So the more Mary got into her own head, the worse it was for her. If she were into her own head, into her thoughts, and Bea happened to go downstairs with Bill, or after him as she actually did it so she could get some, the thoughts got worse, more and more dark. Mary was a person generally prone to dark thoughts anyway, and her imaginings of Bea and Bill together in the storeroom, or maybe her on the counter or against it in the staff ladies’ room, put her into a morose humor. Then, when Bill would come upstairs, she would take it out on him, even when he assured her he was only doing work and Bea’s being down there was simply coincidental.
Those times were coming more and more often now. But they were not without their own pleasurable, maybe even truly meaningful, results. If nothing had happened, which more than most likely was the case—after all Bill had promised Mary he would be ending it with Bea and was actually actively working on it—Mary would be open to cajoling such that Bill could, with special effort, calm her, assure her, appease her and excite her. It was kind of like make-up sex even though they hadn’t fought and mostly he had not done anything he shouldn’t have done.
He would start with a gentle shushing her. Then, after she was finished with a scornful pushing him away, he would hold her close to him taking her close enough so that he could whisper in her ear the things he really wanted to say to her just like that, meaning without having to have some reason to say them other than because he wanted to. Left to himself, in this world there was no way he could just tell her he loved her, he cared for her, he didn’t want her just sexually. No. Like for Mary, it had to be a forced action or an existential one.
When he had her calmed, appeased, softened, they would make a time to meet downstairs or set it up by him saying he was going down to cut meat and her telling him she needed some things from downstairs. She would make sure nothing on the stoves would burn or get ruined and he would help her with anything that needed to be done immediately.
At these times, times which were unintended consequences of Bea’s actions, they would lock themselves in the ladies’ room downstairs and Bill would slowly, softly, carefully, minster to her.
Everyone knew where they were. Tommy knew. Drenovis knew they did this, but they never did it when Drenovis was there. That would have been tempting the devil. Not that Drenovis could have actually done anything other than possibly embarrass and humiliate them. Or he could have. He could have fired them both or fired just him or suspended them. But Robert would have intervened and Mr. Bowman would have had to make another trip out east to set the crew and Drenovis straight. In any restaurant there is only one main goal and that’s to get the dinners up on time every time and every time the same way.
Ministering to Mary meant easing into taking care of her. She would be ready by the time they would get to whatever space they were using, always. So Bill could have just taken her and pleased her that way. But in his own mind that was never enough for what he wanted to do. He wanted to let her know that with her it meant something, that she meant something, that she meant more than just something.
