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WORKING AT THE BEEF USED to be chaotic. But the chaos, it was nothing compared to what the kitchen was like now at The Bear. As the weeks went on, the restaurant was bleeding money. Anything that came into it, went straight out the fucking window within seconds. Carmen's patience was wearing thinner and thinner and he and Richie butted heads way more often. With one evening it even turning into a physical altercation that forced Marcus to jump in between the two men to pull them apart.
There wasn't a single night that Kitty went back home (to hers and Richie's shared place) where she didn't have a migraine pulsating behind her eyes. Richie would often be the one in charge of driving them back, whilst Kitty sat in the passenger seat with her head on the cool window, taking in the quietness of the vehicle – a huge contrast to any single day at The Bear.
Richie knew how difficult it must be. He barely had to see Carmy during the evening but everything he did, all he could hear is his shouting and see the annoyed look on his face. He couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for Kitty working in the midst of it all, spending every second listening to his screams and watching him throw things across the kitchen.
So, when they had a morning off and needed to take Eva back to her mom's after she slept over the night before, Richie didn't bother waking Kitty up. He kissed her forehead and watched as she cuddled further into his pillow, and although Eva was pouting that Kitty wouldn't join them on the walk over to Frank and Tiff's new house, she understood that the older woman was tired and so, she too, quietly placed a kiss on Kitty's head just like her father would do to her when she wasn't feeling great and tugging one of her teddies into Kitty's side before letting Richie escort her out of the room as quietly as they could.
They decided to take a walk. The new house wasn't too far from Richie and Kitty's place and it gave him more time with his daughter. Something that felt like an instant anxiety reliever, especially when his mind swarmed with dread of the evening to come at The Bear.
"What animal would you be, if you could be any animal?" Richie asked her.
"Uh...'Mer-horse'."
"A horse?"
"A 'mer-horse'," Eva repeated her answer.
"Oh, 'mer-horse'?"
"Yeah," Eva grinned, nodding her head as she walked on a higher part of the pavement near some plants, her fingers stroking the leaves as they went past, "What would you be?"
Richie thought for a moment.
Eva held up her hand, counting down from five with a laugh.
