12

REBECCA

“But they said that it wasn’t cooked enough. Doesn’t that mean I should cook it more?”

There were so many things wrong with not just what had just been said, but the entire situation, I had to take a second to process it all and figure out what I was going to say first. I didn’t even get a chance to.

“No,” Tony said firmly. “No, that does not mean you should cook it more.”

I was pretty sure that was the most words I’d ever heard the man say all in a row in all the years we’d worked together. It wasn’t that he was a mean or unpleasant man. He just wasn’t the most effervescent and would much rather focus on his work and get it done than stand around talking.

Apparently, though, his breaking point was a wide-eyed brunette named Dawn.

Lauren quitting her position at the diner left a huge hole. She had been working there for many years and had been hired by the owner of the diner, Dina, herself. Over her time working there, Lauren had built up a large following of regular customers who came into the diner only when they knew she was going to be serving. Her enthusiasm, skill, and popularity with the customers led to her being promoted to manager, which meant she was working there even more.

But she could handle it. She didn’t complain, even on the hardest days. Not to the customers, anyway. I knew she wasn’t as in love with the job as she used to be, but she made it her mission to never let that show. As long as she was working there at the diner, she was going to make the absolute most of it.

That kind of dedication and work ethic made it seem impossible that we’d find anyone even close to take her place. The weeks following her leaving proved we were right. Dina promoted Molly to manager, but she didn’t have the availability and didn’t wait tables along with her managing duties. Within the first couple of weeks, Dina hired a couple of new people, but neither one of them lasted more than three weeks.

She hired another, but he didn’t last either. The next hired server was decent but could only work part-time, which still left more availability to fill. Enter Dawn.

Her first day on the job was two days after my date with Deacon, and it was not great right from the beginning. It was her third day, and the burger incident we were facing now had reached a new level of ridiculous.

“Why not?” she asked, still holding a plate scattered with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and some scraped-off cheese I’d found her clutching next to the grill. “If he wants it cooked more, why isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

I wanted to believe this was a joke. She had to just have a bad sense of humor and not understand the difference between a light-hearted practical joke and an egregious health code violation. Unfortunately, the longer she stared back at me, the more I realized she was just that dumb.

“You can’t take a burger back from a customer, take the toppings off of it, and put it back on the flat top,” I said. “Especially if the person has already taken a bite out of it.”

“You shouldn’t be putting anything on the flat top,” Tony said. Another record for him.

Dawn scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It’s really not that big of a deal. That grill is so hot it will kill any germs or anything that’s still on the burger. And he only took, like, a little bite out of it. What was I supposed to do, just throw it away?”

“Yes,” Tony and I said at the same time.

“That is incredibly wasteful,” she said.

“Nothing I can do about that. It’s the rules according to the Health Department,” Tony said with more than a hint of annoyance. “Not to mention, you can’t cook in here.”

“Yes, I can!” Dawn said with indignance lifting her voice high. “I am a very good cook, thank you very much. I will show you.”

She made a move toward the grill again, and Tony lunged as if to protect it. I stepped between them.

“Okay, Dawn, listen. No one is questioning your culinary skills in your life outside of the diner. But you can’t use the cooking equipment in the kitchen. You weren’t hired to work in the kitchen, you weren’t trained to work in the kitchen, and you can’t just come back here and use it without permission. It’s a liability issue. You can’t recook food that’s already gone out to a customer. That’s a health issue.

“If a situation like this happens, you come back here, throw out that food, tell Tony what’s going on, and have him replace it for you. If the customer complains again, you go talk to the manager and have them discuss it with the customer. Okay? Got it?” I asked.

Tags: Natasha L. Black Romance
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