bradley. Have Lauren text me the next time you make some of those.”
“Okay, I will,” said Brad, feeling relieved.
When Brad walked outside a few minutes later, he looked across the street and saw that Pepper was indeed closed. Curious, he crossed the street. He gazed through the glass storefront. The furniture was all there, though the chairs were up on the tables. No one was inside.
Brad called Aaron, who seemed to know everything happening in the New York City food world. After they greeted each other, Brad said, “Do you know anything about the restaurant Pepper in Brooklyn? It’s the new restaurant owned by some boy-band guy.”
“Oh, yeah, Joey Maguire.”
Brad laughed. “You know his name?”
“My sister was really into the Bayside Boys when she was a tween. They had that song ‘Can’t Stop My Heart.’”
“That must have been during my angry-rock phase.” Brad had read Lindsay’s review but wouldn’t have been able to pick Joey Maguire out of a lineup.
Aaron laughed. “Anyway, I heard he opened a restaurant in Brooklyn. I heard this from my sister, by the way, and she squealed at me as she told me.”
“It’s the restaurant Lindsay reviewed that got her the job at theForum.”
“Yes, I read that review. And I heard yesterday that the restaurant had already gone out of business.”
“Wow. It’s only been open, like, two months. Did Lindsay kill it?”
“No, no. Actually, I think she prolonged its misery. Novelty restaurants don’t generally do that well outside of Manhattan. But that place got so much press that people went there to check it out. You know how sometimes people hate-watch a bad TV show or movie just to bag on it? I think people were doing the gastronomic equivalent of that.”
