She was on a high as service ended and they started clearing tables. A couple more customers had ordered the fish soup after Senan Walsh and it had a been a big hit. When they told Lou to give their compliments to the chef, she silently thanked them on her own behalf and returned to the kitchen with a smile on her face.
She and Ingrid were chatting with the kitchen team while they did the clean-down and getting ready to leave when Aidan came barrelling in, clearly already in a bad mood. Lou felt the whole room clench.
‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked. ‘I just met a couple leaving and they said they’d had the fish soup.’
‘Yes?’ Lou turned to him with an innocent look. ‘What did they say about it?’
He frowned, alive with bad temper. ‘That’s not the point.’
‘I take it they enjoyed it, then?’
‘Yes, they did, thank goodness,’ he said irritably. ‘Fortunately, they’d never been here before and didn’t know any better.’ He scowled at Shane and Mark, who looked cowed. ‘IfI’m not here, it’s not on the menu. You all know that. What were you thinking?’
Shane and Mark looked sheepish but said nothing, clearly not wanting to throw Lou under the bus. She was touched by their solidarity. But she knew they wouldn’t take the credit if Aidan was pleased and she wasn’t going to let them take the heat either.
‘They didn’t make it. I did.’
Aidan turned his full fury on her. ‘Youdid?You?’ He looked at her uncomprehendingly, as if she was a cockroach that had just crawled out from under the oven.
‘Yes, me.’ She held his gaze defiantly, refusing to be intimidated by him.
‘While the rest of you did what?’ He looked around at the team. ‘Stood around scratching your arses?’
‘No, we—’ Ian began but was silenced by a quelling look from Shane.
‘In fairness, I did forget to mention at the pre-service meeting that it was off the menu,’ Shane said.
‘But you told me when you got the order. They did all try to stop me,’ Lou said in their defence.
‘I helped,’ Ian finished.
‘Oh great!’ Aidan fumed. ‘So a fecking commis and a waitress took it upon themselves to stage a coup and take over my kitchen.’
‘A waitress! The horror!’ Lou pressed a palm to her chest, her own temper rising in tandem with his.
‘I just prepped the veg,’ Ian said meekly.
‘And only because I asked him to,’ Lou said.
‘You seem to be confused about the chain of command around here,’ Aidan said to Ian. ‘You don’t take orders from the wait staff.’
‘I may just be a lowly waiter,’ Lou continued, ‘but you know I have plenty of cooking experience.’
Aidan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, visibly struggling to rein in his temper. ‘Look, this isn’t pie and mash in the staff canteen. That’s our signature dish. It’s been on the menu since I opened this place, and I can’t risk another chef – let alone a waitress – not getting it right and the standard dropping.’
‘But I did get it right.’
Shane and Mark looked horrified and amazed that she was arguing with Aidan.
‘Just because a couple of punters were happy with it?—’
‘Oh, sorry, I thought that was the whole point of a restaurant – making customers happy with the food. And anyway, it wasn’t just a couple of customers who don’t know any better. It was?—’
Shane’s eyes widened, his expression ratcheting up to a new level of horror, silencing her. He swallowed hard. ‘Senan Walsh was in,’ he said to Aidan.
‘What?’ Aidan’s voice snapped like a whip. ‘Are you telling me he had the fish soup too?’ He looked to Shane, who nodded.
‘For feck’s sake! The one bloody lunch service I take off.’ He raked a hand through his hair. ‘Do you even know who that is?’ he asked Lou.
