"That's a good start," Ronda said when she and Brie walked into the restaurant, with the camerawoman dutifully following along behind as ever.
"You mean Nikki?" Brie asked quietly.
"Yeah," Ronda said, looking at the woman in question as she went about setting a table. "It's the first time I've seen her without her tits on display. You actually managed to get her to wear one of the waitress uniforms."
"Give her a break, Ronda," Brie pleaded. "I know she seems like she's hard work. No, she is hard work, or, she has been. But since you left yesterday she's really shown a willingness to work. She's been at it just as hard as everyone else. All she wants is a chance to prove herself."
"By my count this is her third chance," Ronda said. "But you made it perfectly clear that you want her to work here, so we'll see how she gets on."
Nikki looked over, unsure if Ronda and Brie were just talking, or actually wanted to be seated at a table.
That understandable confusion was something Ronda could forgive. "Nikki, come here," she instructed.
"Hi, Ronda," Nikki said nervously as she approached, wondering what she might have done wrong this time.
"We're here to experience the restaurant as regular customers," Ronda announced. "So what I want you to do is treat us as exactly that. Seat us, take our order, and don't tell anyone in the kitchen that it's us they're cooking for. Got it?"
"Got it," Nikki confirmed. "Uh, do you want me to start now?"
"We'd like a table for two, please," Brie helped out.
"No problem," Nikki said, making the transition to waitress serving a customer. "Follow me, please." She lead the way over to one of the tables she had already set. There were four other tables occupied by customers. It was a pretty dismal turnout for a lunch service, but it was a lot better than it had been a couple of days before.
Nikki stopped next to a table meant for four and asked, "Is this one okay for you?"
"This is fine," Ronda said, taking one of the seats.
"Here are your menus," Nikki said, handing them over as Brie sat down opposite the hotel inspector. "I'll be back soon to take your order."
"Thank you," Brie said, finding it strange to try and talk to her sister like she was a stranger.
After Nikki went back to work setting the tables, Ronda said, "Not an amazing turnout, but these things take time to build. Hopefully the food will be good now and a good reputation can start to spread. Our researchers have managed to get us a full house for dinner service again tonight."
"That sounds great," Brie said. "I can't tell you how much Daniel and I appreciate everything you're doing for us."
"Speaking of, where is he?" Ronda asked, looking around the restaurant and seeing no other staff members.
"I'm not sure," Brie admitted. "He and Nikki are the ones who are working lunch today. Melina and the girls are back tonight."
Deciding to ask Nikki about Daniel's absence when she came to take their order, Ronda directed her attention to the menu for a moment. Remembering back to the first lunch she had tried at Brianna's, she decided to order the same things again. It was the easiest way to test how much the quality of the food had improved.
"Are you ready to order?" Nikki asked politely, approaching the table with her pad at the ready.
"We are," Ronda said. Both women ordered drinks, then Ronda asked, "What is the soup of the day?"
"Today we have spiced carrot soup," Nikki said.
"Sounds nice," Ronda said. "I'll get that, followed by the lasagna, then the New York Strip, medium rare."
"No problem," Nikki said, quickly writing down the order. "And for you?" she asked Brie, still finding it strange having to pretend that she wasn't talking to her twin sister.
"I think I'll just get the potato wedges, followed by the chicken burger, please."
"Potato wedges and a chicken burger, you got it," Nikki said. "Can I get you any sides?"
"No, thank you," Ronda said.
"Okay, thanks guys," Nikki smiled before she left to process the order.
"She's actually not too bad at serving, given that she has no experience," Ronda said, giving Brie a reassuring smile. "Maybe we've found a place for her after all."
They chatted away for a few minutes while they waited for their appetisers to arrive. An elderly couple stood to leave a nearby table, having finished their meal. Ronda quickly jumped at the opportunity to get some feedback for Brie. "Excuse me?" she called out. "Do you mind if I ask how you found the food today?"
