"Are we getting fired?" Katya was the one to ask.
It was the first thing she said when Caspian stepped into the living room their conversation was to happen in.
"What? No," Caspian said hastily, "What made you think that?"
"Well, you called us out here for a special conversation," Roy pointed out, his voice much quieter than Katya’s confident tone.
"To tell you all about the new developments," Caspian sat on an empty sofa.
The three chefs squashed themselves into a single one so there was plenty of them, empty sofas, that was.
"That involves us getting fired?" Scott joined the conversation.
Caspian had to gesture with his hands at this point, "Okay, no one is getting fired."
"Then why..." Katya started to ask.
"If you would just let me get a word in," He cut her off, a little frustrated.
"Sorry," Katya deflated, all her confidence disappearing. "It’s just... Scott said we might be getting fired so I got a bit nervous."
Caspian shot the chef in question a look, "I said nothing of the sort, or did I, Scott?"
"No," He mumbled, just as shaken up as the others.
And Caspian had to wonder just exactly what they saw him as.
"I wanted the kitchen to feed the men at the mansion, that’s what I wanted to talk to you three about..."
"I already discussed this with Asher and Jael," He held up a finger to stop them from speaking so he could add that important tidbit.
He didn’t need to though because the chefs were excited about the suggestion.
"We really can?" Scott sought reassurance.
And for someone who had worked at the mansion the longest, Caspian couldn’t help but feel like he was too fidgety and unsure about a lot of things.
"Absolutely." He replied confidently, "I’m going to make sure of it."
Getting the chefs to agree was just as easy as his discussion with Asher and Jael had gone, so Caspian was in high spirits as they headed to the kitchen.
"We usually don’t stock up on a lot of foodstuffs because we mostly use very little, and I like them to be as fresh as possible..."
Katya explained to him as she led him to the storage which had an even bigger freezer than the one in the industrial sized kitchen.
Caspian couldn’t help but think that the kitchen was outfitted to cook for a lot of people, he wondered if that used to happen before...
As he thought that, he realized that he knew little about Asher. He had literally only met the Alpha’s dad once.
Maybe he could try reaching out to Gage to ask some questions, the previous Mafia King had a really strained relationship with his only son, but Caspian had gotten to see for himself that the older Alpha meant well.
And if that didn’t work out, he could try doing some research himself, or he could just outright ask Asher.
"So, we will have to do some shopping before we can even make a simple meal for the entirety of the mansion."
Caspian listened intently, making mental notes and wishing he had carried a notepad with him.
Or maybe he could request a digital pad, that would make syncing with his laptop much easier.
"Any idea how many the men at the mansion are?" He asked Katya.
"It varies," She said after thinking for a moment. "There’s usually no more than twenty men guarding the mansion, but a lot of men come and go at various moments."
"And there’s also the house staff and the kitchen staff."
Caspian’s brows furrowed at that, "It might be better to start it off with a simple meal so we can easily handle the leftovers if there’s so many of it."
Katya beamed at his words, "That’s a wonderful idea! Sandwiches are the way to go." She suggested immediately.
"It’s something that can be immediately made on the go so we can always quickly make more if we need to, curbing a possible catastrophe."
"We need to go shopping for that though," Caspian frowned, studying the mostly empty but sparkling clean storage room.
Katya got a bit cautious here, "Jael usually handles the mansion’s expenses."
"Then, I’ll just have to speak to him." He decided, stepping out of the storage and kitchen to make a call.
A quick call to Jael let him know that the Beta barely did any of the work, the chef and maids just came to him to handle the expense of whatever they needed, and he just handed them the money.
"If it’s just the money, then there’s no problem." He said to the chefs when he returned to the kitchen.
"We need to create a list so we can go on a quick shopping for lunch," He tagged on, looking around the busy kitchen for a place to put his laptop down.
"Need something?" Scott immediately picked up on his search.
"I wanted to record the list on my laptop before we head out, but the counter surfaces are not exactly ideal for electronic appliances."
"Oh, there is a study attached to the kitchen," Roy jabbed a finger at a door off to the side.
The chef hadn’t been lying about it, it was clean and cozy, and it made him wonder if it used to be a leisure room for the kitchen staff.
But regardless, it was the perfect place to have discussions away from the bustle of the kitchen. Besides there were empty rooms around the kitchen which were open to staff use.
The study would have been too small a space for all of the kitchen staff anyway so it couldn’t be more perfect.
The quick morning shopping would be just to get the sandwich ingredients, and after getting a rough estimate of how many people they would be feeding, they would do a proper shopping in the afternoon, for dinner.
"Katya and I will handle shopping," Caspian decided after they all worked together to come up with the perfect shopping list.
"Why don’t you two prepare the kitchen staff for their new duties and get the storage room ready for the influx of new foodstuffs."