“What the hell?” I murmur. I walk to Joanne’s office. I stand in her doorway and watch her fingers fly over the keys on her keyboard.
“Joanne,” I say quietly.
“Good morning, Maddie. What can I do for you?” She looks up at me and her smile fades. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s been a, um, an incident.”
“What is it?”
“My desserts and everything in the refrigerator has gone bad.”
“Oh, my… do not tell me that refrigerator is on the fritz. I just replaced the damned thing.” She gets up and quickly walks past me.
“I don’t think that is the problem.”
I follow her out, not saying another word until she sees the mess herself.
“What happened?”
“I would like to know that as well.”
“Everything is destroyed?”
I nod. “Everything in the refrigerator and what you see here on the floor, yes.”
She turns and looks at the cooler.
“Judging by the temperature of the food, Joanne, this happening sometime ago. Maybe last night? I haven’t been in the back cooler or supply room yet.”
Joanne quickly runs and after a few moments she returns looking at the mess on the floor in front of me. “It’s just this,” she says. “Who would do something like this?”
“I don’t know.”
“If I run to the store, can you remake these?”
It would take a miracle. It would take three people to do what I have done in time for the dinner menu, and that is only if each dessert comes out right the first time.
“Yes, I can.” I’m a glutton for punishment.
“Okay. Make a list of what you will need and I’ll do the running.” She pulls out her phone and hits a couple of buttons, holding it to her ear. “How long before you come in? Okay, well we have a bit of a mess here that needs your assistance… Bring backup if you can… Okay… See you in ten.” She puts her phone back in her pocket and looks at me. “Don’t worry about this. Get me the list and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want me to get you some help?”
“No. I think I can do this.”
She nods and disappears from the kitchen, leaving me in the aftermath of the destruction. I want to start cleaning the mess but I know I need to stay on task and get the list for Joanne in order to even come close to putting any desserts in the display cases in time for dinner.
I hear the front door open and close, and wonder if it is my clean-up crew, expecting a couple of the waitresses. Rocco walks in and immediately looks over the counter at the floor, an all-knowing look on his face.
“She wasn’t lying about the mess, was she?” He glances at me. I want to tell him I didn’t make the mess, but when I open my mouth, Nancy walks in behind him shutting me up before I even say a word. Of course, I conjure the worst scenario possible and it causes a heat to slam into me, jealousy rearing its ugly head. Nancy apparently catches on as her mouth forms a sassy little smirk.
“What happened?” Her play of innocence is disgusting.
“Someone must have broken in and destroyed the kitchen,” Rocco says, glancing at me again.
“If you think this is bad, you should see the supply room,” I add while watching Nancy’s face. She furrows her eyebrows and immediately looks at the supply closet. When she looks back at me, I am the one smirking. Busted.
She looks at me and cocks her head. “Let me help with this,” she says, bending over in front of Rocco and leaning into him. There are so many things I want to do to her, but I turn away from them both and walk away with a notebook and pen in my hands. At least the idea she has to clean up her own mess gives me some satisfaction.
“How is it coming along?” Rocco walks into the kitchen a few hours into my shift and sees me hard at work. Apparently, I look a mess with the grin he has when he looks at me.
“Is there something funny?”
“Not at all.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t decide to hire Nancy.”
“You can’t blame this on her.”
“I can, and I do. Are you defending her?”
He doesn’t offer an answer. “I know you don’t like her, Maddie, and I’m pretty sure I know why.”
Okay, my turn to stay quiet.
“Want some help?” he asks, pulling an apron from a cupboard. He moves close to me and watches for a minute, then he falls into place as if he has done this a million times before.
“I have to admit, I was a little surprised that you offered to do all of this,” he says as he pulls at the dough on the counter, stretching it and kneading it into a ball.