The old woman seemed to relish to opportunity to talk to someone and immediately walked over to Brie and Ronda's table. "We've eaten here before, and the food wasn't that nice. We said we weren't going to come back, but a friend of mine was here yesterday and she said she liked it. We decided to give them another try ourselves, and yeah, that was a very nice lunch, wasn't it, Ken?"
"It was," her husband confirmed. "I had a burger. It was cooked perfectly. I think I'm going to have to come back next week and try another one; maybe see if I can work my way through all of the burgers on the menu."
"Thanks, guys," Ronda said. "Have a nice day."
"You too," the old woman said, leading her husband away.
"They really liked it," Brie said, not trying to disguise the fact that she was beaming in delight.
"They did," Ronda said. "And now they'll go to bingo or whatever they do with their spare time and tell all of their friends about it. Next thing you know, you'll have all the old people in here at lunch time, with a bit of luck."
"Maybe we could start offering a bit of a discount for the elderly?" Brie pondered.
"Not a bad idea," Ronda said thoughtfully. "Don't rush into that, though. See how many of them start coming. If you have the place full of them paying full price, why offer them a discount? If you see it starting to catch on but not going wild, then you can offer a discount in the hope of pulling in some more."
"Yes, that makes sense," Brie said. "I'll have to talk to Daniel about it." She regretted saying his name as soon as she had done so, knowing that it would remind Ronda that he still had not put an appearance in since they had sat down.
Sure enough, Ronda said, "Where is he anyway? If I find out he's sitting in that fucking office again..." As soon as she made the implied threat, the kitchen door opened and Daniel walked out carrying a bowl on a saucer. "Ah, so he is working," Ronda said quietly so that he would not hear her.
"Uh, hi," Daniel said as he approached their table. "Is this order for you guys?"
"It sure is," Ronda replied before Brie could get a word in. "We're here to sample the restaurant as customers - something Brie tells me you've never done. I want you to make sure you don't tell the chefs that we're eating out here. Understood?"
"Okay," Daniel agreed. "So, uh, who ordered the soup?"
"That's mine," Ronda said. As Daniel set the bowl in front of her, she asked, "How are you finding your new role as restaurant manager? I couldn't help noticing there was quite a long time Nikki was out here by herself after we walked in."
"I was helping out in the kitchen," Daniel said. "Bayley isn't in this morning."
"What were you doing?" Ronda asked, sensing nervousness from him. He expected her to give him grief, which meant there was likely a reason for her to do so.
"Helping out, like I said," Daniel evaded as best he could.
"Doing what?" Ronda said, a sterner edge to her tone.
"I was washing dishes," Daniel admitted.
Ronda rolled her eyes. "For fuck's sake, Daniel, you're the restaurant manager. You don't wash dishes. Besides, first of all, it's not busy out here. Sasha or Hunter should easily have time to wash dishes. And second, if they do need a hand with something like that, you assign one of your waitresses to it. You should be out here at all times."
"I know," Daniel said timidly.
"Do you think you're going to see Melina in there washing dishes tonight?" Ronda pressed on. "No. Because tonight this is her restaurant to supervise. Right now it's yours. Brie told me you're thinking of not replacing Stephanie as Head Waitress; that you want to take on the responsibility yourself as restaurant manager. If you want to do that, you need to get your head in the game, and fast."
Getting a hard time from Ronda every time they spoke was starting to wear thin for Daniel. Rather than start an argument in front of customers, he said, "You should eat your soup before it goes cold."
As he walked away, Ronda saw that Brie looked very downcast on the other side of the table. "You do know I'm trying to help him?" the hotel inspector asked as she made a start on her soup.
"You're always so hard on him," Brie complained. "He's doing his best, and you lay into him for everything he does."
