Venus Ascending: Book 2 of 3

Chapter ONE

More Decisions

I am woken to sound of the alarm, spoiling a very pleasant dream. I just lay there, eyes closed tight thinking of the past year but especially the last 3 weeks, our wedding and fabulous honeymoon in Spain. Get those buns going sleepyhead. Now it was Claire’s turn to bring me back to the now and present. I’d love to stay here for another hour, and reminisce on the past few months. So how about a compromise, Maddie? Reminisce on those last couple of weeks at the Café and remind yourself that the very same establishment requires your undivided attention, NOW! she shouted. I literally jumped out of bed. Point taken, party pooper, and for that rude awakening you can make breakfast and I’ll have the first shower. "Fair enough, honey, but no daydreaming in the shower though, I’ll see you in 15 minutes.

Once showered and fed we head downstairs to the Café, and inevitably the first couple of hours are spent repeating all the details of the wedding and honeymoon to all the staff as they turned up for work, and of course, individually, we did manage to thank them each individually for their co-operation and loyalty. Sally hadn’t exaggerated about how busy we had become as around 11 30am Claire popped her head round the door and, with pleading tones in her voice, asks Any chance of you two managing without help for a little while? We are flat tack cleaning away dirty dishes and tidying the table and no sooner is it done, more customers come through the door. I’m sure we can manage I said, but if push becomes shove I will scream out. Just then Rosie piped up Last year when we had a crazy August Julie’s eldest daughter was only too happy to come and help out in the kitchen, I should have mentioned it earlier. Great said Claire I’ll check with Julie right away and she was gone. 20minutes later a young teenage girl came in the back door, Hi Debs Rosie called out in need of some extra cash? I sure am she replies and looking over to me, continued you must be Ms O’Hagan, hi I am Deborah, but everyone calls me Debs, or Debbie. Hi Debs, pleased to meet you, and everyone calls me Madeleine, and the other Ms O’Hagan is called Claire, you’ll meet her later on. Right now though, the dishes are piling up, rubber gloves are under the sink so let’s get to it, and welcome aboard. What a godsend, Rosie and I were able to concentrate on the food and Debs took care of washing dishes, getting them out to the front and stacking them by the coffee machine. Finally, at 3.10pm the tempo completely slows down so I take the opportunity to sit down with Debs. Once again, Debs, thank you so much for coming in at such short notice, we truly appreciate your help, and I was especially pleased with your work ethic. Would you be interested in a full time job for the rest of the holidays and if so, what hours and days would you like to work? Thank you, Madeleine and I would love some extra cash, and I am happy to work Monday to Saturday for whatever hours you would want me. Well, your Mum works Monday to Friday from 9.30 and finishes at 3.30pm, so those hours would suit us here in the kitchen, is that OK with you? That would be great and Mum would ensure I was up on time and I could get a lift in with her, and if you need me any Saturday I’m happy to work that day also. Well that’s settled and thank you for the offer to work Saturdays, now for your pay rate. Do you have a figure in mind? I ask. How about £20 an hour? Only kidding, but you did ask she laughed. A sense of humour eh? I can see we are going to get on just fine I said, smiling back at her. How old are you Deb’s? I turned 17 in February she replies. Well, according to the Labour Department’s web site, the  minimum hourly rate for under 18’s is £4, but to me that sounds like slave labour for what we want you to do, so how about £6.00 an hour? Are you shitting me? Sorry I mean are you kidding? That would be fantastic, that’s £180 a week before tax. Yes, yes, thank you so very much. Next thing I’m getting a big hug from her. One more thing Debs, based on your performance today, if you want to work every Saturday once you are back at school I will be extremely happy to give you a job. I would like that very much, Madeleine, and thank you once again. I promise I won’t let you down, ever. Just then Julie pops her head into the office. She’s not in trouble already is she? On the contrary, Julie, you have a very nice and polite Daughter and a hard worker to boot I reply. Are you sure you are talking about my Daughter? The one who crawls out of bed around noon, with a bedroom that resembles a war zone? Aw Mum! You’re embarrassing me rebukes Debs. A typical Jekyll and Hide teenage girl by the sound of it I say. Anyway Julie, Debbie has accepted a part time job with us in the kitchen, same hours as your during the rest of the school holidays and then she will come and work every Saturday. Is that acceptable to you? Absolutely, and all joking apart Madeleine, she won’t let you down, she’s a good kid. All settled then, so off you go you two and we’ll see you tomorrow". 

