Touch the Billionaire

Chapter 6

“Did he drink it already?” Rosetta asked Angelie, almost in a whisper, standing behind her friend. The latter secretly peered through the half-glass, half-wooden kitchen door. “Ma’am Karen will kill me if she learned I served the customer something that’s not in the menu!” She unconsciously bit her right thumb nail.

Angelie straightened up and beamed at her. “Yes! I think I saw him smile. Or… did he grimace? I’m not sure now.”

Rosetta’s mouth gaped open. “You think he’s going to complain that the cocktail’s bad?” Now she was nervous. What possessed her to make such a thing anyway? She could’ve just chosen randomly as advised. Now she was screwed!

She swallowed the non-existent lump in her throat. It was so big that she thought it was the size of a softball. Her heart drummed, almost making her deaf. She slowly peered through the glass to watch Yuri drink her cocktail. She swallowed and blinked once again, seeing his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he drank it.

“Hey! There are new customers out there. Why are you still here? You, Rosetta! Come with me in the back.” Karen spoke right behind them.

Both she and Angelie and a couple of others straightened up, ignoring the others’ chuckles. They were either busy chopping spices or cutting vegetables and meat or whatnot. The two chefs were on their respective tasks as well.

“Good luck, Rosetta!” Jojo derided with a wide mocking grin.

Angelie gave Jojo a threatening fist before going out of the kitchen without a word, while Rosetta followed their manager to the small manager’s office in the back, near the kitchen door, which was the entrance-exit for the employees and deliveries.

They passed by the two kitchen island tables and went into the manager’s office. It was only composed of a desk, an office chair, two plastic visitors’ chairs, a long sofa pushed to the left wall and a filing cabinet, as well as a small coffee table where a cup and coffeemaker were placed. The floor was made of light blue tiles and was spotless. The air conditioning was on, so the cool temperature touched their skin the moment they stepped into the five-by-eight-meter office.

“I heard about what happened earlier,” Karen began, sitting in the office chair behind the desk while the young girl stood in front. Her head was slightly bent. “You broke two plates, two glasses and two bowls and all the food was wasted. You do know the rules; everything’s in the contract. Whether or not it is the customer’s fault, your salary will be deducted, Rosetta.”

The company made such a rule to discipline the servers, to be always careful with their job. They need to be focused. Well, not to mention that breaking company properties was a loss itself, even more so with the food and drinks.

Rosetta swallowed. “I-I understand, Ma’am Karen,” she said in a low controlled voice. She didn’t want to cry in front of her manager.

“Now, you have to fill this up for documentation purposes,” the manager stated, pushing a small slip for her to sign that she waived for the deduction in her salary.

She took the black pen from the pen holder. “Can it be done in two installments instead, Ma’am Karen?” she requested.

“No, because everything will be in the weekly report,” the manager said, sighing.

Rosetta bit her lower lip as she nodded, trying to stop her chin from trembling and burst into tears. She just blinked, looking down at the piece of paper and filling it out. She signed it at the bottom and pushed it back to the manager, noting that she just lost almost a week-worth pay. Aside from those food and drinks that were wasted, she also had to pay for the broken things.

How can we pay for the electric bill for this month? she wondered at this depressing thought.

She was one that didn’t want to borrow money from other people even if she was close with. She didn’t want to owe anyone money. She was not only shy about asking for it, but she also didn’t want to be indebted, too. Her parents taught her not to borrow anything from other people, lest she’d be indebted to them for the rest of her life. As it is, Filipinos tend to feel this way whenever they owed somebody, especially a favor. However, her parents wanted to deviate from this, thus the reason. She thought there was nothing wrong with it. She and her family were able to be on their own despite the hardships they’d been through.

“If you want to render overtime in the weekend, you may do that since we have a lot of customers. We have a wedding booked this Sunday. You can help the staff at the hotel. Or you can cover for anyone who’s absent so you can make up for your loss.”

“Thank you, Ma’am Karen. I-I’ll do that.”

She nodded. “Now, get back to work.”

She went back to the restaurant, heart pumping when Yuri’s friend raised his hand to summon her. She hurried, noticing that almost all the food was gone.

“Yes, sir?”

“Can you have the bill prepared while these guys are finishing our food?” He chuckled.

She glanced at Sergei and Igor, amazed.

Where do they put all the food?

“Oh, can I have another Golden Well, please?” Yuri said before she could turn around with the tray filled with empty plates and bowls. His face was still brooding, as usual. She thought he doesn’t know how to smile. Because of it, she wondered how he’d look like if he did.

“Oh! Okay, sir,” was all she could say. She hid both her lips as she walked toward the cashier to ask for Table 10’s bill. She added there the cocktail, under the mojito name.

“Mojito? I don’t see the mojito on their table a while ago. Are you sure about this?” the cashier questioned her.

“You must be mistaken. I gave him the mojito. I’ll get the bill in a jiff before I’ll give him his second helping of the cocktail, okay?” she just said and turned away.

She quickly went back to the kitchen and racked her brain how she made the cocktail. Her hands moved rapidly to do the mix while the other staff looked on with interested eyes.

“He liked your cocktail?” Jojo was astounded.

She wetted her lips. “I guess so?” she answered, concentrating on the mix. She took another glass and taste tested it if she got it right. When satisfied, she rushed back to Table 10 while her colleagues followed her with their eyes.

“Whaa! I didn’t know Rosetta is so brave!” the chef commented.

“After being scolded, she might be reviled later if Ma’am Karen learned about this,” Jojo’s comeback.

“About what? And who are you talking about? Is it Rosetta again?” Karen just came out of her office, and the staff exchanged glances.