"Paula, I can't believe you didn't tell me. You went and hired a chef to replace me!"
"Kate, it's not like that. I needed to do something to keep people who dine here coming back. I didn't know when you were returning, and I didn't want to stop any progress you made with Zoe. Rick became available, and I had to act fast. I didn't want to lose him. A lot of other restaurants had their eye on him."
Kate stares at Paula. She hopes her scowling look will make her change her mind, but Kate continues when it doesn't work.
"I don't need some lunatic running around in my kitchen!"
"He's not a lunatic! He's just a little eccentric. He's a highly sought-after chef."
Kate humphs at that comment as they walk together to the main dining room.
"Paula, the man was singing to Pavarotti; he's beyond eccentric.
Kate has to cut off her rant because she and Paula have reached the maitre D's podium. While Paula greets her next guests, Kate turns around and stands off to the side.
"Hi, do you have a reservation?" Paula asks the couple.
"Yes. Matthew's party of two."
The man took too long to remove his coat, so Kate yanks it off his back and hands it to the coat check girl. Paula escorts the Matthews to a table and tells them their server will arrive shortly to take their drink and appetizer.
Seeing the Matthews sit at their table, Kate pulls Paula down the central aisle of the restaurant towards the wine cooler.
"The only demand I had when I took this position was I get to choose who I work with. Leah would have been just fine, Paula," Kate said as they entered the wine cooler together.
Paula is headed for the wine cooler to get a bottle of wine for a customer's table. Kate is using the same time to vent her frustration about the choices Paula has now made.
"Leah can barely stand up anymore. If I push her, she's going to fall over and holding her crotch and chopping at the same time! Give him a chance, Kate. Rick is excellent." Paula says as they both walk into the kitchen.
"I know nothing about him. I have no idea what…"
Paula looked at her friend as if she was crazy.
"Give me some credit, will you?" Paula demands.
"Where has he worked?" Kate wonders.
"He was the sous-chef at Il Treviso."
"Italian!? You bring a sous-chef from an Italian
restaurant and I'm the one in therapy?"
"We were lucky to get him. Peninsula offered him a position as an executive chef."
"Why didn't he take it?"
"Because he said he wanted to work with you."
Little does each woman know that Rick has been watching the entire conversation unfold before him. Kate, who has never worked or even shared a kitchen with another chef, turns toward the prep tables and stove, looking at the smug look on his face as he listens to the god-awful opera music. To her, he seems like a little kid who finally got his way. But he doesn't take the hint when she raises her arm to point behind him. She shakes her arm, pointing at him again, stressing that he turns around. With a questioning look on his face, he does and sees that the scallops he was preparing in the pan on the stove are now on fire. He pulls off the pan and douses the fire. When he turns to look at her, all she can do is shake her head, turn, and leave the kitchen. Paula shakes her head and heads back to the maître d's podium.
After leaving the restaurant, Kate wearily climbs the steps to her apartment. As she reaches the top landing, she notices a pair of chopsticks taped to the door. Looking down, she sees a bag of pork fried rice and cold wonton soup in a plastic disposable bag. She knows the door is locked because she just unlocked it with her key. Zoe must have ordered Chinese food and wouldn't open the door until the delivery man left. She picks up the bag, removes the chopsticks from the door, and walks in. She doesn't see or hear anything when she closes the door behind her. She becomes a little worried. She walks down the hallway towards Zoe's room, and the T.V. sound becomes evident. She tries to push open the door, but it's stuck. She can only open it enough to see Zoe asleep on her bed.
She goes through the bathroom and is thankful for her Jack and Jill bathroom. She opens the door to her bedroom, looks to her right, and sees a chair wedged up against the door with a stuffed animal leaning against the chair. Kate puts the stuffed animal aside and puts the chair back under her desk. She looks on as Zoe slumbers, unaware of her presence. She pulls the comforter over her petite body and brushes the hair out of her face. She turns off the T.V., puts the remote on her dresser, and turns back to see that Zoe has rummaged through the moving boxes to find a photo album that Kate had never seen. She flips through a couple of pages and sees Zoe's school picture from two years ago, images of Zoe and Christine together at the park, and the last one she lays her eyes on is when Kate went to Chicago to visit her sister. They walked side by side down the street, and their friend took the picture. These pictures bring back so many memories for her. She looks at her watch, not realizing how late it is, and then understands why Zoe had barricaded the door closed. It's close to midnight. She moves over to her side of the bed and lies down, fully clothed.
"Kate… wake up."
"Mmmm?"
"Kate… School starts at 9:00, and it's 8:20," Zoe tells Kate, who still lies on the bed asleep.
"Hmmm? Oh no!" Kate says as she bolts up from the bed.
She's still trying to grasp the concept of getting up when her brain starts thinking about what must be done. She claps her hands together, looks at Zoe, and sees that she's already dressed and has her coat on.
"Come on, let's get you dressed."
Kate looks at Zoe, still trying to become fully awake, and realizes she is already dressed.
"Oh good, you're already dressed," Kate says as she walks into the bathroom.
