"How much do you love me?" Amy asked and Ian let out a small laugh before kissing the tip of her nose.
"Very much," he smiled before standing up from the grass.
"Then why are you getting dressed?" She asked and Ian's glanced down at her.
"Public nudity is frowned upon," Ian slipped on his work shirt.
"We could always move to one of those communities where they're in the nude all the time." Amy stood up and stood in front of Ian.
"Now what's the fun in that?" Ian grabbed the side her face and kiss her lips. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned into him.
"I need to get to work," he pulled away a little and Amy shrugged before leaning back in. He kissed her for a moment more before pulling back completely.
"You're still up for picking Belle from daycare?" Ian asked as he picked up the picnic blanket from the golf course.
"Five o'clock on the dot. We'll be here at exactly five twenty." Amy nodded and Ian handed her the blanket and the picnic basket with a small smile.
"Call me if there are any issues," he instructed before placing one last kiss on her lips and making his way towards the club restaurant. The lunch rush should be ending soon and he has to help set up for dinner.
The second his foot hit the floor of the restaurant, someone was grabbing for his attention.
"You're needed by the pool, there was a drowning incident." Shelby instructed and Ian's eyes widened. "Everyone is okay but you still need to talk to the lifeguard on duty."
"Jesus, start off with that next time."
Shelby nodded before walking away and Ian ran his hands through his hair.
"Cortez needs to see you too, something about oil." Shelby called after him before disappearing to the next task. Making his way towards the back of the kitchen, Ian was stopped by the day hostess.
"Please talk to Mr. Bernard, this is the third time he's made an inappropriate comment towards me, if he does it again, I'm going to punch him in the face. I don't care if he's eighty." Lilly, one of the waitresses pointed at Ian and he let out a sigh.
"Again?" Ian asked and she nodded. This isn't the first first time that Lilly has complained about Mr. Bernard.
"You know what? If things lead to you having to punch that old pervert, go ahead, I'm on your side." Ian said and Lilly smiled.
Ian made his way to the kitchen where waiters and waitresses were running around. How a country club is this busy in the middle of the weekday is still a mystery to him.
"Cortez," Ian made his way towards the chef.
"I'm out of oil," Cortez maneuvered around Ian with a spatula and a bowl of caramel sauce in his hands. He drizzled chocolate sauce on the dessert that he was preparing before putting it on a server's tray.
"Order up!" He shouted and within seconds a waitress grabbed the tray.
"What do you mean?" Ian asked him as Cortez started up the grill. In the corner of the kitchen, one of the new hires was on his phone.
"Michael!" Ian shouted and the startled young man jumped at the sound of his name.
"Get your ass over here and work?" Ian ordered before facing Cortez.
"Why didn't you tell Shelby about this? She's the one that handles this type of situation." Ian's asked and Cortez flipped a burger. Ian grabbed the spatula from him and handed it to Michael.
"I find you on your phone again and you're fired, got it?" He asked and Michael nodded. Ian faced the head chef again.
"This is your kitchen, control it." Ian said and Cortez crosses his arms in front of his chest. He wanted to tell Ian off right here in front of his staff, to show him that that there's no one better that knows how to run his kitchen. But Cortez knew that it wouldn't get them anywhere. So, he led Ian towards the back office of the kitchen and closed the door behind him.
"The kitchen isn't the only thing that's a disaster. All of the staff is a mess. Someone almost drowned in the pool today because you didn't have enough lifeguards on duty. Two staff memebers were caught having sex on the course yesterday." Cortez explained and Ian stared at him in surprise.
"You're slipping, this is the same shit that happened before we almost got shut down last time." Cortez warned and Ian nodded. "I'm not going to stick around to watch history repeat itself."
Ian had been slacking a bit but he had not realized that he was slacking that bad.
"What do you suggest I do?" He asked.
"Communicate, you created a chain of command which is a great start. But we have to make sure people stick to it. The oil thing shouldn't have even reached me and it reached you. There's a problem." Cortez explained and Ian nodded.
"Alright," Ian nodded and the head chef smiled at him.
"You're not doing a shitty job," he reassured and Ian waved him off, not wanting his words of encouragements. "Just get a grip of things before it gets out of hand."
