“Eddie’s fixed too,” Rosie said.
Bill was back in the kitchen and working at the cleanup. Jimmy G had stepped out to get the kitchen truck, or at least that’s what he had said. But he’d been gone longer than just going for the truck.
“That’s good to know.”
“She wanted me to tell you.”
“That’d be all I need.”
“Us too.”
Bill looked at Rosie as she stood on the opposite side of the serving window. “Not as busy,” he said.
“Not bad though,” Rosie said. “We all made money. And Caesar is happy. Well, except for that we ate fish and except for that he doesn’t like you and he certainly doesn’t like the position you’ve gotten into.”
“Too bad for him. All he had to do was be nice from the start. All I wanted was to work here. I didn’t ask the chef or the banquet chef for anything.”
“Sometimes it just works the way it works.”
“Ain’t that the truth?”
Jimmy G came back with espresso for him and Bill. They stood awhile and drank their coffee not bothering to do any work. Rosie stepped away and went back to her own work.
They had it down now. Jimmy G had fallen into doing certain things and Bill did others so that they coordinated and accomplished their work very quickly. It was more a matter of finding the inclination to do the work than anything else.
When they had everything in the kitchen either put away or packed away on the kitchen truck, it was almost midnight. Eddie had come to tell them there would be no more orders and Caesar had come snooping around a few times to see what they were doing. Before Bill had come to work there, as Jimmy G told it, Caesar would have stepped into the kitchen and helped himself to what he wanted to eat. But now, he would come to look, either from the server window or from the doorway, but when he was at the doorway he wouldn’t step in. This was a good thing.
“I don’t like anyone but us touching the food,” Bill said.
“Caesar won’t mess with you now,” Jimmy G said. “He’s not scared. It’s just not worth his while. You’ll see. Soon as he can, he’ll take it out on the waitresses.”
“He’s a pussy,” Bill said.
“He’s smart,” Jimmy G said. “He’s biding his time now and you need to watch your back.”
“I hear you,” Bill said.
Bill triple-checked to make sure everything was off in the kitchen and everything that should be was put away. Assured that all was in order, he and Jimmy G stepped out and took the kitchen truck down through the double doors and out to where Kalista was.
Kalista was all done. She’d been all done for awhile now and was even ready to walk with Bill and Jimmy G. Bill could see that she had her purse on her arm and she’d done her make-up a little, or, at the very least she’d put fresh lipstick on.
Jimmy G said something to her in Greek and Bill watched as she pointed to several items that were sitting out but covered with film. These were the things she wanted the boys to take back to the main kitchen on their truck.
Jimmy G jumped as it were and grabbed up the things. It wasn’t much, just some of her own home-made Greek pastry and some salad that had been brought over and not used but which could be used on banquets for the next day.
Jimmy G stacked Kalista’s things on top of theirs and when the truck was settled, the three of them headed off and away toward the main kitchen.
The main kitchen was sleeping for the most part. Room service was working from its own kitchen station, but nothing else. Only the chef’s office was brightly lit and the chef, they could see, was sitting behind his desk reading the newspaper.
