Chapter 7: Eddie

“Hiya, sweetheart. More coffee?” God, how I hated this job! Still, it was marginally better than washing dishes back in the kitchen where I started.

“Order up!” came Otto’s voice from the window into the bowels of hell.

I walked behind the counter and picked up a tray, then loaded it with the order fresh from the kitchen, steak, broccoli, and baked potato. Picked up a tiny sour cream condiment bowl, scoop of butter, and bread plate to go with a dinner roll from the warmer, and hustled over to table 12 with the order. The customer, an old gentleman dressed in equally old, tired work clothes, thanked me and began to eat his meal.

I took the tray back behind the counter and surveyed the customers. Just about time to take more water around, but otherwise, all good.

I took a risk and looked over to the register at the bend in the counter. Sure enough, Mildred was watching me. I quickly looked back down at the prep counter, but not quickly enough to miss seeing the tip of her little red tongue sweep across her pouty lips. Every time I looked at her, she licked her lips! I shivered involuntarily and said a silent prayer to the God of all bachelors - ‘Please, get me the HELL out of here!’

My cell phone buzzed with Jill’s message:

6 Sybs received. 3 stored, 3 set up and operational. Now, just need some customers!

My imagination stirred reading the phrase ‘3 set up and operational.’ Operational? My thoughts went to the dark side. How did she confirm they were operational? For that matter, what did she mean by that word? I lifted my head to take a deep breath and saw Mildred’s tongue dart out to sweep her lips once again. Oh, God, PLEASE?!

“Order up!” came from the window again. This time, I saw Fat Otto’s beady little eyes staring at me from his sweaty face as I reached the window.

I grabbed my tray and loaded the order onto it. Two orders of Belgian waffles, stuffed Monte Cristo crepes, fruit cups, one hot chocolate, and one orange juice. It was for table 2, the man with the boy next to the door.

“When you come back, I want you to tie off all the back tables. Then clock out. No business tonight. Mildew will handle the counter and front tables.”

Mildew was Otto’s pet name for Mildred. Unless he was pissed off at her. Then he sometimes called her Moldred. She called him Otter to his face with a smile, Otto, when she talked about him to others in a good mood, and Asshole the rest of the time.

“Okay, boss, you’re the Boss!” I replied with forced humor.

“That’s right, and don’t you forget it!” he roared with laughter as if he had just invented that witty rejoinder.

I made sure both sets of customers were topped off, condoned off the back tables, and wiped down the counter area before taking off my apron and punching out. One thing I couldn’t fault the Otto Twins for - they cut their expenses just as quickly as possible, and although it made my work schedule somewhat erratic, it often set me free during the workday to get other stuff done,

I drove to the trailer to see the new Sybians and take another look at its mechanicals. I didn’t really trust the A/C blower motor - it had a worrisome vibration - and I wanted to look over the CCTV test results. I had just installed a new 8 Tb recording storage unit yesterday and started it up. I needed to review its file sizes and overwrite settings today.

I arrived at the trailer at just around sunset. The copse of fir trees seemed happy, emitting its resinous scents at the end of a hot sunny day as freely as a dog marking its territory.

The scent changed markedly as soon as I opened the trailer door. An unmistakable smell! It smelled like ... Business! Did we have a customer, I wondered?

I verified the parking area was empty except for my car, then did a cautious sweep of the rooms. All empty, but the first room was the source of the odor. I made a mental note to look into getting a carbon-activated filter for the HVAC and maybe increasing the size of the fan to move more air volume. We wouldn’t survive long in business if the place smelled of sex this strongly! I wondered how the cathouses handled their odor elimination issues and took another mental note to find out asap!

The sybians looked great, the rooms looked ready to go, and I remembered Jill’s text, ‘ ... Now, just need some customers!’

Did she write that before someone showed up? Is that why the smell was so strong? Maybe I’d just missed their departure. Well, there was one way to find out, and I needed to check the system anyway.