Love and Food

v: banquet

"Come on in! You must be the volunteers!"

Chef Mac walked all of the girls around the kitchen.

"This class is a second year course that you all can take next year. You basically get to run your own restaurant and hire the staff too. Ash will give you all jobs to do."

Chef wanted to Ash, who was one of his assistant chefs.

"Of course! For now, just go to whatever sink you can find and help with the dishes!"

Chef looked at the time and bolted out of the room.

Everybody went to a different sink.

"Hey! Are you volunteering?"

A tall guy with a beaming smile came from behind Cecilia, scaring her and causing her to drop her dish in the sink.

"My apologies! I didn't mean to scare you!"

"No, it's ok! I get easily startled."

"You're all good! I just wanted to introduce myself actually. My name is Chance and you are?"

"Cecilia."

"Cecilia. Nice to meet you? Guessing you're a first year?"

Cecilia nodded.

"Welcome aboard!"

"Thank you!"

"You will love this class!"

"I'll be here every week!"

"Every week? Wow, you're dedicated. I wish I was like that my first year."

"I want to get more experience in the field, plus some extra credit too."

"Oh! That reminds me, I have to introduce you to somebody else! In this class, we have partners and my partner is right there. Evan!"

"What?"

Evan looked up from his sink and Chance pointed to Cecilia. He has chocolate skin, a little bit of facial hair, and always looked as if he was going to punch somebody in the face.

"That is Evan. He's more of the passive culinary brain. He can make wonders in the kitchen, like he has potential to make it big. What's your major actually?"

"Hospitality management."

"Me too! Hospitality buddies!"

They high fived together when Chance was called over to work on some dishes. In the meantime, Cecilia went from sink to sink washing and drying the dishes in record time. She met all of the people during banquet, all who were characters and had stories of their own. One of the girls, Sadie was actually from her 6pm Intro to the Hospitality Industry Class.

Ash and Ralph were watching over the kitchen in the meantime, making sure that all ran well. It was stuffy in there and Cecilia could feel sweat dripping down her clothes. She took a second to breathe and nearly coughed while inhaling the air.

The time went by quickly at first, but then suddenly slowed around 12:30. Cecilia had done most of the dishes by now and was helping around at the other sinks. At around 1, she ended up at Evan's sink. She was rinsing the dishes and he was drying them off.

"Bitches are crazy." He murmured under his breath.

"You can say that again."

Evan looked at Cecilia.

"You don't phase me."

"You don't know what I've been through."

Their conversation was a slight whisper.

"Really? You don't seem like the type to go through a lot."

"Well, you're wrong."

"Like how?"

"Been through too much, I try not to show it." Cecilia started to get worried.

"Trust me, I once caught a guy that was bothering some people and set him up to get expelled from my school."

"What? How? And why?"

"I know my ways."

"Can't relate, I've always been the one used. In the end, I was the one shamed. Mainly by guys but also by some former friends. Been through it all, didn't want to be but it's just how it was for me."

Cecilia took a deep breath.

"If you want to hear it, that is."

"Yeah, just say it."

"First guy that I ever liked rejected me so hard, to the point that he ended up having me attempt to kill myself in the school bathroom, and he told me to kill myself. Then two years later, his best friend brought me to his lunch table where a bunch of guys were calling me names like slut, bitch, whore, and whatnot. Soon enough, my name was tarnished into the ground that every guy I ever liked was told by him that I liked them and he told everybody that I was a stalker that threatened to kill him and his family. For years."

"Why the fuck would a guy do that to you?"

"He was narcissistic and craved attention from others, but if you weren't what he wanted, then you're trash to him."

"Something is in the water here that makes boys act like douchebags."

"It gets worse."

"Worse?"

"When I actually got into a relationship."

"What?"

"I got into a relationship with a guy that was 2 years older than me, but from the get go, he always showed red flags. Constantly commenting on my body and forcing me to have sex with him, even when I didn't want to. When I refused, he called me boring and a waste of time. It always seemed like a competition with his friend group, and he knew that my condition was worsening. He didn't care about that, he only wanted me to fuck him hard. I didn't want that. I just wanted somebody that supported me through thick and thin, to somebody that loved me no matter how "weird" I seemed. My weaknesses, he used against me. Once, even fucking me while I was unconsious, and I confronted him about it and he said that we never had sex. So, after a month of fighting, I broke up with him. And I never felt more free."

Evan just stared at Cecilia, he started to show worry in his eyes.

"I will punch that motherfucker for you."

"He graduated already, so the chances of you seeing him are very slim."

"From here?"

Cecilia nodded.

"Hey everybody! It's time for family meal!" Somebody called from the door.

Family meal was when the service was over and everybody could eat. Cecilia was starving. She took off her apron and hat when she walked out the door and then grabbed a plate of food. She sat with the other banquet volunteers and they were discussing how they felt about the experience.

Cecilia was laughing along with them and eating when she looked up and saw Evan staring at her with eyes that yearned for her.