They were done with everything before eleven. Jimmy Banquet Chef gave Bill back the tools he had taken from him the night before. They were in a nice, neat package and all the knives were freshly sharpened.
“I have some work to do for a small party tomorrow. I’m starting in about an hour. Go down and take a snooze and meet me back here. The party is only a hundred. Won’t take us long.”
Bill said okay. He was on his way down to the locker room when he ran into Beverly. She was still in her uniform but the jacket was open and the tie was untied. She’d opened the shirt collar too.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
They faced each other in one of the many corridors which lead to and from the main kitchen.
“What you up to?” she asked.
“I have an hour break. Then I’m working with the banquet chef on prep for tomorrow.”
“They’re giving you a lot of work, huh?”
“I guess so,” Bill said.
“You married?” she asked.
“Yes. You?”
“Yup.”
“You mess around?” Bill asked. He could not, for the life of him, figure out why he asked it, but the words were there, out in space for her to hear before he could stop himself.
“He’s messing around. Why shouldn’t I?”
“Not what I asked,” Bill said.
“I’m looking to,” Beverly said. “What about you?”
“I’m trying not to.”
“How hard you trying?”
“Very.”
“Want me to leave you alone?”
“Haven’t decided yet if you want me to be honest.”
“I do,” Beverly said. “I want you to be totally honest.” She reached a hand out and beckoned him with her finger. “Come on with me,” she said.
Beverly led him through a labyrinth of corridors away from the kitchen but all in the back of the house where only hotel employees traveled. Many twists and turns later they ended in a stairwell somewhere where Bill had no idea where he was.
“Lost, right?” Beverly asked.
“Totally.”
“My sister’s a maid upstairs. She showed me this place. We come here to get high sometimes. You get high?”
“Yeah. But I’m on probation for the next eighty-seven days.”
“Poor boy,” she said. “What else can’t you do?”
“I can’t do anything I shouldn’t.”
“Too bad.” She sat down on one of the stairs. “No one ever comes here. It’s as safe as anyplace can be.”
Bill sat down next to her. “I’m still playing it safe.”
“Well,” Beverly said, “then I won’t get high with you here. How about a little kiss?”
“Why?”
“Why’d you come here with me?”
“Good question,” Bill said.
Bill leaned over and kissed her. The kiss was soft at first but then it got deeper and harder, and a moment after they’d started kissing they were full out petting, her hands exploring him, his hands exploring her. She undid her tuxedo pants for him and the pants down at her ankles, he found his hands finding their way inside her underwear.
“Just play,” she said while they kissed. “Nothing more, not yet.”
They played. It was like being on lovers lane with his high school girlfriend, that place they’d gone most Friday nights where all the high school kids who had cars went. He didn’t have a car, but his girlfriend did.
They did the same things, mostly, and surely better than he had done as a high school kid. At one point she straddled him and undies to undies she gave him a lap dance that ended when it was over for both of them.
“God that felt good,” Beverly said. She gave him a big, friendly kiss to end it, a happy kiss just before she stood and hoisted up her trousers.
Bill didn’t say anything. He tucked himself in and pulled up his zipper.
“You still have lots of time,” she said. “We could just sit awhile.”
“Sure,” Bill said.
“I don’t want to be awkward strangers after this.”
“No problem,” Bill said.
