The Perfect Date

Chapter 8

Checking herself out in the window, Maka made sure everything was in place before she entered the restaurant.

She was there as Tadi, not as herself. She figured it would be easier to get through that way. Not only did Pete's employees know Tadi better, the children also liked her.

Switching up their appearance to look like each other was something that both of them were experts at. They also knew how to speak like the other with no issues.

The scene at the restaurant wasn't what she expected. Instead of the organised service she had seen the previous day, everything was in chaos.

Customers were shouting for service. The human servers she had seen before were standing around, ignoring them. But what shocked her the most was the sight of the robotic servers trying to keep up with the service and failing.

Maka stood there staring at everything, wondering what the hell had gone wrong.

"Tadi? Tadi! Oh my gosh, thank God you are here. You have to talk some sense into him. Everything is falling apart!"

Maka turned around to see Ethan, the cook from their date standing by the kitchen doors.

What was he doing here? Didn't he work at another restaurant? Had he been hired again for the day?

"Come this way," he said. "We can talk behind the kitchen."

Maka followed him to the kitchen but took one last look over her shoulder to see if she wasn't imagining things. Something had changed overnight. How could things change so fast?

"What–" she asked as they stepped into the kitchen.

The rest of her words didn't come out as she noticed the state of the kitchen.

The kitchen staff wasn't completely human either.

Changing the service people was bad, sure, but changing the kitchen staff? Was he trying to kill off his own business?

"Come back here," Ethan said, leading out of the kitchen and into the back corridor. "We should have a bit more privacy for a minute or two out here," he said

Maka nodded and followed him without another word. As she walked, she scanned the room again, taking note of the humans versus the robots, and nodded at some of the human cooks calling out Tadi's name as she passed.

Right. Tadi. She had to remember to stay in character and not look too out of place. Once they were alone, she pointed back into the kitchen and asked,

"What was that? Am I seeing things?" She asked.

"I was hoping you knew about this already and are here to talk some sense into that friend of yours. I don't understand. How could a man go from valuing his workers to changing overnight and laying off most of them? Did your sister say something to him? She works for your dad, doesn't she? One date with her and he is suddenly all for the robots?"

Maka gaped at him for a second and fought the urge to defend herself. They thought she had something to do with this?

She wanted to shout her innocence and defend herself. She had nothing to do with any of this.

And she barely knew the man. How could she have influenced him enough for such a drastic change?

Not to mention that she preferred human service anyway.

'Deep breath. Don't lose it.'

"You think Maka made him do this?" She asked.

'Thank the Lord I came as Tadi. What type of reception would I have gotten as myself?'