"Alright," Ian nodded and the two men left the small office.
With a new headache, Ian left the kitchen and the made his way to the pool house to take care of the drowning situation. As he walked across the parking lot, Avery was getting out of his car.
"Hi," she closed her car door and Ian frowned at her.
"Are you CPR certified?" He asked ignoring her greeting and Avery nodded.
"Come with me, I think I need you at the pool instead of the restaurant."
Avery didn't complain and she followed Ian towards the pool house. Ian pulled out his phone and he texted Shelby of the shift change.
"The pool closes at seven, do I go home then or do I go to the restaurant?" Avery asked and Ian pocketed his phone.
"Restaurant, I think," he nodded. "I will let you know later on." Ian opened the door to the pool house and allowed Avery to walk in.
The smell of chlorine hit their noses and they both inhaled the air. He led the two of the them to the lifeguard station and knocked on the shift manager's door and waited.
Mark Grimes opened the door with a frown and Ian pointed to Avery.
"Still short a lifeguard?" Ian amused and Mark nodded. Ian pointed to Avery before speaking.
"Not anymore, she works till closing." Ian instructed and mark clapped his hands together in exitment.
"Bless you," he smiled and Ian nodded.
"Don't be short a lifeguard again please. If you are, shut down the pool instead of having someone almost drown."
"Drown?" Avery asked.
"Almost," Ian corrected.
Mark nodded and Ian ran his hands through his hair. "Who was the lifeguard?"
Mark pointed to the stand and all three eyes turned to Nami.
"Of course," Avery nodded and Ian walked away. He waited for Nami to get off the stand before making his way towards her.
"Uh oh, am I in trouble?" Nami asked and the two of them took a seat on lounge chairs.
"No, I just need to talk about what happened today,"
"Oh," Nami relaxed. "It wasn't even a child who almost drowned. It was some day drunk teen who's out of school on a teacher work day. He's fine, drank some water, had to do some CPR. He's probably going to have a kicking hangover though." Nami explained and Ian let out a sigh through his nose.
"And you did the paperwork for police records and stuff?" He asked and Nami frowned.
"I told the peremedics what happened and I told Mark. Didn't know there was paperwork."
"Yeah, there's paperwork." Ian nodded and Nami almost pouted. However, a car revving made her perk up again.
"Did you hear that?" She asked and Ian frowned at her.
"What?"
"A Jaguar F-Type," Nami stood up and Ian followed.
"You know cars?" He asked and Nami almost laughed. Second to men, cars are the sexiest things on the planet to Nami Oh. The engine revved again and a shiver ran down her spine.
"That's my brothers car," Ian nodded for a second before standing up abruptly.
"That's my brothers car!" He repeated before making his way out of the spool house. Nami followed closely behind. As they were walking by the lifeguard stand, Avery came out in a one piece lifeguard bathing suit and Nami grabbed her arm.
"I'm gonna get to see one again!" Nami grinned and Avery frowned. "My dream car, I'm gonna see one again."
"I'm happy for you," Avery smiled at her friend before making her way towards the lifeguard stand. Ian and Nami made their way outside and they both gasped in surprise at the sight in front of them.
Elijah climbed out of the car and took his aviator sunglasses off and Nami gasped once again. This time, it was at the attractive man behind the sunglasses. Gathering herself, she looked away from him and at the other most attractive thing in the parking lot.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ian asked and Eli looked away from the curious young woman admiring his car.
"Is that a way to greet your future co-owner?" Eli smiled before pulling Ian into a hug.
"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you till later this afternoon." Ian smiled as he patted his brothers back.
"Left a little earlier than I planned to avoid traffic," he explained before turning to Nami, "Who's that?"
"One of my lifeguards," Ian explained. Elijah nodded before a small smile took his face.
"No," Ian scolded. He's seen that smile before. Every single time an attractive woman is in his vicinity, Elijah always has that smile on his face.
"Shh," Eli shook his head before going towards Nami.
"Pretty right?" Eli asked and Nami spun around to face him.
"Are you kidding?" She gasped before facing the jaguar again.
