They worked straight through until nearly eleven. Lillian had taken one fifteen-minute break, relieved by Tommy. No one in the kitchen had a break, so when the slowdown came, Jimmy ran down to pee. When he came back, Bill took his turn. Marie chose to go then too. She went into the men’s, sat with the stall door open and hoisted up so Bill could watch.
“You’re one sick girl,” Bill said. He turned to her when he was done so she could see him. Then he quickly zipped up, washed his hands and ran up the stairs.
When Marie came up she stopped by Bill at the broiler. By this time Lillian had broken down her spot and returned the stool to its place.
“How about a nice medium Super?” she asked.
“And a medium rare Boston for me,” Lillian said. She handed Bill a slip of paper with her order on it.
All waitresses and other help had to turn in written food orders. The only ones who didn’t have to do this were the cooks and salad ladies. The early waitresses came in as they could to order their dinners too.
A few customer orders were still working when Bill started Lillian’s dinner. Turned out Lorraine and Victoria were working late, Lorraine because she was late girl, Victoria because Tommy had asked her to stay since they were busy. Bill and Jimmy finished working the customer food while Bill worked the staff orders. They put up the customer meals first, meticulously, then pushed out Lillian’s dinner as quickly as possible so she could get gone.
Apparently, he would find out later, Lillian and Tommy had a full discussion about him. Tommy, Lorraine told him later, sat with her while she ate. She pretty much ratted him out regarding his drinking, drugging and philandering, but she did compliment him on how well he could handle a broiler. She told Tommy that in her time she’d seen a lot of broiler cooks and after only a few short months Bill was as good as the best of them. That counted for a lot, she told Tommy, and it excused a lot of the vices, although she added that it didn’t excuse all of them by far. Lorraine happily reported that she’d told Tommy to do his best not to lose Bill.
Bad influences, Tommy had said, according to Lorraine, and he’d listed them out starting with Henry Lee and Bea, who, Tommy told Lillian, should have never indulged herself with the boy. That was how he’d referred to Bill. But then he’d said that the boy had to learn, and apparently he had to learn a lot more than the cooking.
Bill did cut that piece of rib. Just before he started getting ready to break down the line and begin the cleanup work, there came a moment when he and Victoria were alone in the kitchen but for Marie. Marie was already into her cleaning and the dishwashers were still down in the party room eating their dinners. Victoria had brought Bill a beer and stood with him at the end of the line.
After trimming all the fat and cutting the slice into neat, bite-sized squares, Bill put the meat on a plate with his spatula and left the plate on the cutting board atop his reach-in box so Victoria could stand there and help herself, which she happily did.
“When you’re done, tell Lorraine to come in for hers.”
“This is so good,” Victoria said.
“Yeah. I’ve been wanting some of that all night.”
“I never see you eating meat.”
“I generally don’t. It’s not a thing. I rarely make myself a steak or eat the rib, but every now and then I get a craving and then I indulge happily.”
“Yes, you do indulge happily,” Victoria said. She stuffed her face and smiled. “I got to go back out,” she said. “I’ll send Lorraine in. Save some more for me.”
