Gabe turned to me, pretending to be outraged. ‘So much for allies.’
‘Everyone for themselves on birthday night.’
‘And what do we serve?’ Gabe asked.
‘The other dining rooms get a …’ I paused, trying to think of the perfect way to phrase it. ‘Knock-off birthday-night dinner.’
‘But they do get the snapper soup!’ Morgan added.
Just thinking about it gave me shivers. ‘Yes. They do get the snapper soup.’ Snapper soup – a southeastern Pennsylvania delicacy – is absolutely disgusting. It’s thick, chunky and stringy all at once. And made with real turtle meat. I always get sad seeing those shells being discarded when Dante strains them from the stock.
Morgan added, ‘It sucks for you guys in the regular dining rooms because Natalie is hounding the soup chafer to make sure none of you are sneaking nips of the sherry that’s floated on top.’
Ava pointed to the cake. ‘And instead of this cake, there’s chocolate and vanilla sheet cake in the dessert fridge.’
‘It’s arguably a better cake,’ Morgan said.
‘It’s bettercake,’ Ava said. ‘But this one has better frosting.’
Gabe sighed with disappointment. ‘So what are we serving for the entrée?’
‘Monkfish,’ I said. I turned to Ava, pretending to think. ‘And … the second entrée option is … is it beef?’
Ava smiled and nodded, going right back into her Kristen Wiig impression and not taking her eyes away from Gabe. ‘Itcouldbe beef.’
The PDR doors opened again; this time it was Natalie. She gave us a polite look as she gazed over the tables, probably looking for something to fault us on. But it didn’t matter because one, there was nothing to fault us on. And two, the PDR during birthday night was George’s domain.
Probably figuring that out, she just kept her eyebrows raised and her fake grin plastered on. ‘Gabe, Morgan, lineup is about to start.’ Morgan and Gabe left, and I followed Natalie out.
‘Excuse me, Natalie.’ She stopped in front of the time clock and spun on her heels. ‘Sorry, I just wanted to check if our deal was still on. I haven’t had any big requests come up from the residents.’ I mean, there had been a bunch of big requests – the September sherbet situation, Mrs McMenamin asking for wasabi aioli for her tuna steak, Mr Wynne sending back three cuts of prime rib because they were ‘undercooked’ – but the fact that Natalie hadn’t admitted to any of them meant they probably weren’t hers. She liked to take credit for her torture. But if there was even a chance one of them was, maybe she’d be impressed that I thought they weren’t difficult.
‘Of course!’ Her voice was saccharine. ‘Just making sure you’re always on your toes!’
I turned up the charm and gave her a polite nod. ‘Thank you very much. I appreciate you.’
‘And I you!’ She spun on her heels again and headed down the hall.
Early decision was clearly out if she wasn’t going to write me a letter before January. Not that it had ever really been in. That all worked for Ava, but I still hadn’t finished my essay. Early decision was too much pressure. When you applied for early decision at La Mère, you also had to choose the campus. And I still hadn’t decided which campus I wanted to go to – which, yes, despite what I said to Ava and Morgan, might have been a newer development because the universe brought Gabe back into my life, and his number one school was USC. If the universe had put us together again, after so much time, maybe it was for a good reason. Could all this mean we were supposed to be more than friends with complications?
I’d need to know sooner rather than later if there really could be more between me and Gabe. If he were to, say, help me with my video, it would be a nice, non-homewrecky way we could spend more time together. Besides, if Natalie was going to use the letter of recommendation as a way to get me to fall in line, I needed to figure out a backup plan. I had to take charge and not just rely on her or her connections.
But step one to getting all that together was getting Gabe on board.
Birthday night – as long as you’re working in the PDR – is amazing. Everyone comes in all at once. We double-check that no one has any shellfish or nut allergies, then put specialty breads – croissants, a cranberry walnut bread and fresh sourdough – on the tables and give everyone Aqua Panna, so there’s no need to refill water pitchers. After that, Ava and I split the room down the middle and start taking orders. Basically, it’s just making sure that everyone is okay with the surf and turf and that there are no special requests – remember, rule number one: never tell a resident no.
Then it’s grabbing the Caesar salads and snapper soups and waiting until Roni has the entrées ready.
Most of the time we sit in the hallway next to the time clock, talking and relaxing, with the occasional quick spin around the room to check on water and ask if anyone needs anything else.
After Gabe and Morgan left for lineup, George came in to do a quick glance over the tables before he opened the private dining room doors, smiling jovially. George was always in charge of birthday night – I think Natalie was jealous – so he always made sure his favorites were working it with him. And, yes, Ava and I were probably his favorite favorites.
‘Looking great, gang,’ he said, moving one fork slightly to the left. ‘All set?’
‘All set,’ I said. Ava gave a thumbs-up and an enthusiastic smile.
George opened the doors, and the line of residents began to drift in to find their seats. The place cards were massive and written in dark Sharpie, but that didn’t stop them from picking up each one, glancing at it and then putting it facedown before continuing to the next.
If we let them do that to every setting, we wouldn’t serve dinner till nine, so George began telling them where their seats were while Ava and I helped the residents we knew by name.
