Stepbrother Bad Boy's Baby Boxed Set(61)

It took me a minute to realize that Williamson was talking about Yuki, who in all the years we'd interacted together, I'd never heard anyone refer to her by her family name, although I should have known since Masaharu Morimoto signed the gift to her uncle with the same name. Still, it took me by surprise. "We'll check with her."

"Good. As to current business, for about the next month there isn't much on site for you two to do. I understand why Mr. Forrester asked you to come up however, as the weather turns cold very soon, and when the snows set in, it's not a pleasant time to travel. Also, from what I understand Miss Aksoy, you wish to create a menu that is based off of local products, correct?"

"Outside of a few standards such as hamburgers, a pasta dish, and other things, yes. I'd like at least half of the menu items to be seasonal and local."

I caught a hint of a smile from Williamson, and I think I went up a notch in his eyes. "Excellent. If so, you would probably want to spend as much time as you can over the next month exploring the Kennebunkport area. There are a lot of lobster boats in Maine of course, but there are other things as well. Do you have leads on suppliers?"

I shook my head. "I have some on vegetables, but since I wanted as much of our seafood to be straight off the boat as possible, I still need to meet the local fishermen."

"Okay. I suggest starting with the local chamber of commerce, and of course heading down to the docks themselves. There has to be at least four or five crusty old seadogs who can point you in the right direction. Now, as for you Mr. Castelbon, you have your own kettle of fish to fry."

"I do. First semester finals are next week, and I'm taking four courses."

"So I've been informed. Let me put it bluntly, Mr. Castelbon. I've worked for Forrester Hotels since I graduated the University of Ohio over forty years ago. In that time, I've worked with quite a few members of the program you are a member of. Each of them, regardless of whether under Mr. Dwayne Forrester or under his father's time as head of the company, came in with impeccable academic credentials, and a relatively clean history. Mr. Castelbon, you have neither. What you do have is a record that includes three felonies, numerous civil lawsuits, and a list of former girlfriends that reads like my grandson's copy of the Maxim 100. That, and the endorsement of Mr. Forrester himself. I will be a very strict, but a very fair taskmaster, Mr. Castelbon. Do not think I will not act with total professionalism towards you. On that same note, there will be no slack just because you are friends with Mr. Forrester. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly, Mr. Williamson. I'm not trying to skate by as a friend of Mr. Forrester. I'm here to make something of myself."

"So be it. On that note, I have agreed to Mr. Forrester's idea that there be a separate fitness facility for staff as well as the normal guest facilities. Apparently, you are quite the accomplished lifter?"

"I try my best. In a conversation with Mr. Forrester, we both agreed that since this resort will not have the same year-round good weather for outdoor fitness that many of the Forrester Hotels have, he wanted to ensure the staff is able to maintain a proper appearance. Also, it saves us a ton of money on the health care premiums I heard."

Williamson nodded. "So I've heard as well. Very well. Please get with Miss Watanabe, she can show you a map to both locations. The guest facility is not ready for equipment yet, but I believe the staff one can be outfitted, if you do not mind a utilitarian room. For both of you, I have the budgetary details of your divisions already sitting on your company e-mails, along with your company laptops. Miss Watanabe has both. One final word on that. I know, at least according to the breakdown of the chain of command here, you two and Miss Watanabe are equals. Let me inform you that you most certainly are not. She has direct working experience in a similar posting, and from the words I exchanged with your father, Mr. Castelbon, she's very good. As such, she is going to be my de facto second in command here. She will be responsible for much of the day to day operations while I teach all three of you how to run a resort. So unless you think it is something she cannot handle, I want you to go through her for many of the questions you think of bringing to me. Understand?"

"Of course, Mr. Williamson," Julian said tightly, and I could see the cords of tension in the back of his hands. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you Mr. Williamson," I said with as much decorum as I could muster as well. Julian and I got up and left the office, both of us staying silent until we were able to find Yuki's office which was down the hall.

"How'd it go?" she asked, trying not to smirk. Julian's response of growling and punching his hand into his fist I thought was a perfect answer for both of us. "That good, huh? Don't let him get to you. I called the last resort he worked at, checking up on him. He's like that to everyone until you earn his respect, then he's actually tolerable apparently."

"Great. So perhaps by the time I graduate and he retires we might have a reasonable working relationship," Julian said. "Whatever, I can deal with it. You and Krystal can keep my head straight, I know that. By the way, he said you had some laptops and stuff for us."

"Even better," Yuki replied. "You can thank Kimberly for these, but now the managers, instead of getting clunky laptops, are getting dual purpose computers. In your office or in your quarters, you can plug in the base and it works just like a normal laptop. But, you pop the screen out, and you have a tablet. Both of yours are setup, you just need to log your passwords into the system and you'll be walked through. It's a good system, your friend does good work Krystal."