Off the Menu

Chapter Five: Cool Story, Romeo! - Cole

The door cracks, maybe. Mack’s talking over it so I can’t be sure. I hand her my weed pen as I glance out at the street again, looking for my brother’s car. He should’ve already been on his way to pick me up. I popped a grape into my mouth, deep in thought until a series of coughs broke me out of it. I startled, turning to the sound to see Nica standing there, hand braced against the wall. She was choking on the smoke Mack had just exhaled. “s**t, Nica. Are you good?”

She shook her head in response, looking up at us. I pocketed the pen as Mack handed it back to me, trying to offer Nica an apologetic smile. Don’t make it weird. I pushed my glasses up my nose.

“Can you check my section?” Nica asked. Her voice had a slight rasp to it due to her coughing fit.

I watched as the two women walked away, mentally kicking myself for not saying something. Even a quiet sorry would’ve been better than just standing there. I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets as I crossed the parking lot to my little haven in the bushes while I waited for Riley. I leaned up against the small partial wall separating our parking lot from Sonic’s as I pulled out my cigarettes and lit one.

After a few moments, I sat on one of the crates, resigning myself to a long wait. I could only imagine what Nica thought of me. If she thought of me. The last few weeks she’d navigated the restaurant, learning the ins and outs without a hitch as far as I could tell. We hadn’t interacted since her first day. She closed, so there was no reason to let her in the back door, and she never came outside during the trash runs like so many of the other servers. I still noticed her though, making salads, asking Emily for help finding things in the kitchen when something needed refilled. She didn’t seem to notice me though, and I couldn’t help trying to convince myself it was better that way. I was not at a point in my life where I didn’t need to worry about another person, but there was just something about her I couldn’t explain that drew me in.

I was distracted from my thoughts by my phone ringing, Riley’s name displayed across the screen. I answered and he told me he was almost there.

~*~

Saturday off was the reprieve I didn’t realize I needed. Working so many doubles had me exhausted, and Sunday was a double too. They had me on prep in the morning, which was pretty normal, but I was going to be culinary pro that night, which was out of the ordinary. That meant overtime on my highest paying job code though, so I wasn’t going to complain.

I spent my Saturday at home relaxing. If I wasn’t downstairs listening to some of my records, I was on the back porch smoking. In the evening, I walked over to my parents’ house next door and had dinner with them. Then my dad and I played pool in the garage until we decided to call it a night. Sunday was coming fast.

~*~

Culinary pro looked good on paper, but in reality, it felt like a furnace. The kitchen was already hot enough without twenty servers running back and forth in such a tight space. I pulled plates from the window, traying them and adding the final touches. I called out servers’ names as I slid the trays down, bumping each ticket as I went. “Yasmin, four-oh-five!” I slid the tray and bumped the ticket. I started pulling plates for the next one. “Yasmin!” I yelled again when she didn’t show up.

Silence.

“I got it,” Nica’s voice was soft as she appeared by my side, lifting the tray up onto her shoulder. “You said four-oh-five?”

My brain lagged, I couldn’t focus on anything except for the gold flecks in her eyes. Her brows arched slightly, and I realized she was waiting for me to respond. “Uh, yeah, thanks.” Then she was gone.

“She’s pretty,” Ronnie commented from the other side of the window.

I shot him a glare, “You got that carbonara yet?”

“It’s coming, simmer down.” Laughing at his own joke, he turned back to the burner where the carbonara in question was cooking. I rolled my eyes.

Tray, garnish, slide. It was repetitive, but it was fast. I reached for a spoon to place in a plate of spaghetti, the same time someone else did. Our fingers brushed and we both pulled back. “Oh,” I heard her soft voice again and turned to see Nica with a bowl of soup and a cheese grater in one hand.

“Sorry, go ahead,” I motioned and she gave me a quick smile, grabbing a spoon and slipping away again.

Tray, garnish, slide. They were stacking up to the point that I wasn’t even bumping tickets anymore because I needed to keep track of where the trays were going still. “I need runners!”

Nica surprised me, stepping up on only her third day solo on the floor. She was a beast in the kitchen. Between running food, and not just her own, and keeping side work done, it was easy to forget she was new. “Thank you,” I told her as she was refilling the grapes.

She looked at me, a confused huff on her lips as her brow furrowed. “For what?”

I motioned around the kitchen, “You’re killing it tonight. Running food, the side work. You’re making my job easier.”

She smiled, “You’re welcome.”

