So they hung out with Victor. Jimmy G and Victor read the Greek newspaper. Bill did not do much of anything. He did not want to go back and see Millie for a new uniform and seriously considered either not changing jackets or depleting his supply.
But then, you know, idle hands are the devil’s workshop. As he sat, bored to tears, he started to think a little flirting, a little teasing wouldn’t be such a bad thing. After what the banquet chef said about how they were feeling about him and about how he didn’t have to worry about his position even if he did mess with Millie, well, that crazy voice in the back of his head started in on him.
He tried like hell to push that little voice away, and happily, unlike other times in his life, he was able to sit still and not act on any crazy impulses. As it turned out, he was rewarded for his lack of doing anything because a little before he and Jimmy had to get started for the Falstaff Room he saw Caesar follow the chef into his office.
From a distance and off to the side he watched. The chef bid Caesar sit down, which he did, and a moment after Caesar was seated, Jimmy Banquet Chef joined them. The chef and the banquet chef, Bill could see, did most of the talking. To Bill, it felt like, it seemed like, or maybe he was just hoping and projecting this, the chef and banquet chef were ganging up on Caesar, ripping him a new one.
And they were. Jimmy G, when he and Bill started their rounds gathering the things they needed for their dinner service, told Bill that Jimmy Banquet Chef had told him he and the chef had a date with Caesar and that the chef was going to tell Caesar to leave him alone, to make sure that not only did he not bother him, Bill, the new cook, but that he made an effort to make sure that Bill had everything he needed as the new head cook for the room. And that meant, Jimmy G told Bill, that Caesar was to give Bill his full cooperation and absolutely no attitude.
Well, so there it was plain and simple. Or, what Bill saw as he watched the two chefs talk to Caesar was them ripping him a new one, putting him in his place, something which should have been done a long time ago.
So this was just a new part of the old equation. Later in his cooking career, Bill would pinch a waitress there with his tongs, and when the waitress complained to the manager, the manager would tell her to leave his cooks alone. Right in front of Bill and all the other kitchen help, that manager would tell her straight out that one cook equaled ten waitresses.
And so it goes.
Bill stayed watching the two chefs work on Caesar, saw Caesar look to his feet several times, even almost look embarrassed. And then it was over and Caesar left the office. The two chefs laughed together and then had a drink.
Because they had been able to set themselves up some during the day, Jimmy G and Bill finished set up in the Falstaff Room early. Before he went to change into a clean uniform, Bill fixed Kalista a really nice plate of the roast tenderloin in a somewhat thinned sauce which Bill prepared by working on the sauce Jimmy Banquet Chef had prepared. Bill made a red wine and shallots reduction and turned that sauce into a sauce. He double-cheesed the potatoes and sautéed the broccoli so it was crisp and flavored with garlic and butter.
He served Kalista personally because he liked her and was pleased with the plate he’d made her. That done, he went off to change into a clean shirt. He hoped Millie was gone for the day, which was why he had waited till late.
