No one was happy to be at work. Bea did her regular thing, which was start coffee, get settled into her uniform, come upstairs to drink coffee while looking at the racing pages in the newspaper. Bill and Mary did the same. They got changed and came up to drink coffee. But unlike Bea, while they drank their coffee they made a list of what was needed from downstairs and another list of all the things needed to be done. Bill had to cut a round. That would be the first thing he would do. While he was doing that, Mary would start the soup.
Tommy shuffled into the kitchen just before Bill went down. Mr. Jim was retiring in another day and they were throwing him a little party down in the party room. Some of the people from the west side were stopping over. Tommy wanted to make sure Mary could fix the hors d’oeuvres they would serve. Bea was responsible for decorating the party room. The restaurant was shutting down for two hours in both locations so all the kitchen help could attend. Shy as he was, Mr. Jim had said he didn’t want any parties, but they had set it up anyway and invited his family.
“Mr. Jim taught me how to be a good cook,” Mary said to Bill later, after he had cut the round and it was settled in an oven cooking away. “He also taught me not to fool around where I work. I messed up with you.” She was sitting on the counter in the meat room, like she always did, her legs dangling down over the edge of the counter, her feet crossed at the ankles. She was swinging her legs a bit, kind of like rocking them and herself back and forth.
“Yeah, so?” Bill said. He was cleaning up meat blood and stopped to look at her. She was staring down at her feet.
“So I’m just saying.”
“Saying what? That you’re really looking forward to being with me at The Upper Room again tonight?”
“I’m wondering where you slept last night. And I’m wondering how bad you’re gonna break my heart when you quit this place and move away. New Year’s already here. The summer be here before we know it. That girl of yours be graduated, you’ll be married and off you’ll go.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Bill was almost finished cleaning the blood. He’d spilled a little on his pants, no big deal, but Mary told him he needed to change. He pooh-poohed it, told her he’d slept at Lorraine’s.
“Well why you want to keep going with me?”
“Her kids were there. It was all innocent. We worked really late cause we had late tables and then it was just easier. I slept on her couch.”
“I never should have started with you.”
“You didn’t start and I could say the same thing. But I’m not sorry. I really, really like you.”
“And the others?”
“What about them?”
“You tell me.”
“Nothing to tell. Drenovis told me Norma was a stick it anywhere girl and he put her on me cause of Eleanor. Remember that? Remember Eleanor? Lexi’s young and stupid, like me. She was a get-even-with-Drenovis girl. Bea is Bea.”
“I got feelings you know.”
Bill took the blood-stained dish towel he was using to wipe up the blood and threw it into the wash sink. Then he stepped over by where Mary sat. He moved up against her, forcing her to uncross her feet and let him get close.
“I have feelings too. If I told you my feelings you’d cry. I’m not stupid. I never dreamt, not once in my whole short life, that I’d be doing this kind of work, that I’d be here. Meeting Robert was dumb luck. And I’ll never be sorry for where you and I are at.” He leaned in and kissed her, softly at first then a long, deep and fiercely passionate kiss.
“Don’t know if I can wait until tonight,” he said.