A party of sixteen came in an hour before closing. I should’ve already been gone, but we’d been too busy. Nica was already cut and working on her closing side work so when the entrees came out, I helped carry them out for Jay. As I came back into the kitchen, I noticed Nica cashing out. Eli was crossing the kitchen to me. “Thanks for sticking around tonight, man,” he told me. “You can go ahead and get outta here if you want.”

“Thanks.”

“You got a ride tonight?”

“Yeah, my dad’s headed here.”

“Alright. You work tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

The timing couldn’t have been better, or worse, depending on your perspective. As I wrapped up the conversation with Eli, Nica was headed to the computer to clock out. I stood behind her, waiting.

We walked in silence together to the front door. I desperately wanted to say something to her, but didn’t know what to say without sounding like a jackass. “Thanks,” she murmured quietly as I held the door open for her. Halfway down the sidewalk, I lit a cigarette, both of us stepping off of it at the same time.

“Do you work tomorrow?” I asked, assuming her car was the Nissan parked halfway between us and my smoke spot.

“Yeah, in the evening. You?”

“Morning.”

“Well, I’ll probably see you when I come in.” She offered me a small smile as she opened the back passenger door. I stopped, turning to look at her.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. You’re being weird, recover quick. “Cool seat covers,” I motioned towards the driver seat, noticing the Ghostface cover. Still weird. I adjusted my glasses.

“Oh my God, don’t look in there!” She tossed her apron in the seat and slammed the door shut, laughing. “My car is a mess. I keep telling myself I’m going to drop this stuff off at storage, but I haven’t yet. The worst part is I go to the gym almost every day, right down the street from the storage place.”

I smiled, chuckling. “It’s okay.” She stood there, lips pressed together. Neither of us seemed sure of what to say. I put out what was left of the cigarette then pulled my pack out, retrieving a joint this time. “I’m going to go smoke this before my ride gets here. That way I’m not traveling with drugs.” You’re an i***t.

“Okay,” she laughed, “have a good night.”

“You too.” I kicked a rock as I finished my path to the bushes. Leaning against the wall, I took a deep breath before lighting the joint. The sound of her bass filled the air and I watched her brake lights come on before she pulled out of the parking lot.

~*~

The next day, I sat in the bushes after work, waiting on my dad. He worked across the street at Vinny’s as a bartender, and shift change was approaching. “‘Sup man?” Ronnie reached out, fist bumping me as he dropped his bag on the ground. He sat on a crate across from me, and we began talking about how the day had been so far.

“So, Nica is hot as hell,” Ronnie commented, seemingly out of nowhere, mid-conversation.

“What?” My attention snapped to him, gaze darting away from the parking lot. Confusion was etched into my features.

“You weren’t paying attention to a word I said.”

“I was,” I denied, not wanting to admit that I had been caught watching the parking lot for her. He couldn’t have known that though. We’d never talked about her before.

“She is hot though, right?” Ronnie asked, not bothering to argue with me. He knew he was right.

I didn’t say anything. I could feel my cheeks warming and hoped it wasn’t noticeable. The days were still hot, and it hadn’t been that long since I’d walked out of a hundred plus degree kitchen. So maybe, hopefully, he’d attribute my blush to that.

“Be-ow! Be-ow! Be-ow! Be-owww!” Jay announced his arrival, stepping into the bushes to join us. Mallory was behind him giggling. “Y’all work tonight?” he asked as he sat down.

“Yeah,” Ronnie nodded.

“Nope, I’m waiting on my dad.”

“Has it been busy today?” Jay asked, lighting a joint.

“Eh, it’s been steady,” I shrugged. “Typical Monday.”

“So, what do we think of the new girl?” Ronnie asked, redirecting the conversation back to Nica.

“She seems pretty cool,” Mallory commented, taking the joint from Jay, who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I like her. I like her hosting better than Yasmin. That girl’s useless.”

“Yeah. Cole and I were just talking about how he thinks she’s really pretty.”

“Really?” Mallory’s eyebrows shot up, her eyes widening in surprise. I’d known her and Jay for about ten years, as long as I’d worked at Stella Cucina, and they knew it was unlike me to date. Or even try to.

“No,” I shook my head. “Ronnie was saying that she’s pretty.”

“Well, I mean, she is,” Mallory agreed.

“I think my dad’s here,” I rose to my feet, surveying the parking lot for his car before I walked away. He wasn’t, but I needed the out.

“Cool story, Romeo! Tell your dad we said hi when he doesn’t pull up,” Ronnie called out.

I swallowed, adjusting my glasses as I headed for the far side of the building. I could hear the three of them snickering in the bushes still as I continued.