"I'm not her to kiss his ass, or yours for that matter," Ronda explained calmly. "I didn't ask to come here; you applied to be on the show because you needed my help. The help you need the most is for your husband to get his head out of his ass and start acting like he's the manager, not the pot washer. You've done a great job upstairs by taking charge of the housekeeping, and you can see the results in the improved condition of the rooms. But down here? You tell me, would you feel confident in handling a full service tonight if Melina wasn't here to supervise?"
"No," Brie mumbled, sounding ashamed to admit it.
"No," Ronda agreed. "But here's the good news. The reason I'm constantly on Daniel's back and Melina will be too is that we're going to get Daniel to be the manager you need. By the time Melina leaves and comes back to work for me, you will thank us both for giving him a hard time, and so will he. I promise you that."
Brie knew she should trust the hotel inspector, but it was a lot easier said than done when it was her own husband who was having such a tough time. Deciding to say nothing more, she watched Ronda eating her soup for a minute or two. "How is it?" she eventually asked.
"It's good," Ronda said, pleasantness returning to her voice. "I don't know if Hunter or Sasha made this, but whoever did makes good soup. How did Sasha get on last night at dinner? Other than the teething problems with Hunter that you already mentioned, I mean."
"By all accounts, she's a talented chef," Brie said. "Hunter said she was rushing things a bit, probably trying to impress on her first day, but yeah, he said she has talent. With those two and Bayley in there, I think we're set as far as chefs are concerned."
"I think we should wait until we've finished our meals before we decide that," Ronda said.
"I'm being totally honest when I say I really enjoyed that," Brie said, leaning back in her chair after polishing off the last of her burger.
"It was a nice meal," Ronda was happy to say. "I can't tell you how much the food here has changed since the last time I tried it just two days ago. Back then it was disgusting muck with no effort, care or attention put into it. I wouldn't have fed it to my dog. But today was totally the opposite. Hunter really can cook when he tries. The service was good, too. Overall, a positive experience if we really were customers."
"It's great to hear you say that," Brie said proudly.
"As with all of the other areas of this business, what was lacking was hard work and discipline," Ronda went on without paying attention to what Brie had said. "I don't doubt that you and Daniel can make a success of this place after I leave, but if you're going to do it, it's the two of you that have to drive it forward. I know it seems like I'm labouring the point, but if you manage your staff correctly, being firm but fair, you have a lot of potential here. But if you don't, you'll be out of business within months. You're at a real crossroads here, Brie. I've seen what you can do with how well you have the housekeeping staff working upstairs. You set the standard with those members of staff, and I've set the standard down here in the kitchen. Now you need to keep them there, yes?"
"I understand," Brie said with determination. "I don't think you're labouring the point. I think you're trying to drill it into my head, and you're trying to get through to Daniel. We both appreciate it, even though it might not seem like it sometimes. It's hard to come to the realisation that you're the reason your own business is failing." Her voice broke as she said the final few words and she had to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye.
"Don't cry," Ronda said gently. "I understand what you're saying, but focus on the positives. We're going to get on top of it before it's too late, and Brianna's is going to stay open, right?"
"Right," Brie croaked, wiping another tear away. "Should we go and tell the chefs they did a good job?"
Ronda shook her head. "No. We'll wait and see how they handle a full service tonight before we do that. What I do want you to do is go and fetch Daniel from the kitchen. I've got a surprise waiting for you both outside."
"A surprise?" Brie asked warily.
Ronda laughed at her reaction and clarified, "It's a nice surprise. Go and fetch Daniel for me."
"Okay," Brie said. She got up and hurried off towards the kitchen, leaving the camera to focus on Ronda.
"This process has been hard on those two, which is hard for me," she said to the audience. "I don't like seeing nice people like them upset, but the truth of it is that I had to get it into their heads that they need to run the place properly. But my people will be out there right now with the new sign for Brianna's, so hopefully that puts a smile back on their faces when they see it. If it doesn't, then the full dining room tonight definitely should do. If they pass that test, I think my work here will be done."