Jason finished his breakfast and then left with another round of apologies and promises to call Nikki later. He has a demanding job. He had to leave for an important work thing, Nikki told herself, testing out the line for veracity. It wasn’t convincing.
Nikki descended into O’Reilly’s that evening to find a young woman she had never seen before standing at the bar. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her make-up was so heavy that her eyes looked drawn on. She gave Nikki a quick smile and then returned to twisting the end of her ponytail in her finger. ‘Hello,’ Nikki said.
‘I’m Jo,’ the girl said with no other explanation.
Sam emerged from the back room. ‘Oh good – Nikki you’ve met Jo, Jo this is Nikki. I’m training Jo to work at the bar so I’ll need you in the kitchen this evening.’
‘All right,’ Nikki said. If she had known of this arrangement in advance, she would have prepared herself to spend the evening with those two buffoons in the kitchen, but it seemed that nothing was working out her way today. Heading for the kitchen, she tossed a glance at Jo. She was an attractive young woman, and the snickering Russians were sure to comment again on Sam’s dodgy hiring judgement. Jo looked disinterested in anything Sam was saying as he leaned close to her. Come on, Sam, Nikki thought. She wished Olive were here but she had declared a strike against dismal weather and was in Lisbon for the weekend, courtesy of a last minute online deal. She pulled out her phone and sent her a quick text:
London sucks at the moment. Come back!
The reply was a photo of a pristine and sunny beach landscape. Nikki wrote back:
Stop rubbing it in my face
I’d like to rub this in MY face hahahaha
A moment later, a picture appeared on Nikki’s phone. It was a shirtless, tanned man on the beach with such defined stomach muscles, they looked hand drawn. His arm was around Olive’s bare waist and her cheek was pressed against his chest. One of her eyes was squeezed shut in a wink. Bring me one, Nikki wrote back.
The kitchen was a flurry of activity and foreign language when Nikki entered it. The Russians called out to each other and Sanja flitted between them. The moment they noticed Nikki, their voices dropped. They shared a smirk. Nikki could tell from a slight tension of recognition in Sanja’s face that she had heard and understood their joke. Outside the kitchen, the pub rocked with applause and laughter. It was another trivia event and the quizmaster was warming up the crowd with a bit of stand-up comedy.
Garry appeared at Nikki’s side. ‘You didn’t hear me?’ he asked. ‘I said take these to Table Five.’
‘Sorry,’ Nikki said.
‘You have to listen,’ he said. ‘This is kitchen, not Sam’s office.’ He made a wiggling motion with his hips.
‘Look, Garry. I think it’s really inappropriate of you to imply—’
Garry walked off before Nikki could complete her sentence. She took the order out, her cheeks burning with indignation. She passed Jo, who was busy checking her phone. ‘I think you’ve got customers,’ Nikki said. Jo scowled back.
On her return back, she saw Sanja at the door. ‘Don’t bother with them,’ she said. ‘They’re arseholes. They want to work at the bar because they think they’ll impress girls that way.’
‘I don’t think working at the bar will help them in that department.’
‘Me, I prefer the kitchen work. But maybe I’m better than the new girl.’
‘Anyone’s better than that,’ Nikki said. ‘I don’t know what Sam’s thinking.’ Noticing the line of cleavage that Jo exposed as she leaned towards a customer, Nikki thought, or maybe I do.
Nikki returned to the kitchen and focused on the orders, wishing for the night to pass quickly. She wanted to return to her flat and just curl up on her bed. The kitchen clattered with noise and each time the door swung open, she could hear the quizmaster’s booming questions.
‘Native to Australia, this amphibian mammal lays eggs.’
‘Which actress played Marta in The Sound of Music?’
‘What did Jesus send his disciples out with? A) Sticks and stones B) Bread and Money C) Scrip D) Staves.’
What’s a scrip? Nikki wondered as she pulled open the dishwasher door. A burst of scalding steam rushed to her face. She yelped and shoved the door close. Sanja rushed to her side. ‘Here, open your eyes and let me see.’
Nikki blinked a few times to clear her blurry view of Sanja’s face. ‘You be careful with that thing,’ Sanja said, tossing a look of contempt at the dishwasher. ‘The alarm beeps before the dishes are dried. I should have warned you.’
Garry called out to Sanja. She snapped back at him in rapid Russian. ‘Thanks,’ Nikki said. She opened her eyes. ‘And thanks for standing up for me.’
‘You don’t know what I said.’
‘It sounded like the Russian equivalent of “fuck off”.’
‘Correct,’ Sanja said.
Sanja’s kindness helped the remaining hours of Nikki’s shift pass a little more quickly. The trivia crowd was good-natured tonight, even after Steve with the Racist Grandfather answered a question about North Korea with, ‘Me love you long time!’ Yet by the time Nikki’s shift was over, her anger at Sam still had not subsided. She marched to Sam’s office and rapped on his door. ‘Come in,’ he called.
Nikki entered. ‘The dishwasher’s got issues,’ she said.
‘Yeah, I know,’ Sam said, not looking up from a spread of papers on his desk. ‘I’ll get it fixed soon.’
‘You need to get it fixed sooner than that,’ Nikki said. Her voice wavered.
Now Sam looked up. ‘I’ll fix it when I’ve got the money, Nikki. If you haven’t noticed, things are tight round here.’
‘It’s a hazard,’ she replied. ‘Besides, if you haven’t got the money, why are you hiring new staff? What’s the deal with this Jo, Sam?’
It was satisfying to see Sam look so taken aback. ‘Am I supposed to check all my hiring decisions with you?’
‘I think I’d have a more professional opinion than you.’
‘Is that right?’ Sam asked wryly.
‘Do you know what those idiots in the kitchen have been saying about me? That you hired me because I seduced you. Is that right, Sam? Because I sure don’t remember it that way. Here I was thinking I got this job because I was a hard worker but—’
‘Nikki, I’m going to stop you right there.’ Sam’s tone was infuriatingly calm now but distinct worry lines scored his forehead. ‘I haven’t hired Jo. She’s my niece – my sister’s kid. Remember my weekend in Leeds? It was to bring Jo back down here. I’m training her as a favour. She just turned eighteen and has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She and my sister haven’t been getting along very well, so I thought I’d step in.’
That sounded like something Sam would do. ‘That still doesn’t excuse—’ Nikki began.
Sam waved away Nikki’s words. ‘I should have talked to you about that whole asking you out thing. I was too embarrassed. I had no idea those guys were giving you a hard time about it. I’ll have a word with them.’
‘You don’t have to do that.’
‘Won’t it make things easier if I tell them to stop?’