She let out a huff. ‘I’m kidding. I paid him forty bucks. You need to calm down.’
‘But why are we here?’ We went into the darkened rear hallways, passing the laundry and staff bathrooms, and headed into the kitchen. Only one fluorescent light above us was on, casting the kitchen in shadows. Natalie’s office and the hallway leading to the PDR and Roni’s and George’s offices were dark, too.
‘Because your application to La Mère is due in nine days, and I know you haven’t finished your video yet.’
Grant placed the yellow case on one of the cleaned and sanitized metal countertops with a thud, and Morgan, Kevin and James started unloading the paper bags. The bags were filled with groceries. Milk, eggs, flour, sugar, heavy cream. They unloaded spices and extracts, bananas and strawberries, and cold brew and energy drinks. Morgan handed one of the energy drinks to Grant, who popped the tab and opened the yellow case.
Inside, nestled in a foam cutout, were a camera and microphone. ‘No way,’ I said. ‘Are you kidding me?’
They all looked at me.
‘We can’t break into Sunset Estates in the middle of the night –’
Kevin interrupted, ‘It’s nine thirty.’
‘– and record an entire video. Do you have any idea how long it takes to make croquembouche?’
‘Bahama, I don’t even know what a croquembouche is. I just bought whatever Morganza and Ava Maria told me.’
I glared at Ava, who held up her hands. ‘Don’t look at me; this was Kevin’s idea.’
Thatwas surprising. I looked at him, and he shrugged, giving me a grin. ‘I like breaking rules.’
I sighed. ‘Listen. Thank you all, I really appreciate it, but … you also forget I can’t really use my hand.’ I held up my bandaged hand.
‘We didn’t forget that,’ Morgan said. ‘Boys, hands out.’
Kevin and James put their hands out next to each other. Morgan reached for my good hand and held it next to theirs.
Grant looked at them, then pointed to Kevin. ‘His looks most like Tommy’s.’ Morgan let my hand go as James let out a sad-sounding ‘Aw man’. Grant took out the camera and mounted the mic to the top. ‘We do all the medium-wide shots of you explaining the steps you’re going to be doing, hiding your bad hand. Then on the closeup shots where you’d need that hand, we use Kevin’s as a body double. I’ll edit everything together so your voice-over continues to the close-up so it looks seamless.’
‘That’s cheating,’ I said. ‘I can’t just lie and say it’s me.’
Grant scrunched his nose at me. ‘It’s not lying, it’s movie magic.’
James put up jazz hands and whispered loudly, ‘Maaaagiiic!’
Morgan turned away from us and walked into the rear hallway toward the laundry room and loading dock.
‘We’ll help do everything,’ Ava said. ‘You just tell us the steps, and we’ll shoot enough footage to cut it all together. We’ll make your three-minute video better than anything the Babish Culinary Universe could pull off with one hand and in one night.’
She gave me an encouraging smile. I looked at the rest of them, my heart swelling with pride and excitement. I really loved these people. Before I could tell them, Morgan returned. She handed me a white chef’s coat – the Sunset Estates logo was blocked out by a piece of white tape.
‘Just tell us where we start, Tommy.’
First, the pastry. I turned and set the ovens behind me to 425 degrees. Morgan and Ava helped me into the chef’s coat, buttoning it for me while I thought. We’d need a large saucepan, and the mixer would have to be set up. My stomach turned with excitement. This was arealkitchen. The video was going to be so much better than I’d ever imagined.
I opened my mouth to tell James to set up the stand mixer, but another voice spoke.
A deep Jamaican accent.
And angry.
‘What the hell are y’all doing in my kitchen!’
I sat down in the chair across from Roni’s desk. She slammed the door behind me and moved around as if to sit in her chair, but instead she kicked the chair backward and braced her hands against the desk.
‘Do you have any idea how irresponsible this is?’ she asked. I did, but I also hadn’t known it was happening. Not that I was going to rat out the others. ‘What if something went wrong or there was a fire? What if you slipped and hurt your hand again? Do you have any idea of the repercussions that not only you but the kitchen staff could face?’