Back upstairs in the flat, we’re sitting down having a refreshing mug of Earl Grey, and Claire says That was one helluva full on day and apparently that’s what is has been like since we’ve been away. If this keeps up I’m thinking of hiring another part time person to help out in the Café. Was Debbie useful in the kitchen today, she seems a nice girl? She was an absolute godsend, and I made an Executive decision which I hope you agree with. In a nutshell, I’ve offered her a part time position as a kitchen hand, same hours as Julie for the remainder of the school holidays at an hourly rate of £6. When she returns to school she will work the same hours every Saturday. Great decision, Maddie as it kills two birds with one stone, you get the extra help you need in the kitchen and I get to keep my girls all day. £6 an hour doesn’t sound a bit generous. Well Claire, the legal minimum hourly rate is £4, but to me that is slave labour and probably is what a casual worker would expect as a shop assistant. Debbie is going to earn every penny working in our kitchen, and on today’s performance I didn’t have to think about what to pay her, she worked bloody hard. Excellent, well done, and I will hold off getting another wait person and see how the new arrangement pans out. The one thing I want to discuss with you though, is giving the girls a bonus for looking after our business for 10 days, hey must have been worked off their feet if today was anything to go by. That’s a great idea Honey, do you have anything particular in mind? I ask. My first thought is to work out the profits for those 10 days and share amongst them all, a rough guess would be around £500 -£800 each, which we give them as a Christmas bonus. Then I thought to myself they should be getting a Christmas bonus anyway, so I would want to give this performance bonus straight away, what do you think? Your second thought is the better one, but I have just thought of another way we could reward them for their hard work and loyalty, the ones with kids that is. How about we offer them, either the cash or an all-expenses paid long weekend for them and their family to Disney Paris. I know for a fact that Annie has said that she would love to take her Daughter there but they just can’t afford it. I don’t know the cost but there are bound to be special family deals around £500, maybe a bit more. That would certainly be different, and it is also a way of thanking their families at the same time. Great idea, Maddie, and for Sally, and Rosie, they could take their respective Mothers on a weekend escape to anywhere in Europe. Tomorrow morning I’ll phone Charlie and see if he can get some figures for us, just taking into account the till receipts less wages for the 10 day period and we can see what sort of figure we have to work with. I just want to say one more thing Claire, you can call me a big softie if you want, but I’m not forgetting that without all the girls’ hard efforts these past 10 days, I would never have been able to have, what was, the most wonderful day of my life, my marriage to you. Before you start getting me a box of tissues let me say what I was leading up to, namely that if there is any shortfall in cash to make this happen, then I will make up the difference from my personal bank account. That is not being a bid softie, Maddie, that is vividly demonstrating just how caring and loving a person you are. For the record, if there is any shortfall then it will come from our joint account, this is a business gesture we are making. Thank you, Claire, and now for a wine and I’ll grab a pizza from the freezer and stick it in the oven, and that’s dinner settled. We sat and watched a bit of telly and around 10.00ish Claire leaned over and gave me a loving kiss and said I think I’ll head off bed. A hard day’s work, straight after a beautiful holiday has left me buggered and I need some sleep. Phew, that’s a relief! I thought for a minute that you were going to ask for a massage for your tired, but delectable body. I’m somewhat stuffed myself and sleep is mandatory. Off you go Honey and I’ll tidy up, I won’t be far behind you. 10 minutes later I walk into the bedroom to find Claire fast asleep, I smile, and say to myself Poor darling". I quietly get undressed, slip under the covers and snuggle into Claire’s warm body, and the last thing I remember is Claire giving out a little sigh and then I was asleep.

