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RICHIE AND KITTY HAD FOLLOWED their original plan to have a proper date on Friday. Richie had surprised her by cooking the food himself and when she arrived at his place, she was enveloped by the delicious smell of spaghetti. The lights were dimmed and the small dining table was set out to look like any other fancy restaurant, with candles lit in the middle of it. The only thing missing was a table cloth, but Kitty didn't care. If anything, she preferred it that way, no fear of embarrassment of spilling red wine all over a white, overly-expensive sheet.
There was no awkwardness as they enjoyed the evening. Chatting, laughing and enjoying the tasty meal Richie prepared. But there was a lingering subject on the line, one that seemed to be slowly suffocating the atmosphere the more they tried to scurry around it.
Richie being sent off to Ever for the next two weeks.
And so, when the topic had finally come up, Kitty wasn't surprised by Richie's reaction to it. He'd scoff at the idea. Telling her how stupid he thought it was. How pointless it would all be. How he didn't need to go to some 'fancy-ass restaurant' (his exact words) to learn how to work in one. But there wasn't anything either of them could do. Seemingly no begging Carmen to change his mind had worked. He was dead set on this new plan. She understood that it would keep Richie and Sugar away from each other for the next two weeks and that was certainly good for the restaurant, but it did pain her to see his reaction to this.
And so, to try and get his mind off of it all, the pair of them decided to go out and spend the weekend together with Eva. Picking her up from Tiff's place on Saturday morning and dropping her off Sunday evening.
(A time they had used to let the pair know that in fact Richie and Kitty were now officially seeing each other. Something that Richie seemed very confident about whilst Kitty seemed hesitant, worried that it would change the dynamic she had with herself and Tiffany or even with Eva.
But instead, Tiffany pulled her into her arms, hugging her as tightly as she physically could whilst muttering to herself 'I knew it, I knew it, I so knew it' over and over again. Before she then engulfed Richie in a hug to which she had whispered threats in his ear to not let Kitty go.
He let out a small chuckle, his eyes watching Eva and Kitty interacting over the top of Tiff's head, "I wouldn't dream of it," He stated causing Tiffany to let out yet another excited squeal).
And when it had finally come down to going to Ever on Monday morning, Richie was already dreading it all. He couldn't wait until the two weeks were up and he would be back at The Bear working alongside Kitty and the rest of his family. Back to where he once felt like he belonged, but now was slowly starting to question it, yet still wanted to belong there.
And he had also been right. When he told Kitty that it would all be completely and utterly pointless. He had been utterly right. Because all day he found himself wiping forks with another one of the employees. And then the next day. And the day after that too. And even when they were clean, they didn't seem clean enough for the staff.
"Yo, Garrett. Chef," Richie sighed tiredly, "I've been doing this forever. Can I...Wash dishes or something?"
"No, we got the best dishwashers in the world," Garrett responded, not even looking up at Richie as he himself continued wiping forks. Seemingly enjoying it way more than Richie was, "You're just gonna slow 'em down."
Richie rolled his eyes and threw the fork he had just finished cleaning down. Hearing it clatter as it fell onto the pile of the other forks. He picked up a dirty one and began working on it. Feeling utterly shit. His back hurt. His shoulders slouched. He was bored out of his mind.
"That wasn't clean," Garrett pointed.
"I've been doin' this for days. I think I know what's clean."
"I'm telling you, that's not clean," Garrett said and he watched as Richie threw another fork down, "That was not clean, either. Please, do them properly--"
"Yo, they're goddamn forks."
Garrett looked pissed. He placed his cloth and fork down, "Outside," He ordered, walking past Richie.
Richie let out a tired sigh but complied. Following the man out of the restaurant's side entrance.
"Do you think this is below you or something?" Garrett wondered as soon as they stepped out of the building.
Richie scoffed as he came to stand beside Garrett, but looked out ahead onto the road. Mindlessly watching as cars drove by, "Man, I think I'm thirty-seven years old, polishing forks," He responded with a tired look on his face.
"No one is asking you to be here. I don't think anybody remembers your name."
"Nice try. You think I don't know how hard it is hiring people since COVID?"
Garrett rubbed his forehead in frustration, "Wedon't have that problem."
Richie looked at him, "You really drink this Kool-Aid, huh?"
"Yeah, I do," Garrett nodded firmly.
"Why?"
"Because I love this, Richie," Garrett said, smiling with a passion. A look of purpose in his eyes, "I love this so much, dude. Did you know that when this restaurant opened twelve years ago, it won the best restaurant in the world the same year? It's retained three stars because we have a waiting list that's long. Five thousand people waiting at any given moment long. Do you see their faces when they walk in here? How stoked they are to see us and how stoked we have to be to serve them? It takes two hundred people to keep this place in orbit. And, at any given moment, one of those people that is waiting in line gets to eat here. They get to spend their time and their money here. I'm sorry, bro, but we need to have some forks without streaks in them. Every day here is the freaking Super Bowl. You don't have to drink the Kool-Aid, Richie. I just need you to respect me. I need you to respect the staff. I need you to respect the diners. And I need you to respect yourself."
Richie didn't say anything for a moment.
He let Garrett's words sink in. Having listened to his speech intently. He could see the raw passion that the man had for this restaurant, despite not even being the owner of it. It showed him just how important all of this was, even if he once didn't understand why, he felt as if he was slowly beginning to.
He nodded softly, "I can do respect."
AN- All sources I looked at said different things about how long Richie was at Ever for, so I decided to go for about 2 weeks as that's what I saw the most online, don't come at me with pitchforks if that's not canon, it is a fan fiction after all and not everything that's canon is used (like the age change).