"This is a Jaguar F-Type 400 sport convertible, it has the capacity to launch from zero to one hundred kilometers per hour within seconds. That is not cute, that's fucking sexy." Nami's eyes lifted to Eli's excited ones. He's never known any female that has known the type and model of his car. Others just called it pretty.
"This is the car that I let slip right through my fingers." Nami ran her hands through her hair.
Elijah looked at her in curiosity and Nami walked around the car.
"First day back from freshman year at college it was sitting in my driveway, I cried tears of joy," Nami confessed to the two men. "Then I told my parents that I didn't want to be a surgeon and the next day a Sedan was in my baby's spot."
"Harsh," Eli said and Ian nodded in agreement.
"It was probably for the best, eighteen year old me was not very responsible." Nami shrugged. Though she would do almost anything for the car in front of her, she wouldn't change her major for it.
"Well, maybe I'll take you for a spin someday." Elijah stepped up. He saw an opportunity and he took it. This woman in front of her who's obsessed with his prized possession didn't stumble on his path randomly.
"Hmh, don't make promises you can't keep stranger, not when it comes to this car." Nami shook her head before tapping the hood of the car lightly.
Ian who was watching their interaction quietly, let out a quiet gasp when his brother did nothing as Nami's hand touched the car. No one touches Elijah's car without getting ripped a new one.
"I never break a promise," Eli smiled at Nami and she returned the favor. Ian rolled his eyes.
Holding her hand out to Eli, her smile widened. "I'm Nami,"
"Nami," Eli repeated before taking her hand in his. "Eli, nice to meet you."
"You too," she slowly removed her hand from his.
Ian was about to clear his throat to bring attention back to him but Shelby walking at the speed of light towards them made all three of them face her.
"Where's Avery?" She asked as she walked pass them and towards the pool house.
"She's taking a lifeguard shift because we're short, she'll join us at the restaurant later when we're busiest." Ian explained as he followed behind her and Nami and Eli followed.
"Have you checked the website today?" Shelby asked and Ian shook his head.
"Remember the provocative comment that I told you to take care of?" She asked before walking towards the stand.
"Well there are about ten more comments, a few of them have pictures." Shelby snapped.
"You can't talk to her while she's on the stand. She needs to focus on her job." Nami stepped forward but it was too late. Avery's attention was already brought to the group.
"There are two people in the pool, both of which are adults." Shelby explained. "Avery needs to come down here and fix this."
"Avery, step down," Shelby ordered and Avery followed.
"What's going on?" Avery asked.
"Are you still dating a Cameron Brings?" Shelby asked.
"No," Avery frowned. Why do they care about her love life?
"Good," Shelby nodded and everyone looked at her in shock. Taking out her phone, she opened it to the club's website and handed her phone to Avery.
"Oh my God," Avery muttered.
"What?" Nami, Ian and even Eli asked.
"Oh my God," Avery whispered as she scrolled down to the next comment. If the first one was enough to get her pulled aside by Ian, these are enough to get her fired.
"Let me see," Ian and Nami said and Shelby tuned to them with a hard glare.
"No,"
"Oh my God," Avery ran her hands through her hair as she looked at a picture of her from a long drunken night ago.
Noticing that she's had enough, Shelby took the phone from Avery's hand and slipped it into her pocket.
"People have seen those?" Avery asked and Shelby shrugged while the other three adults stared in frustration and confusion.
"I have temporarily shut down the website until you have them taken down. If not, I'll have to find someone to take them down and that means more people get to see those." Shelby explained and Avery's she's widened in horror.
"I'm so sorry," Avery shook her head at Shelby before looking up at Ian. "I'm so sorry,"
"I broke up with him and I refuse to talk to him, I guess this is his way of retaliation." Avery explained and Ian held his hand up to stop her.
"I didn't see anything so I don't know what you're talking about," Ian shook her head. "Just take the day and handle this. We'll see you tomorrow."
"You're short a lifeguard and I'm covering a shift for Finn." Avery ran her hands through her hair.
"We'll handle things from here, go and fix this, I need my website up and running again." Ian explained and Avery nodded before glancing at Nami.
"My keys are in locker number seven," she nodded and Avery mouthed a thank you before rushing away from the eyes fixated on her.