First thing Thursday morning, Claire calls Charles and he promises that he will have the figures out by the end of the day and email them to us. The day was as busy as yesterday, but what a bonus the extra pair of hands make. There was no hint of pressure in the kitchen and Claire popped in around 1.00pm, which is now our busiest time for the Café, and said things are great out front no real pressure now that I have all my staff, and how is it in the engine room? she asks. Deb’s is worth her weight in gold, she’s always on top of having clean dishes and is even doing the fries for us. I don’t think you’d appreciate her humour though is my reply. Why do you say that? asks Claire. Well, when she was cooking her first batch of chips she called out ‘what do you call the guy in a monastery who cooks the fries, and the answer she gave us was a Chip Monk’, funny eh? Claire actually laughs, and even more surprising she quips back I thought it would have been the Friar, see you later guys, and she was off to look after more customers, leaving us to chuckle at her wit. That’s totally unlike Claire I said to Rosie and Debs, if I had told that joke I would more than likely have finished up wearing a dish cloth. Maybe my sense of humour is rubbing off on her, at last". The remaining three and a half hours passed by without any major surges in demand, and Claire and I were back in the flat around 4.45pm, a lot more relaxed than we were on our first day back.

While you pour us both a glass of wine Maddie, I’ll log on and check my emails says Claire. Will do honey, and no little pranks when you tell me the figures Charles has supplied. I promise is Claire’s reply.  I return with our wines and ask What do the figures look like? Well you aren’t going to believe this, but I promise I’m not teasing you, as Charles reckons for those 10 days we were on the Continent our takings, less just the wages, gave us a gross profit, in round figures of £8,600. If we share that equally between the 5 girls, their bonus would be £1,720 each. I asked you not tease me Claire, and here you go plucking figures out of the air as if you had a bank note printing machine. Cross my heart dear, it’s the gospel truth, see for yourself. I promised I wouldn’t tease you said Claire somewhat disappointedly that I have doubted her. I look over her shoulder and there were the figures, in black and white. I put a hand on each of her shoulders, gave her a loving kiss on her cheek and said, I am so sorry for doubting you Claire, please forgive me. Don’t be a silly duffer she replied "I would have doubted you if the boot had been on the other foot. Those figures are mind boggling, over £8 grand in 10 days, I can’t wait to see our six month’s profit and loss statement. I’ve just done some very rough calculations in my head, Claire and I reckon our gross operating profit for our first year could be in the region of £300,000, less overheads and tax. God, do I need something stronger than wine. With a big grin on her face Claire looks at me and says Sorry Honey you’ll have to settle for wine, so pass me your glass I’ll fill it up for you. We gradually came back down to earth and I was the first to say something. This changes my thoughts on what sort of performance bonus we give them all, and my original idea of £500 - £800 is still very reasonable. To offer them all twice that amount for 10 days work, could come back to bite us in the future. Thoughts of underpayment, huge profits at their expense, and so on. Don’t get me wrong Claire, they worked hard and the Café did make that profit, but at the end of the day, it is OUR business and they are our employees, damn good ones no less. We want them to see this as a thank you gesture, not profit sharing for them. Umm, you make a very valid point, Maddie, and when I look at it that way I must agree with you. Says Claire and continues Furthermore I suggest that we just give them the cash, to do with as they please, so shall we settle on £500 each? Yes. That sounds fair, and, for example Annie could use her money to go to Disney Paris, so yes, that’s settled then and when shall we surprise them? No time like the present, Maddie, there’s enough cash in the safe and they are all on deck tomorrow so we can both  see them when they leave for the day, a bonus just in time for the weekend. Good idea, Claire, let’s change and go Chinese tonight, I can’t be bothered cooking and I’m sure you would like a night off? A great plan Maddie".

Friday was a busy day, but once again, having Debbie in the kitchen was a great help. Annie was the first to finish and I joined her and Claire in the office at 2.25pm. Nothing to get concerned about, Annie says Claire, having noticed a concerned look on her face. Maddie and I want to both personally thank you for your help and co-operation during the 10 days we were in Europe. Without your help we wouldn’t have been able to have our honeymoon. Always happy to help you guys, you are fantastic to work for replied Annie. As Claire said, Annie, we couldn’t have done it without your help so please accept this gift from us both I say, and Claire hands her the envelope. I continued You may now have an opportunity to take your Daughter to Disney Paris. Annie’s eyes just popped wide open and she opened the envelope and spluttered Oh my God! You guys are too generous and I couldn’t possibly accept so much. No arguments says Claire, you’ve earned it, so off with you, enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you on Monday. With tears welling in her eyes she got up and headed straight for the back door. She’s a lovely person, Claire I like Annie.  Me too, and since Rosie finishes in about 15 minutes how about I see her by myself while you and Debs manage the kitchen. We can both then talk to Julie and Jacqui together when they finish at 3.30 Good idea, come and get me at 3.25pm Honey, and I’ll send Rosie in to see you now I say, as I head back to the kitchen. Rosie was with Claire for over 20 minutes, and when she came back into the kitchen she walked over and gave me a big hug. You two are the most amazing and generous people I know and I tried to argue with Claire about not taking anything else from you, having spent all that money on me and Doreen in Paris, but she was insistent. Thank you both once again and I think I’ll take Mum to Vienna just before Christmas to see the lights and do some shopping. That will be fantastic and I’m sure she will enjoy it, now time to go home, see you on Monday, Rosie. No sooner had Rosie left, than Claire pops her head round the door, Time to see Jacquie and Julie, and can you manage on your own for 10 minutes, Debbie? Sure thing, Claire, just some dishes to dry" replies Debs, so Claire and I head off to the office.

