Sister Before Mister (MxM)

4.2 | Egg Foam

-Leo-

Leo walked down the carpeted hallways of his apartment building, down two flights of stairs, and past the building's main entrance to the parking garage. He made it to his 20-year-old Toyota Camry, Cam, hopped in. He crossed his fingers as he stuck the keys in the ignition and got her started, buckled up, then drove off. Cam had been the first and only car he had ever had, and he loved her. He's had to put quite a bit of work into her to keep her on the road, but she never failed him. He didn't drive her too much since he lived in the city and everything was pretty close by, but he was driving today to keep from being late to work.

Leo was hoping that Joe wasn't around and it seemed like he was in luck. He didn't see his car as he pulled up to The Diner and parked in one of the three spaces reserved for employees. It was out back behind the building next to a large dumpster. He got out and locked his car before walking towards the employee entrance. Before he could make it inside, one of the cooks named Eddie came out with a heavy black trash bag and promptly swung it up over his shoulder and into the dumpster in a clearly practiced motion.

"Hey man, someone's looking for a Denver omelet again. I think Holly needs your help," Eddie said, motioning towards Leo, with his signature unlit cigarette precariously balanced between his thin lips.

Leo always wondered how he could talk with that thing in his mouth without ever dropping it. Eddie had been a cook at the restaurant for at least 10 years before Leo started working there and he still didn't know much about his coworker. He was very private and kep to himself, but he was always looking out for everyone's back, even though he did look just a little too much like a serial killer. Unbeknownst to him, Leo and the other servers would call him Mr. Todd on meat delivery days.

"Yeah, I'll head right in and give her a hand," I said as I walked past him through the kitchen and into the employee backroom.

The backroom was small and sparsely furnished with a set of small beige lockers, a kitchen table, and a worn black loveseat. The walls were a basic white and covered in workplace harassment posters, notices about kitchen safety, and minimum wage announcements tinged yellow with age, attached to the walls with ancient scotch tape and the occasional thumbtack. The floor was covered in an aged, mystery stain-strewn brown carpet.

Leo walked towards his designated locker, located at the far right end of the row, closest to Joe's office. The door was cracked letting out a thin stream of light into the dim room. He could hear the quiet sounds of a one-sided conversation. Leo recognized the voice as Joe's and was about to listen in, but he heard some commotion coming from the dining area of the restaurant. Leo turned around and sighed, realizing that he needed to help out Holly, and now wasn't the time to be a nosy bitch.

Walking into the dining area, Leo could hardly hold back a smirk at the scene unfolding before him. Right in front of the door next to the hostess station he saw Holly the restaurant's hostess trying to reason with a irate septuagenarian, demanding a Denver omelet.

Holly was shaking like a leaf. She had only been working at the restaurant for a few months now. Leo didn't think she would be sticking around at this job for much longer. She was as timid as a mouse and Leo would say, nervous. At any sign of a hostile customer, she would shrink back in fear and begin to shake, stutter, and require rescue. As amusing as the situation was, it was time to step in.

"Sir, I'm so sorry but we don't serve omelets, what we do have is -" Holly said timidly before she was interupted.

"I've heard you say that already young lady! I just don't undersand how you can have a diner and not serve omelets. Next you'll tell me that you don't have coffee! Now, Where. Is. Your. Manager," The senior brought his cane down at each word of his last sentence with a demanding tone.

The older gentleman was entirely out of place in The Diner. The interior of the diner was decorated in an uber-modern, fine dining look. Everything had been selected by an arrogant interior designer that was "so hot right now" according to Joseph. She had choosen black wallpaper with a satin finish. The tables were your typical diner style with silver metal and black tabletops but the booths themselves were upholstered with sumptuous black velvet with high backs to allow privacy for the restaurant's patrons. The artwork on the walls were all black, white, and red stylistic photos of classic diner foods, which they no longer served. The only holdover from the original decor were the black and white checkered floors. It looked more like fine dining than anything and unfortunately so did their menu. But folks still came in thinking it was still Albany Avenue Diner looking for manhole sized pancakes and bacon covered cheese fries.

"Good afternoon Sir," Leo said, as he sidled up to rescue Holly. "I couldn't help but overhear that you were looking for a Denver omelet?"

The man looked at Leo up and down suspiciously, but said nothing.

He could feel Holly bristle next to him because of the awkward silence.

With his best customer service smile Leo continued, "We do serve a Red Rock egg foam with a ham, pepper, and onion infusion. It's quite delicious and I'd even say you might like it more than a denver omelet!" Leo highly doubted he would like it. He was barely able to get it down during the staff meeting where the new dish was introduced to the team.

The man's frown faded from his face once he heard the familiar ingredients. Leo had figured out that it was the best way to ease folks into trying the new, strange dishes that replaced the traditional diner mainstays. They would try it, hate it, then never come back, but it created less headaches up front.

"You know what, I'll give that a try. I'll have a seat at the counter" the man walked past the hostess podium and towards a barstool at the counter.

Holly's anxious energy seemed to dissapate instantly, until she made another mistep.

"Sir let me just see what tables are available -"

Leo whipped his head back around from watching the old man settling onto a stool to look at Holly threateningly. She was looking down at her podium scribbling onto the seating plan with a pencil, holding a menu in her other hand.

"What are you doing?!" He hissed at his coworker. She looked up and started to shake again, nervously.

"Girl!" Leo grabbed the menu from Holly's hand and walked over to the bar. Handing it to the older man with a smile. Luckily, he hadn't heard Holly attempting to stick to her hostess duties like an overachieving post-it note.

Leo took the man's order and and before relaying it to the kitchens, he looked up and saw Holly giving him an appreciative smile and mouth the words 'Thank you'. Leo smiled back glad that he could help, and also glad that he could quiet the yelling that was irritating his perpetual hangover.

Breaking eye contact with his coworker, Leo could feel eyes watching him intently. He hesitantly walked towards the kitchen to check on the older gentleman's order. He turned around, locking eyes with a pretty blonde woman sitting in a booth towards the back of the restaurant with three other people. It was just a customer trying to get his attention. She waved at him excitedly.

'Maybe she really needs a refill on that mimosa.' He thought to himself as he reached down deep, pulled out his best customer service smile, and made his way back to the booth siting along the front windows of the restaurant.