Writing Prompt: The boss
He walked around the restaurant checking in with the clientele, doing
what needed to be done if the servers were busy, and otherwise creating
an air of mastery. They called him The Captain, although he wasn't
alone. There was a captain at every fine dining establishment from San
Francisco to Paris to Milan and beyond.
On his downtime he was less fastidious, although you could hardly
have guessed that from observing him at work. He slept in boxers, woke
up, and without putting anything else on, opened his door to the luxury
apartment building hallway and grabbed the paper, itching his crotch and
sometimes picking his nose. Slovenly except for his building had a
doorman, a unique luxury in San Francisco, which was by no one's
accounts, New York, not even on the best day.
He wasn't an unpleasant man, but he had no time for behaving
properly when not constrained by the expectations of Robert, his
longtime boss. It's true, he sometimes ate Kentucky Fried Chicken while
sitting in front of the TV. He also liked to drink at the dive two
blocks over and two blocks down at the corner of lonesome and dangerous.
Although he had done well for himself, running the front of the
house in a Michelin rated venue for years, and with no family to suck
away his funds, he had no desire to be anything but real when he was off
duty. Charlie instead of Charles. Sweatpants or loose old jeans instead
of pressed fine fabric slacks, a simple gold chain around his neck
instead of the finest silk tie. A real contrast between on and off if he
reflected on himself.
Even Robert knew this, and they sometimes joked about it, but never
when the staff was nearby. For the staff the expectations of perfection,
reverence and efficient silence were in order, unless speaking with the
guests. For the staff, Charles and Robert put on quite the show of
disciplined excellence.
She noticed all this without telling anyone. She frequented the
establishment, and happened to live in his building. He thought of her
as a benign presence, having no idea that she studied him day in and day
out. Even she wasn't quite sure why she bothered. She supposed it gave
her something to do in an otherwise privileged but massively dull life.
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