“Happy?” Mary said.
“Ecstatic.”
Hands still dry and clean, Bill pulled Mary to him and kissed her full on her lips. Mary pushed at Bill but he held her until she kissed back and let herself cling to him. As they kissed he reached between them and slid his hand up her legs under her dress.
They were standing in the back toward the end of Mary’s prep station where the long section of counter space was. Bea was sitting on her stool resting. Like everyone, she’d had a tough day and was dog tired. From where she sat she could see them kissing but with some line equipment in her sight line she couldn’t see where Bill’s hand had wandered. Bea could feel herself getting roused and unconsciously licked her lips. Under the newspaper on her lap, she let her hand gently settle on her so she could kind of move to it as she watched them. Wasn’t too long ago all three of them had enjoyed each other. Wasn’t too long ago they had all and enjoyed each other.
Marie’s coming into the kitchen disturbed what was going on. She had her arms full and wasn’t quiet about coming up the stairs or into the kitchen. Seeing her, Bea cleared her throat loudly, but Bill and Mary had already started separating and were apart by the time Marie could see them.
Bill and Mary spent a solid hour doing the breading. Pickerel, fried shrimp, onion rings: trays and trays of them and then more trays and trays of them. As each tray was finished, Bill carried it down to the deep freeze. There was one separate rack set up there for these things, and he set them in order on the rack so they were rotated, oldest highest up. He did not tarry or get distracted. Having set the tray on the rack, he slammed the freezer door shut and went on back upstairs.
Once, he and Marie, who was getting extra supplies for her station, ran into each other simply by the way it worked out. Marie passed a comment about knowing Bill was kissing Mary. Bill took a moment and kissed her too, then he took a good feel of her tiny breasts. Marie kind of cooed.
“I’ll kiss them later,” he said.
“I won’t stop you,” said Marie.
She went her way. He went his.
Bea and Mary finished up. Bill helped her break down the breading station they had set up. The dish machine was in full swing now as he carried over the pans they had used. Andy was happy for the work because he was just standing there. Paulie racked dishes, rinsed them with the water spray then fed the racks into the machine. Jim and Mickey pulled the racks and sorted the dishes. Mickey, always to his dismay, had the chore of filling the plate warmers.
Bill hustled in his routine. He emptied the convection oven, put the baked potatoes into a steam table insert. He covered them with foil and carried the insert over to the steam table. Then he helped Mary carry over everything she had not yet carried: fresh pots of au jus and Bordelaise sauce, a pot of vegetables and finally the prime rib. She made sure to tell Bill the ovens were empty. After Bill had turned that one whole rib into complete ash, she always made sure to do this now.
Grandma and Jimmy in, before she and Bea left and before any dinner rush started, Mary and Bill went down into the meat room to smoke a joint in the deep freeze and drink some bourbon. After getting high, while they drank, Mary and Henry Lee discussed the meats and specials situation for the next two days. All signs pointed to new volume records, new gross sales records and long, hard days of work.