Julie was the first to speak. There seems to be a procession of staff through here this afternoon ladies, is there anything wrong? she asks. Just the opposite I say Claire and I just want to personally thank you all, individually, for putting in those extra hours to ensure we had an unforgettable honeymoon. We know how busy the café was while we were away so we are doubly grateful to you all. Claire then stood up and walked over to them both and says Julie, Jacquie, on behalf of Madeleine and myself we would like you to have this, to spend as you please, take your family on holiday, spend it on yourself or any other way you deem fit. They both looked at each other and then decided to open the envelopes at the same time. They both looked equally as startled as the other and tears just stared rolling down their cheeks. Composing herself, Julie says Claire and Madeleine I couldn’t wish for better bosses, I knew Rosie was going to be a hard act to follow, but you guys are fantastic, and a pleasure to work for, thank you so very, very much for your generosity. A big ditto from me says Jacqui we did what we did because you are fantastic bosses and we wouldn’t hesitate to do it again if you need to have a holiday. Off you go Jacqui, see you tomorrow, and we’ll see you on Monday Julie, enjoy your weekend. Says Claire.

Finally, closing time came around and as soon as Sally had locked up she gives us a cheery wave as she heads for the back door. See you both tomorrow she says. Could you just stay behind for a few minutes, please Sally? I say. We won’t hold you up too long. Not a problem she replies and sits down at one of the tables, and Claire says, Sally, we both want to thank you for running things while we were away, we know you all were very busy most days but your leadership ensured that everything went smoothly. So, please accept this bonus as our way of saying a very personal thank you. I don’t need any thanks guys, I did exactly what you hired me to do, and I enjoyed the experience, certainly a lot more hectic than when I deputised for Glenda. I joined in, Our decision is not open to negotiation, so take your Mother off for a long weekend in Europe somewhere, or treat yourself to something special. Meantime off you go and we’ll see you in the morning. I know when I’m beaten, she smile, and once again I’m telling you this is not necessary, but thank you very much for your generosity. Finally, Claire and I are alone. If you fancy a salad tonight Claire, there is enough pork left over for two, and plenty of salad stuff, and we have some potatoes in the flat. That will be fine, Maddie, easy to prepare and saves you having to slave over a hot stove says Claire. "And here I was, thinking I was saving you from having to cook dinner tonight. I’ll grab the stuff and we can head upstairs" I say.

Once in the flat I set too and put some new potatoes on the cook top, and while they are cooking I prepare the salad. Anything I can do? asks Claire, sure honey, how about pouring us a wine? I then look up and see Claire is wearing only a bra and panties. And how am I meant to concentrate of this salad? I ask. Well, actually you’re not replies Claire, you are meant to let me finish while you go and slip out of your uniform, and a cool glass of wine will be poured by the time you return. I certainly didn’t need telling twice so I downed tools and headed for the bedroom, giving Claire’s bum a cheeky pat as I went past, saying this evening could develop into fun times. I’ve no idea what gives you that impression, I was thinking of blobbing in front of the TV laughed Claire. The salad was very nice and while I cleared the table, Claire filled our wine glasses and sat on the sofa, switched on the TV and asks Do you want to watch a movie or see what’s on Netflix, Maddie? I thought you were joking before about blobbing in front of the TV, as I would have slipped on a dress instead of wearing my bra and knickers only I reply