Post by StoryGirl83 on Jun 30, 2009 0:21:01 GMT -5
Chapter Two – Managing
and customers.
About an hour and a half later, Chris was standing by the stove in The Manor’s kitchen, cooking. As predicted, the crew was rather young. New mother, Chelsea Michaels, was the only employee older than he was, and it was Chelsea’s first day back after maternity leave.
Emily Colson walked into the kitchen from the dining room looking annoyed. In a mocking falsetto voice she said, “You’d think she could remember that I get the same thing every time I am here.” Chris watched with interest as she changed her voice to an equally mocking deep voice and said, “Be patient. She’s so young, and you know youths these days.” In her normal she exclaimed, “Arrgg! I could just scream. I’ve never seen that woman before in my life and she assumes that I should know her order before she speaks. And it’s not even on the menu.”
“You all right?” Chris asked, amused.
Emily looked up as if seeing him for the first time. She heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Yeah. I’m fine.” She scowled. “Customers!”
Chris looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist. He shook it as if not sure the time was accurate and put it to his ear, as if listening for a tick to show that it was working. He dropped his wrist and looked at Emily, who was watching him, fascinated. “It sure didn’t take long for you to get jaded.”
“Tell you what,” Emily replied with a shrug. “I’ll cook and you wait on customers.”
“Not a chance,” Chris shook his head. “Mom told me to cook. I’m staying here.”
“Coward,” she shot back. When he grinned, she sighed and handed over her order. “I have another table to wait on. A couple with a toddler.”
Chris grimaced and closed his eyes. “Has the toddler behaved so far?”
Emily nodded. “More so than Mrs. Why-don’t-you-know-my-order.”
Chris grinned harder at the weird moniker. “Tell me if there are any problems I need to handle.”
“And I can cook?” Emily asked, hopefully.
Chris rolled his eyes, laughter filling them. “From what I heard you didn’t even have something ready to prepare for your interview.”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to have something for an interview here,” she shot back.
He eyed her speculatively. After a moment he smiled. “How about I talk to my mom and see if she’ll give you a trial in the kitchen?”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Chris tried not to laugh at the look of hope on her face. “But not tonight.”
“A girl can dream can’t she?” She winked at him.
Chris shook his head, laughing. “Let me see if I can’t resolve this problem in the dining room.”
“Thank you so much.”
“You’re going to have to toughen up,” he warned her. “People aren’t always happy. Sometimes it has nothing to do with you, but you still get the brunt of it.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I know, but I sure would like to avoid this confrontation.”
Chris sighed. “Fine. Watch the stove. Don’t let anything burn.”
“Done.”
He just shook his head as he headed into the main dining room. It didn’t take much detective work to figure out which couple Emily had been complaining about, even if he had forgotten to ask. The woman was a middle aged woman with graying blond hair and a perpetual scowl on her face. The man was slightly less annoyed, but seemed almost nervous as he sipped on his water.
Chris walked over to them with a smile on his face. “Hello, my name is Chris. I understand you are having some sort of trouble.”
“That waitress didn’t know my order,” she woman scowled at him. “I told her to just get the cook and she would know what I wanted. Where is the cook?”
“Ma’am, tonight, I am the one in the kitchen.”
The woman frowned. “But where is Mrs. Halliwell.”
“She’s on a date,” Chris informed her.
“A date?” The frown deepened. “Why is she not eating here? Does she not like what her restaurant cooks?”
“She cooked something up at home and went with my dad to the hospital where my brother is convalescing.”
“Your brother?” The frown just kept getting deeper. “Your dad? Is she related to you?”
Chris nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. She’s my mom. I can cook just about anything she can, but I’m afraid I must have misplaced any notes about your meal, so you will have to tell me so I can make it.”
The irony in his voice was lost on the customer, but at least she seemed to brighten up. “Well, of course I can do that, seeing as you are new to the kitchen. Mrs. Halliwell’s son? Isn’t that a wonder?”
Chris barely suppressed a groan, but he wrote on Emily’s notepad as the customer’s told him their orders. As Emily had suspected, the order was not on the menu.
When he finished taking the order he started back for the kitchen, where he fully intended to remain the rest of the night. He was about half way there when he stopped short. He froze still and heaved in a huge breath. Memories from the other time line clamored through his head so fast he barely had time to process them.
Once he was able to control his breathing he slowly turned. His mind hadn’t played tricks on him. Or rather part of it had, the part that contained those other memories, but the part that identified the woman seated at one of the tables ten feet to his left had not tricked him.
It was her.
It was Bianca.