Mary was feisty when she came back upstairs. Bill was in the midst of traying up the potatoes. As always, he used both hands and was able to grab the potatoes two at a time in each hand. Once done, he would carry the tray of potatoes over to the steam table and transfer them into the pan that was there waiting for them.
He did not feel Mary sneak up behind him and given the regular noises of the kitchen including the hustle and bustle of the dishwashers busy making sure they were ready to start the meal, he could not hear her. But he felt her hands slide around his waist and then lower. Then he felt her kiss him on the back of his neck.
“I’m taking you downstairs,” Mary said. “Before the lunch starts. So hurry your damn ass up.”
Bill doubled his speed as best he could by moving his hands more quickly. Then he and Mary disappeared down the stairs while Henry Lee was greasing the grills to start cooking off the hamburgers and bleus they would cook ahead for the start. Tommy had not come into the kitchen yet. He was not due into the kitchen for at least another fifteen minutes or so.
She took him by the hand into the ladies room. She locked the door behind them. She sat herself up on the counter, unbuttoned her dress from the bottom and slid off her underwear.
“I’m getting you before that hussy does,” said Mary. She bent her knees and put her feet up on the counter then slid herself as far as she could toward the edge. “Go to work white boy,” she said.
Bill waited for Mary to go up first then followed behind her shortly afterward. He did this in case Tommy was already in the kitchen. But he wasn’t and things looked slow since Henry Lee and Bea were sitting out in the hall.
The back door was open for air from the outside to blow in through the screen door. From what Bill could see as he came up the stairs, it seemed like a really nice not-quite-spring day.
Bill went directly into the kitchen. He walked down the line and checked everything out. He opened things on the steam table to peek inside and make sure everything was the way he wanted it. Satisfied, he walked to Bea’s station and even though he wasn’t hungry he took himself a cocktail shrimp, dipped it in cocktail sauce and popped it in his mouth. Finished the one, he took a second and then a third.
Around back where Mary worked, he looked inside all her ovens. A fresh prime rib was in one. It still had hours to cook. The round was in another. It was done. He looked at it, decided whether he should take it out now or wait till later. He had enough from yesterday to start with so it was not needed yet. But he didn’t want to get caught in the midst of a rush and have to take the time to get it out then.
So he took Mary in his arms and kissed her. He kissed her softly at first and then more deeply. Then he gave her a soft feel on her butt and asked her to help him get the round out.
“Boy,” Mary said, “you done good but I want more.”
Bill smiled at Mary. He would’ve told her he loved her but they were in the kitchen and the walls in the kitchens at both the East and West stores had ears. So he held it to himself, threw her two oven mitts, grabbed up two for himself and opened the oven door.
