"Well, look who finally decided to show up. I can't even begin to conceive what could have caused you to be so tardy," Tiana chastised from the kitchen doorway as I walked through the front door, after Megan, Tricia, and Patty had already entered.
"The uh, alarm didn't go off, I think they pushed out a new update for the phones, and it just completely reset all my settings," I said unconvincingly as I made my way towards the kitchen.
"You're so full of shit, you know that right?" Tiana muttered, but she thankfully moved aside and let me into the kitchen, "Do you know how much pre we'll have to cram in now?"
"I'm only ten minutes late, T, and it looks like you've already gotten a head start on things. Thank you very much, by the way. Remember to remind me to give you a pay raise," I replied as I quickly grabbed my apron and put it over my head.
When Tiana didn't respond, I glanced over my shoulder to find her staring at me with an incredulous expression on her face, "You don't know, do you?"
"Know what?" I asked hesitantly as I realized there was another reason for Tiana's concern besides my irresponsibility and tardiness.
Seeing the confusion in my eyes, Tiana scoffed and shook her head, "I really shouldn't be surprised, but this is something. You do remember what happened on Friday, right?"
"Yeah, I had the cookoff against Colette," I answered, still not sure where she was going, "How could I forget the first time I've ever been broadcast on live television? It was stressful as hell."
"Yes, a live broadcast cookoff against a world-renowned chef who has quite a reputation for going against other renowned Michelin Star chefs," Tiana stressed, "And while you may not have beaten her, you did make it to the very final round."
I stilled for a second as my brain finally shook free the final bits of the carefree haze that had filled it over the course of the weekend, "Oh…please tell me that the cookoff was broadcast on the local network."
"It was until ABC picked it up," Tiana replied as she walked over and showed her phone.
Glancing at the screen, I realized it was one of those graphs that showed the search frequency of a certain phrase or word. The phrase Tiana had looked up 'Ramon's Grillhouse,' and the trendline for the last month was relatively flat until last Saturday, when the line did a near-vertical climb.
"Okay, okay, this is manageable we can do this," I muttered under my breath as my mind finally kicked back into gear and started thinking logically.
"Manageable?! Ramon, that's over a hundred thousand searches," Tiana stressed, and rightfully so, "Even if 2% of those people follow through and try to eat here, that's triple our crowd. We're not equipped to handle that kind of traffic."
"And even less so, with Summer out for the day," I noted mostly to myself as I was still deep in thought, trying to manage the unexpected windfall in popularity, "Short-staffed on what's possibly going to be the business night since we opened. Talk about high stakes."
"Please tell me you have some type of magic that can help us out here!" Tiana asked with a wistful tone.
"Oh, there's definitely going to be some magic involved," I said as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, "Hey Tricia!"
A second later, the busty brunette stuck her head into the kitchen with an expectant look in her eyes, "Yeah?"
"You know how to make a social media account, right?" I asked even as I tossed her my unlocked phone.
"Y-yeah," Tricia stammered as she clumsily caught my phone before managing to get a firm grip on it, "Why do you want me to set one up for you?"
I shook my head, "Not for me, the restaurant. Apparently we went viral somewhat, and now there's possibly a couple hundred people that might try and dine with us tonight."
"Couple hundred?!" Tricia repeated in disbelief, "Even if Summer was here, there's only four of us and I don't know if we can-"
"I know it's not ideal, Tricia, and this is on me for not realizing something so obvious, but right now we need to focus on what we can do and not what we can't. And what you can do better than anyone else in this restaurant is get us an online platform so we can tell our potential patrons that we're expecting a large influx of customers and that wait times may be higher than normal." I spoke calmly but firmly, and I watched the panic in Tricia's eyes slowly lessen.
"Okay, I can do that. Do you have a specific aesthetic you were going for? Like, is this account just for updates, or do you want to be more promotional and stuff?" Tricia asked, her voice gaining confidence as she entered her element.
"You got free rein, trust you completely, and if you need help, get Patty and Megan on it with you," I replied quickly before turning back to Tiana, "We'll need to double our prep, and we're running a special, something that we can make a big batch of and don't have to worry about individual prep times."
"Gumbo?" Tiana asked with a raised brow, making me grin. "All you T, you get started on that; but real quick, can I borrow your phone? I need to make a call."
"Who you calling?" Tiana asked as she handed me the phone.
"Someone who can hopefully help us with the fact that our waitstaff is only three people currently," I muttered while searching for a number I had only seen once and surprisingly found it in my mind with relative ease.
Punching in the number, I listened to the dial tone while muttering a small prayer under my breath, 'Please, pick up, pick up.'
"H-hello?"
"Hey Jackie, remember me? I nearly ran you over a couple of weeks back," I answered with a small smile.
"Yeah, how could I forget," Jackie replied with a laugh, "But uh, what's up? You still coming to that night swim I mentioned this weekend?"
"That's the plan, but right now I need to ask you for a favor."
"Uh, what kind of a favor are we talking about?" Jackie asked a little hesitantly.
"The kind where you and any friends you have can make a thousand bucks each for one night of work," I answered, "You see, I fucked up and now I have a couple hundred people trying to get a place at my restaurant and-"
"Hold on, restaurant?!" Jackie interrupted, "Don't tell me that you're that Ramon, the one who was on that cooking special everyone was talking about."
"Yes, yes, I am, and I have horribly understaffed for tonight, so I need some very eager people to come clock in for a shift so it doesn't all go to shit," I said, honestly guessing that Jackie was the kind of person to appreciate unminced words, "So I'm offering you a deal, a thousand dollars for you and any friends you get in on this. What do you say?"
"1500," Jackie countered after a brief pause, making me grin, "Are you really bargaining with me right now…I knew we would get along. 1250 and I'll cater that night swim you invited me to."
"Deal! Is there a limit to how many friends I can bring?" Jackie asked.
"Well, isn't someone popular? I'll say ten, but be selective. I don't need slackers on my floor. They also need to be here within the next two hours so they can be trained and shown what to do."
"Reasonable enough, I'll see you in two hours then."
After a short exchange and giving Jackie the restaurant's address, I hung up the phone and walked over to Tiana, who had already pulled out the biggest stock pot in the kitchen.
"Alright, what do we need to tackle with this gumbo?"
"The most challenging part is gonna be making enough roux for a pot this big without burning it all."
"If we want to avoid that, then we'll need to keep it low and slow," I advised, "That will also help bring out the flavor as the flour caramelizes. Speaking of flavor, I know it's not traditional, but I want to add some short rib to the gumbo to bring it more in line with the rest of the menu."
"I'm tempted to say no just on principle, but given our dire circumstances, I'll let it slide. Now get to work on the holy trinity, we'll probably need a pound of each." Tiana instructed as she pulled out a bag of flour, followed by a commercial-size tub of butter.
"We just might survive tonight after all," I muttered under my breath as I grabbed my knife and prepared to spend the next hour glued to a cutting board.