🎤Tit For Tat🎤 (Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej)

The place is packed, just as he feared.

He should have seriously not let himself continue watching the Lakers game instead of answering Steven and Curly's frantic messages. Honestly, he could most likely blame Roland for this one, getting him so absorbed and he could also blame the sports channel in their 3-bed apartment for working today of all days, but it didn't matter now.

It was horrific. Steven hadn't been kidding when he warned him to get there ASAP. Curse his mother and father for giving him the shortest legs in history.

He could barely find his way over people's heads and elbows as he manoeuvred through the crowds of people in the small cafe that night, attempting not to make a fool of himself as he finally spotted their manager up the back near the kitchen door and freed himself from the claustrophobic mess, the Buzzfeed sign in its red neon glory mocking him with it's buzzing that almost made his head fall off his shoulders.

He almost stumbled, but thankfully, was caught by Kelsey as she dashed though, speaking a hurried 'thanks!' as she disappeared back into where he had just emerged, turning to his manager wide-eyed. "Christ, Sara, what the fuck?"

"Blame Steven." Sara responded, gesturing to the chaos in front of them as friends and servers alike dipped in and out of view. "One of his new ideas for the cafe. Open mic comedy night. Don't think he expected this kind of turnout given we're so fucking small and he knows it as he brought the place, but that weird guy he hangs out with that does the food delivery told everyone. I'm going to have an aneurysm later tonight, I can feel it."

"God, I know we work for him, but seriously, what was he thinking?" He didn't bother to comment that the 'weird guy' Steven hung out with was Adam, the fucking best food deliverer on the planet thankyou very much, too focused on the job as hand as he tied his apron on.

"Why didn't Andrew talk him out of this?"

"He's on a business trip up in New York for the network company he works for. Some meeting for a new technology called Watcher that they might want to invest in. Steven's been looking at for the cafe, some security system. Thinks if Andrew's company take stock in it, he can get it on the cheap or something."

Sara hurried around him, attempting to grab some silverware and menus before they went flying. "You should have /seen/ the look on his face when he turned to me on Tuesday, Ryan. It was like a cartoon villain being taken out of a cage. He couldn't be stopped."

"Yikes." Was all Ryan could say. He knew the owner's mind, as he'd been working for him for several years now, since he was just out of college. Whenever Steven had an idea, not even California's finest could stand in the way, as evidenced only 2 years ago when California's finest /did/ turn up to arrest people, only to find Steven half-naked surrounded by "yogies" as they chanted in Latin around a small campfire, an /actual/ campfire in the middle of the cafe.

(Andrew almost crucified all of them, go figure, but to be fair, Steven said they were decent folks, it wasn't his fault that they wanted to have their "meeting"| at their establishment.)

Shaking the memory away from the front of his mind (god, the chanting, as if his head hurt didn't hurt already), he quickly stretched his hands out in front of him. "What can I do, boss?"

"Hurry up and get behind the counter with Daysha and Curly, we need all hands on deck."

"You got it." Dashing off as quickly as Kelsey had previously, Ryan prayed that Steven would be paying overtime to all of them at the end, because this was bullshit. The cafe was clearly too small to host an event like this. Had it happened several years ago when the place was barely known and just started to pick up regulars, maybe it could have worked without oo much fuss, but now, it was a circus as he tried to get food and drinks through crowds without it being spilled on the floor, or worse, someone's front.