A Loveless Meal

Chapter 2: It's Missing Something

Vince continued to stand there as Rody left. His mind was still trying to wrap around the brief exchange even as he stared at the now closed door.

All day Rody had been a mess of irritating clumsiness, awkward friendliness, and a disgusting happy-go-lucky attitude. The customers seemed to tolerate him atleast. But Vince found himself consistently exasperated with the strange little ball of sunshine that stuck out in this professional setting like a sore thumb.

Rody was constantly messing up, either bringing out the wrong orders (Which should have been difficult considering how simple the menu was), forgetting to put down new silverware until a guest asked for it, leaving wineglasses unfilled, spacing out until Vince had to yell at him to "Grab the damn orders!"... By the end of the day, Vince's eye had begun to twitch.

But still, it was his first day, so he was doing his best to give his new hire time to overcome those first day jitters. Vince had worked enough service industry jobs when he was younger to understand that the first day may not be an accurate measurement of a worker's potential.

But that resume didn't leave him very hopeful and he really didn't want any unnecessary blemishes on his restaurant's perfect record.

He'd made the rolls for Rody because that's just what he usually did for new hires. One free meal on the first day to give them a taste of the establishment. That was a pretty normal thing for restaurants to do and he didn't see why he shouldn't. Maybe they'd learn to treat his meals with the proper care each one deserved once they had tried it.

But over the course of the day, he couldn't help but notice that alot of those moments of clumsiness seemed to coincide with Rody's smile fading. He'd get this tired, sad look and would sigh so deeply that Vince could hear him even from the kitchen. He had thought about asking what was wrong, but decided it wasn't that important. None of his business really and he couldn't be bothered.  And as he cooked that meal, Vincent continually reminded himself that this was just standard procedure and he wasn't doing it for any special reason.

But regardless of all his assurances earlier, he still felt himself completely blindsided by Rody upon handing him his free meal.  Yes, the older man had looked...  Depressed with whatever he had going on, but for him to actually tear up and shoot Vincent such a grateful smile?

Rody acted like Vincent had shown him his first act of kindness in years rather than a pretty standard 'welcome to the team' meal.

And that SMILE... Had anyone ever smiled at him that brightly for something so simple?

Sure, exes had always beamed at him when he presented them with gifts, but there was just something about Rody's smile that seemed to convey something the others had not.

The sound of thunder shook him from his reverie.
Blinking away his errant thoughts, Vincent frowned at himself. He was putting far too much thought into this. Rody's a simpleton, so he was probably just happy the food was free. No need to look into it any further than that, he thought.

Resolving to put it out of his mind, Vince made his way into his office to finish up some paperwork before heading to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sitting on his couch, Rody stared up at the ceiling. The onion rolls lay on their plate beside him, the piping hot food already beginning to cool even as the small apartment filled with the scent of them.

Truth be told, he didn't have much of an appetite. He hadn't for awhile now, even though he used to eat like a horse. But.. He couldn't bring himself to ignore the food that had been specially prepared for him. Especially since... Well if he was being honest with himself, letting them cool meant he'd have to eat them cold. Reheating was not going to be an option if he wanted them to still be edible.