Accidental Acquisition by Evangeline Anderson
26
It started when Jillian got to the kitchen of Pat-ar and realized she was the only one there. Where were Lor and Lydia her line cooks? The two of them were a couple—a Beast Kindred and his human bride who had met and bonded over their love of cooking and food. Shortly thereafter, they bonded in a more literal sense and came up to the Mother Ship, where Suzanne had hired them to work at Pat-ar.
Jillian liked them a lot—they were hardworking and good at their jobs and above all, dependable. Neither of them had missed a single day of work since she’d come up to run the restaurant two years ago and they knew there was an important dinner to prep for today. So where were they?
She got her answer a moment later when she had an urgent feeling that someone needed to talk to her. Opening her mind, she waited for the Think-me message to come through.
“Hello?”she thought. “Who is this?”
“Chef? It’s Lydia—I’m sorry to call you on the Think-me but I can’t come see you in person.”
“Really? What’s wrong?” Jillian was instantly concerned.
“Well, remember I told you that Lor and I were going to take a trip to Yanna Globen yesterday?”
Jillian nodded, and then remembered her line cook couldn’t see her.
“Yes,” she sent back.
Since Pat-ar was closed on Mondays, it was everyone’s day off and her two line cooks often took the opportunity to do a little sight-seeing on different planets. The fact that the Mother Ship could fold space to allow you to get to almost any destination in the known universe was a great advantage for people who loved to travel and explore other cultures and worlds.
“Did something happen while you were there?” Jillian sent to her line cook.
“Well, we didn’t think so but after we got back last night we were really itchy. We took a shower and got, ahem, distracted with other things. The itching went away and we didn’t think any more of it,” Lydia explained.
“Go on,” Jillian sent dryly. She could imagine what “other things” had distracted the pair, once they got into the shower together. They hadn’t been bonded that long and they were completely crazy for each other. In fact, she’d often wished she could have a relationship with a man that was anywhere near as good as theirs.
“Well, this morning when we woke up and started getting ready to come in, we both had big blue spots all over our skin,” Lydia sent. “We called the Med Center and they said we had to stay in our suite. Apparently, we’ve both contracted Itcher’s Rash from someone on Yanna Globen and once the spots pop out, it’s extremely contagious. So I’m afraid that we’re under strict quarantine until the spots fade. I’m really sorry, Chef,” Lydia added, her mental voice sounding sincerely upset. “I know we were supposed to prep for the big VIP dinner tonight. Lor and I both feel awful leaving you high and dry like this on such short notice!”
Jillian took a deep breath. Well, today had just gotten a lot more interesting. Still, she’d been short-handed in the kitchen before—she could manage.
“Don’t give it another thought,” she told Lydia. “You and Lor just get well. Did the Med Center say how long it would take for the spots to fade?”
“They said seven to ten days. I’m so sorry, Chef.” Lydia’s mental voice honestly sounded like she might cry. “I know that’s a really long time for us to be gone.”
It was extremely bad news—being short-handed that long was going to seriously screw with her productivity. But Jillian told herself she could manage.
“Just get well,” she told her line cook. “And give my best to Lor. I’ll see both of you when the spots clear up.”
She broke the connection and took a deep breath. All right, it was going to be a race today to get everything finished. Even with Suzanne’s help, there was a lot to do and she was going to be working with alien ingredients she’d never handled before.
Still, she could do it. Stress in the kitchen was still a hundred times better than being drugged and dumped in the Dark Market and abducted by a Trollox. Today was definitely going to be better than yesterday.
“I can do this,” Jillian told herself. “I know I can.”
She hoped.
