The interruption had been unwelcome, but that was the reality of life in the kitchen. We had no choice but to move on and keep working. Anything less would mean failure, and on a night like tonight, we couldn’t risk failure.
Which seemed like a good way to move on, until Nikolai walked back into the kitchen with a dish held in the air again, thunderously declaring: “Customer sentseconddirty plate back.”
Drake and I exchanged a glance. For once, it wasn’t a look of animosity or even gently flirtatious ribbing that passed between us. It was concern.
Luca hadn’t popped his head out this time.
I looked down at the plate. Another brown smear, this time closer to the food, on the inner part of the plate’s thick rim. I didn’t blame the customer for not wanting to eat it.
But…
“Same customer?” I asked.
Nikolai nodded tersely. He had a look on his face like we were all deliberately testing him, and I didn’t blame him, either. Dealing with customer complaints in the middle of a busy night like this was no waiter’s idea of fun.
I looked at Drake. “Didn’t you check them while you were plating up?”
He frowned deeply. “I always check,” he said. “That smear wasn’t there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he snapped. He met my eyes. “I know what you think of me. But no matter what you want to say about me, there’s one thing you can’t take away from me. I make pretty fucking food. I don’t let it go out on dirty plates.”
He had a point.
And despite the way I felt about him, despite the rivalry between us and the fact that this was exactly the kind of thing that would give me an advantage… I believed him.
“Watch the customer,” I told Nikolai. “Give him the new plate and ostentatiously point out how clean it is. Apologize and bow and scrape like your life depends on it, so he thinks you’re trying to show how sorry you are. But you’re really showing him that you know for a fact the new plate is clean.”
“You think that will stop him from complaining again?” Drake asked.
I shrugged. “I think it will stop the same plate bouncing back in here all night long. Nikolai, look at all the plates on the table before you leave, now that I think of it. I don’t want this customer contaminating anyone else’s food to get a free dish, either. I notice the steak’s been cut into on each one, and half the tomato side is gone.”
Nikolai nodded smartly. I could see he understood the customer grift as well as I did.
At the back of the kitchen, though, I watched Beau and Ainslie muttering together and cutting glances in Luca’s direction.
Even with a second complaint, there was no time to stop and think about it for long. In fact, it only made the rush worse: now there wasanotherextra steak meal to make, and everything had to be done before the dessert rush started. Drake and I barely spoke for the rest of service, our fingers rushing to spoon sauces, push cubes of vegetable into place, scatter garnish, and nudge every loose grain of rice back into place.
Until, finally, I looked up from the plate of cheesecake I had just finished garnishing and reached for the next – only to find that there was no next.
We were done.
I looked up and around the kitchen with a sigh. Ainslie, Beau, and even Drake all seemed just as exhausted as I felt. We had all worked very hard, and the reward was in the fact that there had only been those two single complaints. Every time the doors swung open to let Nikolai and Kit in, we’d been able to hear exactly how much the diners were enjoying their food.
But now it was done. The energy in the room seeped and sagged away as the adrenaline that had been carrying us all disappeared.
“Alright,” I said. “We might as well call it. Beau, Ainslie, you can go home. I can deal with any last orders or returned desserts that come in.”
I thought we were done – but, apparently, the evening had one more surprise in store for us.
Because that was when Grey burst through the doors, his face a twisted mask of fury.
Drake
I looked up in surprise at Grey’s appearance. If I’d thought him casual and unruffled earlier, this was a huge difference. His face was so plainly and coldly furious that I almost took an involuntary step back.
But even from the moment he stepped inside, it was very clear that I was not the target of his anger.
