Page 23 of Falling for My Boss

Finally, I drifted off and got a little bit of rest. I wasn’t sure if I got even one full REM cycle, but I got enough that when I dragged myself out of bed and into a shower, I figured I could power through a shift with enough caffeine. As soon as I was out of the shower, I brewed two giant thermoses worth of coffee and lugged them with me into the car. At least it seemed like Jodi got a little more sleep than I did, but the bags under her eyes said it wasn’t that much. I didn’t blame her. If it bothered me as much as it did, I could only imagine how hard living through that could be.

The shift was rough on both of us. I kept a cup of coffee by me at all times, a bottle of water beside it so I didn’t dehydrate myself. But it wasn’t enough. By the time dinner service was winding down, I felt like I had been hit by a truck and then backed over a few times. Jodi didn’t look like she was faring much better. She was moving slowly and seemed to be staring into the middle distance most of the time.

I found myself wanting to pull her close, to embrace her and tell her it would be okay. It was an odd compulsion for someone I didn’t really know that well, but I couldn’t deny it. I wanted her to know I was there for her. Yet, every time I looked for her, she seemed like she was avoiding me. Maybe she was just giving me space to digest everything she’d told me the night before, but it was bugging me that she wasn’t being more open.

Then it hit me that she was probably upset about how she had exposed herself. She seemed like the type that held herself together as a source of pride and being as open as she was while sitting on the edge of my bed was probably tough for her. I needed to be more patient and understanding.

As the night wore on, I kept my eye out for Jodi as she walked by, going from the kitchen to the floor in a bit of a fog. Still, none of her orders came back as being incorrect, so I took that as a win. Most of the other waitresses would mess up orders if they were even the slightest bit flustered. Jodi seemed to be holding it all together by sheer force of will and had yet to mess anything up as the final dinner orders started to come in.

Ally was at her own station, working apart from me mostly in silence. I didn’t know if she was as bugged by how Jodi was acting as I was or if something else was going on, but she seemed to be in her own head too. This meant the kitchen was eerily quiet, and I was able to follow along with the TV show that was playing in the corner. Usually, I was able to catch snippets of it while it played during the night but would lose track when things got loud, which was why I usually just put on food competition shows or sports. This time, Ally had put on some show with a plot, and I found myself far more engrossed than usual.

When the last of the night’s entrees went out, Ally went to the sink and washed off before coming over to me. She seemed like she had been contemplating what she was going to say to me for some time. I had packed up my station, including packing away my knives as the line cooks prepared for any dessert orders that might come in.

“Hey, Derek,” Ally said.

“Hey,” I said. “Good show you picked.”

“Oh, yeah. Noah liked it a lot, and I figured I could catch up to where he was while we were working. Hope you didn’t mind.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said. “Nice change of pace from Alton Brown, I guess.”

She laughed and looked around, seemingly seeing if we were sufficiently alone.

“So, has Jodi said anything about what is bugging her? She seems really out of it tonight,” she said.

“I think she’s going to be okay,” I said. “She talked a little bit about what was going on. The stuff with her family.”

Ally was nodding, indicating that she had heard at least some of that before.

“She mentioned seeing her brother, I think?” Ally said.

“If you heard that part, then you probably know about as much as me.”

Ally pursed her lips on one side of her mouth.

“I just hope she’s alright. I can’t imagine how wild it is to be running from your entire family like that,” she said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I think she just needs a few days of calm to feel safe again. She’s still doing great at her job, so there’s that. No tables complained.”

“I spoke to Charlotte. She said she’s great. Just that she seemed like she was distracted tonight.”

“But no screwups?” I asked.

“None. I wanted to say though, we do have that spare room. If she needs it, she can come on over.”

“The one you guys filled up with stuff from your old place?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “But it’s got a bed in it. I can move some of that stuff to the garage, make it a livable space.”

“Well, you should go ahead and offer. I know it’s probably weird staying at her male boss’s house. Then again, I don’t have any kids making noise, so…”

Ally slapped my shoulder playfully.

“Hush, you,” she said.

I laughed softly under my breath as she walked away, presumably to find Jodi.

I went back to cleaning the station and then relieved the line cooks. The dessert menu for the evening was something I could handle on my own, and if I needed help, Ally was more than capable of picking up the slack. The cooks took off gratefully, apparently quite sick of the show that had been on and ready to begin their night of carousing and drinking. Ten years ago, I would have been right there with them. Hell, a year ago I would have. Having the responsibility of running the family restaurant had done a fair amount to mature me in ways I had never expected.

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