A Christian Romance II

Chapter 32 - Clarity

(The song above inspired this chapter)

The restaurant teemed with more diners than usual lately, which posed a problem for Michael who had already noticed that his establishment was short staffed, unfortunately customers had noticed that too.

On that Monday, Michael was in the restaurant - his favorite workplace - facing to his laptop trying to work on the tiny desk hidden in a corner of the dining area. He put his hands through his hair in aggravation anticipating the meeting with Miriam which was close. With a sigh, he stood up and headed to the patio.

The temperature outside was much higher than inside. Michael who was heat sensitive, immediately regretted wearing a long sleeved buttoned shirt, and he would have chosen shorts on that day if not for the scars on his lower legs.

He sat on the bench under the trees, with his arms wide open stretched along the bench, and legs apart to allow some airflow. He eventually opened his shirt too. Only then did he feel comfortable.

Closing his eyes to decompress and set his mind on God - a task that he started to manage much better, thanks to a little, yet very powerful, book called 'Experiencing God through prayer' by Madame Guyon; Joel had it emailed to him immediately after Ferdinand shared the news that Michael had come to Christ.

The water running from the fountain that stood in the center of the garden enveloped Michael in a state of ataraxy and he sensed God's presence.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the atmosphere was everything but peaceful. And although the line of work that Miriam had set functioned very well, it wasn't enough to keep up with the demand. She was more stressed than everybody else, because she had a meeting with Michael at 2 p.m. hoping to be done by then, but it backfired.

"How many orders left?" Miriam approached the floor manager that had just entered with two more requests.

"Just these two." He replied, showing a tablet with the orders to Miriam.

Miriam looked attentively at the requests. Nothing too hard. Even an amateur could cook them. "And how's the room, almost empty?" She hoped.

The floor manager shook his head and grimaced with his mouth. "We still have desserts to be served!"

Miriam felt a drop of sweat running down her forehead and wiped it with the sleeve of her dolma.

It was half past two already, when desserts were served to the last tables. At that point, the room was half empty.

"Compliments to the Chef!" The floor manager announced as he returned to the kitchen from serving another client. "Clients from table A want to give you their personal compliments." He announced.

"I'm sorry, but I'm running late to a private meeting with Mich," she relented from saying the boss's first name, "the boss!" She corrected."Have you seen him anywhere?" Miriam requested, noticing that it was 5 to 3 p.m.

"I haven't, but maybe Brian noticed something." He tried to help.

That suggestion sounded helpful, but right before leaving the kitchen to meet the bartender, Miriam was hit by a different line of thought and rushed across the kitchen and walked through the door that led to the patio. And just as she had suspected, she found Michael there, by himself, head low, distracted with his phone. He barely noticed her arrival.

"Am I glad to find you here!" She tried to call for his attention.

Michael slowly lifted up his head in her direction, quickly recalling that his shirt was completely unbuttoned. Without making much of it, he discreetly buttoned up the shirt. Hopefully, Miriam hadn't seen more than she should.