My Darling Husband(21)

Juanita: Sounds like building your business was a team effort.

Cam: Since day one. I mean, any decent chef can toss some meat on a grill, but Jade is the reason I went from one shop to five in the span of as many years, why I became known as Atlanta’s Steak King. I owe every bit of my success to her. And on the flip side, everything I did was for her, to make her proud.

Juanita: And yet, according to your former general manager, Flavio Garcia, you have no plans to continue after the fire at Bolling Way. You will not be reopening there or anywhere else in the city.

Cam: Lasky steak houses are a thing of the past. I guess you could say I’m relinquishing my crown.

Juanita: Atlanta’s foodies will be sad to hear it.

Cam: They’ll survive. There are plenty of other places in town that’ll charge them a hundred bucks for some meat and potatoes.

Juanita: I don’t understand. How does shutting down honor all the work Jade did to build you up?

Cam: How does anything I’ve done to build my brand honor her? When I got into this business, it wasn’t because I loved cooking. It was because I loved watching people respond to the food I cooked for them. Seeing their eyes roll up into their head at the first bite of the perfect truffled potato. How I could create this...cocoon of good wine and good food, where they’d sit for hours and not notice the dining room had cleared out. That was why I became a chef, to make people feel that way.

Juanita: Why?

Cam: Why what?

Juanita: Why did you love eliciting those kinds of reactions to your food?

Cam: [laughs] You really get to the heart of it, don’t you? But okay... [long pause] I liked it because it was the only time I saw my father be kind to my mother, when she cooked him a good meal.

Juanita: That sounds...

Cam: Tragic? It was. It is. And somewhere along the way, my reasoning got lost, or maybe it ended the way it was supposed to, the same way my parents’ marriage ended—in disaster. Because holding up the Lasky brand, running that machine day after day, sucked every bit of joy out of something that, once upon a time, I thought was my destiny.

Juanita: Your former employees would agree. Accusations of mistreatment, claims of wage garnishment, improper management practices, firing staff for no reason other than you, and I quote, “didn’t like the look of their stupid face.” All in all, it sounds like working at Lasky Steak was pretty joyless.

Cam: For them, and for me. Honestly, shutting down was something I should have done ages ago.

Juanita: So why didn’t you?

Cam: Because like me or not, all those people depended on me for a job. They depended on me for a paycheck and health care. My mother depended on me. Jade and the kids depended on me. I’m the one who put a roof over everybody’s heads and food on everybody’s table.

Juanita: And not just any roof. Your roof covers six thousand square feet in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Buckhead.

Cam: Do you want it? Because I hear the bank’s still looking for a buyer.

Juanita: I can’t afford it, which is exactly my point. The asking price is well into the seven figures.

Cam: I’m sure they’ll work with you on the price. There hasn’t exactly been a run on the place after what happened upstairs. Nobody wants to live there. I certainly don’t.

Juanita: But what happens to your employees? With five locations, the number must have been well into the hundreds. That’s a lot of waitstaff and dishwashers and bartenders out of work.

Cam: They’re the best in the business, they’ll find another job. Most of them probably already have.

Juanita: That sounds a bit harsh.

Cam: Does it? I’m only saying it because it’s true. My staff were trained to serve the most demanding clientele, and any chef in town would be lucky to have them. And look, did I make mistakes? Absolutely. Are there things I wish I could go back and do differently? Hell, yes. But do you have any idea how hard it is to run a restaurant, much less a chain of them? I did what I had to to survive.

Juanita: Did you garnish their wages?

Cam: [smiling] Let me guess, we’re talking about George. For the record, I didn’t garnish, I subtracted the costs of the damages he inflicted during one of his infamous tantrums. Ask any of my former employees. George is known for his temper, and the last night he was with us he destroyed my kitchen. There were plenty of witnesses.

Juanita: Okay, but what led up to him breaking those things? And what do you say to the other complaints, the ones of improper firings and questionable business practices?

Cam: I’d say I made a ton of mistakes. I’d say I got carried away by the glitz and the fame, by the television appearances and fancy parties and people eating at a Lasky steak house just so they could get a picture with me. What’s that old saying? The higher your star, the farther it is to fall. That’s not an excuse, but I hope it’s an explanation, at least.

Juanita: How many lawsuits are you dealing with right now?

Cam: Enough.

Juanita: How many, Mr. Lasky?

Cam: Three. The fourth we settled last week.

Juanita: So when you received the call from Jade that someone was in your home, holding your family for ransom, did you suspect any of your former employees and business partners?

Cam: I suspected all of them.



J A D E


3:52 p.m.


The asshole separated us.