That Stupid Little Waiter

Chapter 3 - Sour Candy

"Hey Vince."

Vincent was so close to letting out a grunt. This godforsaken nickname again. Seriously, where did Rody get the absolute audacity to give Vincent, his boss, the Vincent Charbonneau, a nickname? And more importantly, why hadn't he bothered to correct him?

Well, believe it or not, he had attempted to correct him once, and Vincent always trusted in his memory. Because Vincent hated it so much, he made sure to nip it in the bud the very first time it happened, very sternly too on top of that. There was just no way he was going to be remembered as Vincent "Vince" Charbonneau. It didn't roll off the tongue at all. That didn't sound like the name of a world renowned chef now, did it? It made him sound silly, like some guy that you would meet in passing in your trade school, and develop the delusion that you both were friends just on the basis that you were in the same class the previous semester. No, that absolutely wasn't Vincent speaking from experience. And no, he totally didn't despise it, and it totally didn't make his intolerance for people grow stronger.

No, he was Vincent Charbonneau, a talented, skillful chef who had made a name for himself and made his bistro into what it was today from his remarkable managing skills. He had always been serious about his career and he demanded to be taken as such. Everyone got it, except for Rody apparently.

Rody was a... unique case, in more ways than one. Despite having received a warning, it was as if he had never heard it, and had chosen to keep calling him "Vince". Moreover, Vincent had not tried to correct him again and somehow had just let it be.

Ah well, if it didn't work that time, then this time wasn't also the time to try, Vincent thought, conveniently forgetting the fact that he had the choice to fire Rody for unprofessionalism, which was the exact reason his previous waiter was fired and the position became vacant for this idiot Rody to come in. Oh, what irony.

"Hi Ro-" Vincent cut himself off after he finally looked up to Rody's face. "Jesus, you look terrible. Did you get any sleep last night?"

"I had a nightmare" Rody rubbed the back of his head and looked down at the ground, hoping to hide his tired face even though he knew it was for nothing-Vincent had already seen it-and now he was embarrassed.

These nightmares had been reoccurring for five days straight, ever since he started working for this restaurant. Well, maybe technically he couldn't call them nightmares, but at the very least, they were peculiar. Very peculiar. Every one of them, there was Vincent in it. And every one of them always included them doing... something, and that something Rody wouldn't dare talk about. If you were to successfully convince him to tell you what it was, the most you would likely get out of him was they were things he "would only do with Manon".

Speaking of Manon, why couldn't it be her in his dreams? Why did it have to be Vincent, out of all people? No matter how he looked at it, it just did not make any sense. They said your dreams are a reflection of your conscious thoughts, but Rody would argue that his case was an exception. He just could not see him and Vincent in that way, basically, practically and statistically. With the obvious professional relationship between them aside, along with how Vincent had been with him, Rody wasn't even interested in men that much. He was interested in men, sure, but he had always had a preference towards women. Same with Vincent, was he even into men in the first place? Plus, the guy had already expressed how he had no desire to share his wealth and success with anyone.

Selfish bastard.

But in this matter, it only solidified how ridiculous his nightmares were. Anything else would've made more sense, like, hell, Vincent chopping him up to bits, maybe? He had seen Vincent absolutely ripped that one chef apart because of a small mistake he made, and with the stove still burning besides them, Rody swore Vincent could've grabbed that chef's head and shoving it down the glowing flame. Luckily enough, he didn't get laid off and only received a warning, but if Rody had to be truthful, perhaps getting fired wasn't that scary compared to literally getting fired-third degree burn.