our staff are more than equipped to handle your every need. I assure you, you will see nothing but crystal-clear glass from here on in.”
Once she had hauled her lacy white train back out the swinging kitchen door, Hugh Tink turned on Jill and me. “Did it not occur to you to inspect the glasses as you set each place?”
“I looked, Hugh. I honestly did.” Jill’s voice was suddenly thin and high. “I’m really sorry.”
Hugh barely came up to Jill’s chin. He turned to me.
I glanced at the kitchen door. “Well, it’s not exactly screaming bright in there and my feet are blistered to hell.”
Hugh glared. “There are Band-Aids in the first aid kit. Part of your job description is to own a pair of comfortable shoes.” He walked away.
“Holy shit,” Jill said. Blood from a burst blister had seeped pink through the back of my white canvas shoe. “First aid!” she hollered to the kitchen brigade. “Who’s got the first aid kit?”
I’m all bandaged up, running back and forth from the banquet room to the kitchen. It’s quarter past eight and we’ve begun clearing. Hugh has told me to keep away from the bride’s side of the room. He wants the experienced “team members” to take care of the head table and, he said, he’d prefer she not be reminded of that spotty glass by catching sight of me.
I hate Hugh and I hate this hall and I really hate the ping-ping-ping-ping stuff. Every five minutes, we hear another jerk rapping his spoon against a wineglass, demanding the bride and groom kiss before he stands up and tells some boring, crappy story about their romance.
“She’s going to punch your lights out if you don’t stop staring,” Jill says to me as we rush back into the kitchen with more armloads of mucky plates. “He’s taken.” She’s talking about the groom.
“I’m just trying to figure out where I know him from.”
“Sure, baby.” She winks at me. “You gotta admit—he’s cute.”
I’m telling the truth, though. The bride is still miserable and rashy. The groom is tall and thin with blond hair and a pretty-boy face and he can’t stop refilling his wineglass. Dinner’s barely over and he nearly fell on his ass when he stood up for the last toast.
Once all the plates are cleared, and the chafing dishes are off the banquet tables, Hugh Tink wheels the wedding cake into the banquet room, followed by one of the other waiters carrying a tray of fruit, lemon tarts and Nanaimo bars.
My bandages are starting to work their way off my heels. One is sliding around my ankle; the other is slipping out the back of my shoe. “First-aid kit,” I yell when I’ve scraped off the last plate.
The door swings behind Hugh as he comes back into the kitchen. He gives me a sour look. “For God’s sake, Samantha, why are you barefoot in those sneakers? Wear hose and a decent pair of socks the next time you come to work and you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache.”
“For chrissake—” My mouth snaps shut.
Hugh looks at me, daring me to finish.
“I’m—I’m just trying to do a good job,” I say. “And I’m bleeding.” Standing on one leg, I bend my knee, reach back and take hold of my most wounded foot.
Hugh looks at the blood on the canvas heel. “Take that out back and deal with it. I don’t think the kitchen is really the place. Actually, just take your break now, please.”
I hobble out back to the loading dock and sit down on the top step.
It’s still light out. Staring down the potholed alley, I can see a scruffy bearded guy collecting bottles. I’d rather do what he’s doing than this. Social insurance numbers are for suckers. The only people with social insurance numbers are the jerks who carry a baloney bucket to work.
It suddenly occurs to me that we’re only about three blocks from Tenth Avenue Divine. Drew took me to Movie Night there once. They had their own projector and a screen set up in the sanctuary for the youth fellowship groups. The show was called A Thief in the Night and it was about this woman named Patty who wakes up and her husband is gone—his electric razor is still running in the sink. On the radio, the announcer says that millions of people around the world have suddenly disappeared the same way. Turns out the Rapture has happened and Patty was left behind when Jesus took