A Loveless Meal

Chapter 14: Earnest Feelings and A Mask

The next day, Rody entered the restaurant a whopping 30 minutes early.
Vincent was in the kitchen, giving his orders for the day when Rody stumbled in. Vincent almost couldn't believe his eyes, pausing momentarily as he spoke just from the sheer shock of it.
Even the other chefs looked surprised. The earliest they'd ever seen him was 5 minutes before shift start, even on the best of days.

Vincent's eyes flicked away, quickly covering his surprise and getting back on task. "... Are we clear on the menu for today, Daniel?"

Daniel nodded, holding a notepad and hastily finishing whatever he was scribbling. "Yes, Chef. For the appetizer, you wanted to do Coquille St-Jacques, then for the main Boeuf Bourguignon, Salade Niçoise for the side, then a Chocolate souffle with raspberry mousse for dessert."

Vincent nodded. "Go ahead and start preparing the ingredients we'll need for the day. You're dismissed," he said, turning away. With that, all of the cooks went to their respective stations and began their prep work.

Walking up to Rody with a raised eyebrow, Vincent felt a touch of amusement seeing the man yawning and rubbing his eyes. "While I'm pleased to see you finally taking your job seriously, I have to admit that I'm quite shocked you're here when you're supposed to be," he commented dryly.

Rody looked up at him blearily, blinking sleep out of his eyes. "Yeah, well..." he yawned loudly, slumping and rubbing his face even though it did little to awaken him. "I didn't know how long it'd take to get here... So I woke up really early to make sure I made it in time..." he mumbled, his voice sounding husky in his sleepy state.

Vince suppressed the shiver that ran up his spine at the sound of it. "Ah. Why didn't you take a bus? There's one that runs right around the corner."

Rody shrugged one shoulder lazily. "That costs money, which I don't have..."

Vincent raised an eyebrow, cocking a hip as he crossed his arms. "Not even a couple of francs for bus fare? Disregarding the fact that pay day was yesterday, you're getting tips every day so I really don't see why you can't afford it."

Rody seemed to grow awkward at that, looking off to the side. "I need the money for some house repairs... And food... And a new bike... I can't bring myself to buy a bus ticket when I could just walk here," he said, shifting awkwardly.

Vincent rolled his eyes and sighed, but let it go.

Rody seemed to remember something and grabbed Vincent's sleeve before he could walk away. "By the way, um.. What are our off days? You mentioned it in the interview but I don't remember anymore."

Vincent nodded. This week and last week had been handled differently than usual considering Rody had just joined and needed to learn the ropes, plus they took off Saturday (A day they don't typically have off). "We're usually off on Mondays and Tuesdays since those are the slow days of the week. You probably noticed those were low-tip days. The only reason we're here today is because we took Saturday off, but I intended for everyone to have tomorrow off."

Rody blinked before a frown slowly began to overtake his features. "Don'tcha think that's not enough notice? What if I was waiting to know about my day off to make plans?" he asked, his hands gesturing with agitation.

Vincent merely looked down at him impassively. "You were supposed to know about our days off. And you know now, so nothing is stopping you from making plans. I don't see the problem," he stated matter of factly, eyebrow raised as if Rody were being unreasonable.

Rody felt his blood pressure jump and he steepled his fingers over his nose, closing his eyes in exasperation. "Vince. If I knew the days, wouldn't I have not shown up for work today?" he asked hotly, his words slow as he tried to maintain his cool.