Simmer Down

around with which to maintain highlights and dye jobs, okay? And I can guarantee you that Isabelle isn’t in a position to buy high-priced shampoo! The point of being here is to make her feel good about herself, not make her feel inadequate, okay?”
    I knew from talking with Kayla the other week that Isabelle had been kicked out of her house at sixteen and hadn’t had a permanent place to live since then. She’d bounced around, staying with friends and living on the streets for years, until her room at Moving On had become available. Kayla had said that she had no idea how someone as shy and withdrawn as Isabelle had toughed it out on her own for so long.
    For once, Adrianna had the sense to look sheepish. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ll take care of her.”
    Thirty minutes later, Isabelle’s hair had been washed and conditioned in peppermint-scented products, and Adrianna was finishing a chin-length cut with chunky layers that would help her curls fall softly.
    I scooted my chair close to Isabelle, who looked near panic as strands of her hair continued to fall to the floor. “So, Kayla told me you have an interview tomorrow morning? What’s the job?” I asked.
    “Well, um, it’s in Westwood, at a medical building. They need someone to do some office stuff, I guess. You know, filing and making copies, I think.”
    “Westwood? That’s quite a hike from here.” How this girl was going to get from Cambridge to Westwood on public transportation five days a week was beyond me. That was at least a forty-five-minute drive by car, barring traffic jams.
    “Well, I worked out a route. If I get the job, I’d have to be there at nine, so I think if I leave here by five thirty, I should be okay. ”
    “What?” Adrianna stopped her styling. “Five thirty in the morning? You wouldn’t even get back here until late at night! Are you kidding me?”
    Isabelle clasped her nervous hands in her lap. “I’m not really qualified for a lot of jobs ’cause I never finished high school. I’m trying to get my GED, though. Kayla is helping me and a couple of the other girls here with that when she has the time. I’ve had a few other interviews closer to home, but I don’t have much work experience, so no one will hire me.”
    “No, no. Chloe, do something,” Adrianna instructed me. “We can’t send her off with this great new hair to spend her entire day commuting to frickin’ Westwood!”
    “Oh, uh, okay. Let’s see.” I glared at Ade. I wasn’t exactly a headhunter. “You’re looking for office work? Or is there something else you might like?”
    “It might sound silly, but I’ve always wanted to work in a bakery. I love the way it smells—sort of homey and safe. I never really had that when I was growing up, but I used to go into this bakery near my house when I was a kid, and the owner would give me a cinnamon roll every afternoon on the way home from school. She’d let me hang out there for a couple of hours if I needed to when my parents...” She broke off for a moment. “It seemed like a nice place to be.” Adrianna smiled at me. “I bet Chloe could help you out with this.”
    “Let me make a phone call. I might have something better for you, Isabelle.” I pulled my cell phone out of my purse. “I’ll be right back.”
    I dialed Josh’s number, and he picked up quickly, sounding significantly more harried than he had when I’d left Simmer.
    “Hey, Josh. Sorry to bother you. What’s going on there? You sound busy.”
    “Oh, Christ. It’s havoc here,” he groaned. “I’ve got a big staff meeting so we can prep the front and the back of the house and try to make this opening go as smooth as possible. And I forgot I have to go out later to take care of some other stuff.”
    That stuff better not have to do with Hannah.
    Josh continued. “Just becoming one of those days, you know? What’s up with you? How’s it going with you and Adrianna?”
    I ignored the possibility that Josh might be seeing Hannah later. Well, I ignored it for now. “Good. Only I’m wondering if you can help me with something.”
    I begged Josh to find some way to hire Isabelle to do something in the kitchen. Anything! Simmer wasn’t a bakery, of course, and the hours would be horrible, but the commute would be easy. Mainly, I thought that what Isabelle needed was a work setting with a family feeling. Restaurant kitchens were hot and demanding and sometimes chaotic, but Josh