Heat wave
Over the few following days, the local radio called for a weather alert statement: a heat wave was expected to bring the temperature up to 40 degrees all across Ontario for approximately two weeks, scattered with some episodes of your usual stormy weather that ensues and hot rainfalls here and there. I know how it can get brutally hot here in the kitchen when that happens. You still sweat profusely, making you wonder if you're not dripping down in the food you're serving.
Over summer in general, our lousy portable air conditioning unit in the kitchen barely made a difference. It spins so much, it smells like burning rubber. So during severe heat, all it did was stink and make a racket.
And because my grill didn't have any ventilated hood range, most windows had to be opened, especially the one at the order counter.
During that kind of weather, you make friends with the walk-in freezer, when you need a quick way to cool off. Even when I don't need to go in there, I cheat and let the biting cold soothe me. 5 seconds were usually all I needed. And you can't stay in for too long, and not too often. It'd be the perfect recipe to catch another cold.
So I had to prepare to beat not only the heat, but the onslaught of customers, ordering ice cream cones and milkshakes by the ton! The grill gets a little less busy, so maybe I'd even have to jump in and help at the front of the house.
Come Monday morning, I got out of bed and felt the air already thick with humidity. I slept naked, out of the covers, because even my apartment had no A/C. Incapacitated by the heat, to the point of being unable to remember what day it is, this one thought still managed to cross my mind: why did it seem like air conditioning was such a luxury that not everyone can afford? As an extreme measure, I opted to wear shorts instead of the usual chef pants, and nothing under my apron, as a way to try and keep as cool as possible. My grill, and its fireworks of burning grease, was a constant reminder that I was not allowed to even consider such fashion escapades.
Now... Emery, on the other hand, sure wasted no time to take advantage of that freedom. With that kind of heat, I didn't doubt for a second that she'd come into work in the morning, wearing light, airy, and most likely quite revealing clothes. Besides, the work conditions in this dump weren't going to make anyone in their right mind go and tell her to cover up, not with this heat. I sure wasn't going to.
Turned out she went for all sorts of beach attire. One day it was some sort of weaved off-shoulder beach shirt and denim shorts, with what seemed like a black bikini top underneath; some other time, she only had tiny cargo shorts with what I assumed was more of a bodysuit that looked like a one-piece swimsuit. Again, no bra there.
The one that blew my mind the most was that time she wore a red and pink sundress. She was pretty like a sunset. The top of her dress was very adjusted, which I guess allowed her to not bother with a hot bra for the day. The bottom part was rather loose, and flowing, and the fabric was see-through, enough that when she walked, I could see her firm, sexy calves perched on a pair of mid-heeled sandals. Her hair was done in one long single braid that day, with no hat on her head. She looked very refined and classy.
Yup. It seemed like Emery was now on a mission to knock the wind out of me. I had to act casual, as if this was all just a proverbial walk in the park, but where the scenery, that she let me enjoy as much as I wanted, was so breathtaking that it'd be so hard not to make a fucking point about it. It made things really exciting, and rather tense, but in a good way. I could work with that. That was how we somehow agreed to do things, now.
As it went, the heat would get heavier and heavier, making my nights very hard to sleep through. It was on days like this that made me wish that I lived in a basement. That whole restlessness made me drag an intense lethargy back to work, making the heat even more unbearable. And, well, on top of that, my colleague's distracting outfits sure gave me the impression I was daydreaming!
At least, she was there to cheer me up with her little bubbly self. I wasn't too sure of the conditions she lived in, but she sure looked like she was getting her beauty sleep.
The diner was bouncing today. It was a good thing I didn't have to cook too much, since I was mostly busy helping Emery with the cold bar. She kept sending me outside to the walk-in freezer to fetch fruits, and ice cream all the time. I was afraid to catch a damn cold again: I kept going from hot and sweaty, to cold and shivering.
Later, I wondered if the real reason why Emery would send me to the freezer was because she didn't want to get cold. She wasn't wearing much: just a tiny pair of denims with a black Sepultura crop top, that looked like she cut it herself. It was so short, it was threatening to lift at every moment, and show some underboob. Though, the cute red suspenders she had today really did the trick to hold everything in place.
Later that day, I had to go fetch some fries in the freezer. As I was tossing bags around on the floor, counting how much I had left, the door opened behind me.
'Oh, there you are.' Emery said. 'I thought you were on break... Um, can you get me some strawberry jam, please? The other bucket is empty, I need to get another one to thaw ASAP.'
'Um, yeah, sure.' I replied absently, stepping over the fries and reaching the very top shelf for the jam.
I could already hear Emery's teeth chattering, shuddering under the biting cold. I tried to make it quick: not only was she already freezing, but there was no one else in the kitchen right now.
'Good thing you're taller than me.' she said, trembling. 'I thought I was gonna have to get all the way up there to get it.'
I was still very much out of reach, on the tip of my toes. After the effort, I finally turned her way to hand her the jam. I looked down at her and realized she was dripping wet with red sticky stuff, all over her hair, her shirt and on her bare belly.
'Um... woah, Emery what happened? What's that all over you?'
'Strawberry jam.'
We both burst out in laughter, our breath coming out in frosted clouds.
'Oooh, so that's why you need a new bucket?'
'Yeah, I forgot to take the bucket away from the mixer, I had a huge order and was kind of in a rush. The mixer shoved it right off the counter when I started it, as you can guess, sending strawberry jam-'
'-all over the floor?' I replied, finishing her sentence.
'-and the walls, and the cabinets, and... myself.'
She looked at me with her bright blue eyes. How could I get mad?
'Right. Well, I guess I'll bring the mop, then.' I smiled back, sighing. 'But... wait, what about your shirt? You're all gunky.'
'Yeah, so about that...'
There was no time to spare. It took us another moment to think of a solution before we headed back to the customers: we had to figure out what she was going to wear. Though I had a feeling she was going to come up with another one of those dirty thoughts from the back of her head, again. Deeming her shirt too dirty to work with sounded like she was secretly going to take the opportunity to drive me crazy, and make the shift a little more interesting.