"Do you need any supplies like pens, pencils, paper?" Kate says, talking around her toothbrush.
Zoe watches as her aunt brushes her teeth and tells her she has everything they need at school.
"Oh, by the way, I made you lunch. I hope you like duck."
Zoe turns her head and sticks her finger in her mouth as if she was gagging. No, she doesn't like duck. Maybe she can get something in the cafeteria for lunch.
Kate leaves the bathroom and rushes towards the front door. She looks behind her, and Zoe is just leaving her bedroom.
"I can't find my scarf."
"Don't worry about it. We'll find it later. I can't have you late for your first day of school, so come on, let's go." Kate says as she wiggles her fingers, trying to get Zoe to come towards the front door.
Zoe comes to the doorway to her room and says with a sad face,
"I need my scarf."
"Zoe, just use one of mine. We'll find yours later."
Zoe kept looking at her with the saddest face ever, so Kate relented.
"All right, let's go find your scarf."
Zoe follows Kate as she walks into her bedroom and pulls out boxes. She's determined to find this scarf. After going through two boxes, Kate finds a scarfie that looks to be hers.
"Is this it?"
"No"
Kate digs a little more and finds a second scarf in another box resembling something Zoe would wear. When she lifts it to show her, Zoe shakes her head in the negative. She pulls out the last box it could be in, and after searching, she pulls out a rainbow scarf.
"That's it!" Zoe exclaims.
Kate gets up, wraps the scarf around her neck, and ties it loosely.
"Great, that was easy. Come on. We need to go if we're going to make it to school on time."
Zoe pulls her book bag off the bed and follows Kate out of her room. When Zoe catches up with her in the hallway, Kate has already grabbed her coat from the coat hook and wrapped the scarf around her neck. As they head for the front door, Kate remembers Zoe's lunch.
"Oh, I forgot your lunch."
Once Kate is headed towards the refrigerator, the doorbell rings. Not wanting to be late, she asks Zoe to answer the door.
"Zoe, can you answer that, please?"
Kate busies herself, getting Zoe's lunch packed up. Zoe, on the other hand, stands there staring at the door. Before she can finish her task, there is a knock on the door. Kate quickly wraps up Zoe's lunch and puts it in her backpack. As she walks out of the kitchen, seeing Zoe just standing there, she only has one question.
"Why didn't you answer the door, Zoe?"
"You're not supposed to answer the door for strangers."
"Right. Yeah, that's smart."
Kate passes Zoe and undoes all the locks for the door. When she swings it open, she sees Sean standing on the other side.
"Hi, Sean."
"Any chance for some coffee? I've just run out." Sean says as he holds out a Tupperware container.
"Sure. We're running a little late, but Just one second."
"Good morning. I'm Sean. I live downstairs. You must be Kate's niece."
Not receiving a response, he tries again.
"It's Zoe, right? My kids are about your age. They'll be staying with me this weekend. Are you going to be around? Maybe you can come over and visit."
Kate turns the corner and hands Sean his Tupperware container.
"Here you go."
"Thanks, Kate."
"You're welcome."
Sean lifts the lid on the Tupperware and takes a whiff. He knows that Kate only has premium coffee.
"Ahhh, the good stuff."
"Yeah. All right, let's go. Quickly." Kate adds as they rush through the door, locking it behind them. But then she remembers the Chinese food in front of her door last night.
"Thank you for the Thai noodles last night."
"No problem," Sean replies.
"That was nice."
P.S. 11 is your everyday, ordinary New York City Public School in Manhattan. Since Kate didn't live that far from the school and it wasn't cold that day, she and Zoe decided to walk to school. It only took about eight minutes to get to the school from her apartment, and Kate was unsure what to do next. The hustle and bustle of other children running off into the school made her question whether she was just supposed to let Zoe go on alone.
"So I guess this is where you go in," Kate tells Zoe.
Zoe looks up at Kate and says,
"I don't know."
"Right, well, let's go in together."
Kate takes Zoe's hand, and they climb the stairs to the school. They walk down the hallways, and the children hang colorful art on the walls. They know they're heading in the right direction when an African-American woman comes out of an office with a bright smile.
"Miss Beckett, I'm Ellen Parker, the principal. It's good to meet you." Ellen says as she extends her hand for a handshake.
"It's Kate," Kate says as she accepts her handshake.
"And this must be Zoe. It's terrific to meet you."
"Hello," Zoe says in greeting.
"Now, if you come with me, I'll take you to your classroom, and we can meet your new teacher."
Kate watches as Zoe walks down the hallway to her new classroom. She has an empty feeling she can't describe as she watches her niece walk away and turn the corner. Just as Zoe is about to turn the corner, she looks back and sees Kate standing in the middle of the hallway. Kate gives a small wave, and Zoe smiles.
A/N: As of late, fanfiction has had issues with notifications for posted stories. My apologies to all who have not received this update due to those issues, but then again, this story never shows up on the fanfiction homepage. I'm not too sure why, but as they say, it is what it is.
P2P