December sped by. Bill worked almost all the time. He was used to working all the time since at Suburban he was on a split shift. Working banquets and then The Falstaff Room was like being on split shift especially when there were early banquets. Then it was a fifteen hour day, sometimes even more, and lots of overtime. He had an hour break between banquets and Falstaff set up unless something was really crazy. Usually things were not crazy, just hectic.
In effect, as it worked out, Thanksgiving weekend was the only break they got even though it was busy in its own right. The Falstaff Room worked, was full most of the time. They did not do overall records, but they did Thanksgiving records. The room ran at near capacity from opening to just-about closing. Jo Ann worked late as was her new routine and she cut out only when she could without disrupting any service.
Beverly did not wear that second earring in her left ear until one day late in the second week of the month. They had a breakfast banquet she was working, a full set of luncheons and two large dinner banquets too. It was one of those banner days where everyone was working all day. The Falstaff Room was completely booked with reservations, but this was nothing new now since they were booked well in advance and it was near impossible to get a reservation.
The breakfast went off without any hitches. It was a simple one, scrambled eggs, choice of sausage or bacon and home fries for six hundred. The hardest part of this one was the size, not the prep or anything like that, but the dish-up. That was fast and furious from four dishing-up stations. Even Jimmy G worked hard at it.
Bill now had his own banquet crew. Or, what that meant was that for dish-up he had his own crew of stewards who worked with him every time. This made it so they all knew each other, knew each other’s ways, knew what each other was doing and what they needed to do. It also meant that they worked with Bill’s being left handed. His being a lefty meant things had to be set up differently in order to be most fast and efficient.
Bill ate bacon and sausage. He loved bacon and sausage. He did not eat while he worked the dish-up, but he ate during the prep when things were done and getting put into serving pans.
One of the nicer things of this banquet was that the rolls and breads were superior, including specialty items like hot, fresh croissants. Nothing better than a fresh, hot croissant with espresso.
He was able to pass Beverly a croissant. Passing food was a little tricky sometimes and he did not do it as a matter of policy, but for this banquet, due to size, the waiters were not stopped from such things. In fact, he and Beverly had a moment while she ate her croissant and he worked. They talked. This was nothing unusual since all the cooks knew the waiters and did the same with their friends. They didn’t talk about anything other than the weather, the day, the holidays.
They found each other in the staircase about ten. Bill told her straight up that he didn’t have much time, that he was on a short break before they started for the lunches. She grabbed him and kissed him profusely, hard, deep, wild. She also took his hands and put them all over her.
“I am so horny,” she said.
Bill withdrew from her, but not immediately. He indulged her a moment, kissed back, allowed himself to feel her over her clothes, then pulled back.
“I can come around two,” he said.
“Me too.”
“How’s it going?” he asked.
