Eat or Be Eaten (MewGulf AU)

🌻Chapter 7

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"You tie the tablier around your waist like this. The knot goes in front. It's easy to catch on things if it's too loose, so be careful. Everything looks like the right size for you. Can you walk?"

Gulf took a few experimental steps as James talked. It was hard to take more than the tiniest steps, but that was probably normal.

"It's like wearing a skirt."

"I suppose it does feel similar" James smiled. "Anyway, that's how you dress. Now to explain operations on the floor. You've come to the restaurant so often yourself, I'm sure you already know some of it. We number the tables starting from the kitchen, so table seven is by the door. Usually we only take parties up to four. For any more than that, we push two big tables together. If there's not enough room, come tell me."

After running a vacuum cleaner and mopping the floor, James set a white tablecloth and a light blue cloth each table.

"Next is the table settings. The big tables are easier to explain, so we'll start there."

"All right."

Gulf stood in front of the table next to James and did what he did, hanging the white tablecloth on the back of a chair, then spreading out the blue cloth.

"We put it on at an angle."

Gulf arranged it the way James told him to, smoothing out all the wrinkles. Next he spread out the white tablecloth, laying it on top of the blue cloth at a different angle.

When he set down the plates and glasses, small wrinkles rolled up in the cloth.

"You need to smooth the cloth back out when that happens."

Gulf had never paid much attention to the tablecloth before, but now that he saw how much technique went into their arrangement, he was impressed.

"Now try it again on the next table."

James checked Gulf's work as he efficiently spread out the next tablecloth.

"Good. That's very good. Are you sure your company is all right with you doing this?" James asked quietly, despite all the work they'd already done.

"We're pretty much a group of freelancers, so as long as I don't inconvenience any of my other clients, there's no problem." Gulf answered with a laugh, but there had actually been a lot of resistance.

As he'd explained to James, all of A&6's employees were individually contracted with their clients. It wasn't a job that kept them at their desks all day.

The only job he was working on right  now was this French restaurant project. Everything else was long-term advising.

But those ongoing jobs were important, too, and there was no telling when a new request would come in. Gulf handled not only expansions into new locations and new sectors, but also closures, bankruptcies, and many other business concerns.

That made it impossible to leave work for a month. When he'd talked to his father about it, his father had asked if it was absolutely necessary to do this. What would Gulf really be able to do after only a month helping out?

"I don't know myself what I'll be able to do. But I have to do something. I want to earn his trust."

He didn't know where this impulse came from, but he'd promised to do it so he wanted to see it through. If the project ended up going nowhere, Gulf wanted to earn Mew's trust and find out more about him. These desires were powerful.

Gulf's father sensed his son's sincerity and said nothing more. In fact, he offered to help him manage his other projects.

Before, Gulf had taken on too much work. He now gave new employees the work that didn't require him specifically and the jobs that required only periodic updates. For the jobs that required constant contact and the ones that seemed likely to request new project, he sent out a message saying that he would be mostly out of contact for the next month and that he would only be checking his email and accepting phone calls in the morning hours.