Blueberry Hill

The first of anything is always nerve-wracking. My first day at my new job was no exception. As I walked through the large restaurant to my new post, I could feel my face growing hot with shyness. In a blur, I introduced myself to the staff as they walked by. I walked into the kitchen, feeling a little better that I at least had learned everyone's name.

My manager walked in behind me, showing me the room and explaining basic procedures. Glancing up at the clock, he swore under his breath for my trainer being late. Right at that moment, a tall guy came bustling into the kitchen, jacket still on, face red from the cold.

"Glad you made it. This is Piper, the girl you're supposed to be training for her first day. So, great day to be late." Though his words sounded harsh, my manager was smiling.

"I couldn't get my hair to do what it was supposed to. This doesn't just happen." He pointed to his hair and proceeded to the back to put his belongings in the break room. I was surprised by his voice, which was much deeper than I would have guessed.

"That's Bo, he'll be training you today. Any questions for me before I throw you to the wolves?" I laughed.

"No, I should be fine."

"Great. Have fun. Find me if you have any questions, but I'm sure Bo will be able to answer most of them." He walked out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with the two cooks. I made small talk with them for a few minutes, telling them how I had worked in kitchens for years. Nothing about this job would be hard for me. I waited tables all through college & periodically jumped on the grills, too. I could whip up anything without a recipe, and this job was just making burgers & sandwiches on occasion when I wasn't waiting tables, which was nothing to me.

Bo interrupted our conversation by walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, I'm Bo." He reached out his hand for me to shake.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Piper." I smiled up at him. He hand was almost twice the size of mine, and much stronger than mine as well. I took a moment to check him out. He was an interesting looking character. He looked straight out a 1950's greaser film, complete with chin-length sideburns & a perfectly-parted greased pompadour. His black work shirt was just a little small...or was his chest just a little too big? His sleeves came down just a bit too far for me to determine the size of his biceps, but judging by the rest of his body, they were large.

"Alright, let's get you going on some prep work." He led me to the other side of the grills, where the coolers & refrigerators were. One by one, he taught me how to prep each appetizer and the basics of the main entrees on the menu. After a couple of hours, he left me on my own because I was picking up so fast.

"How ya doing?" Bo came up next to me around lunchtime to judge my work.

"Oh, I'm doing alright." I continued slicing tomatoes and filling my plastic bin in front of me.

"Have you done this before? You seem to have picked up on this fast."

"Oh yeah, I waitressed all through college & so I've worked at tons of restaurants. Most kitchens are the same as far as procedure and prep work." I threw the rest of the tomatoes into the bin, pulled some saran wrap over it, and threw it in the cooler.

"Cool, cool. Well, we're pretty slow right now, and you've definitely done more than anyone probably expected you to, so you can be cut if you want." I pulled off the apron I was wearing & threw it in the linen bag next to the sink.

"Sweet. Well, thanks for training me." I said a bit sarcastically, since there wasn't much training involved. He laughed.

"Hey, thanks for being so easy to train." He walked back into the main area of the kitchen and I went to grab my coat. First day was done, and it wasn't as bad as I had expected. Though it was only my first day, it had gone much better than some of my restaurant experiences. I was thankful to be a little older and knowledgeable, and happy that most of the staff was in their mid-20's as well. I waved goodbye to my new co-workers and made my way to my car.

The next day went just as smoothly as the day before. I learned a bit more than I had the day before, and my manager noticed that I was picking up quickly.

"So, since you're doing much better than I expected and picking up on things pretty quickly, would you want to pick up any bartending shifts?" I had to think about that one. I had worked behind a bar in the past, but it wasn't my forte. I liked having my own set tables to tend to, but a full, constantly-changing bar made me anxious. After thinking about it for a few moments, I nodded.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" I smiled to show that I was actually interested.

"Great. I'll throw you on some shifts in a couple of weeks, after you get the hang of things." He left the kitchen again.

Since the cooks mostly spoke Spanish, Bo was the only one I could talk to. I asked him about his position and where else he had worked, gone to school, lived, etc. He played his iPod on a speaker on a shelf next to the grill. His musical tastes were rockabilly, classic rock and roll, twangy stuff, and it was no surprise to me. He made me laugh a lot, and the time flew by.

My first week barely felt like a week's worth of work. My co-workers were easy to get along with and the guys in the kitchen were extremely laid-back. I learned the menu quickly and set into a routine with my prep work. Bo & I worked many shifts together in the first couple of weeks. Though I knew the other staff, I felt closest to him because of how often we worked so closely together. He was a country-western wannabe, and idolized James Dean. He loudly sang along with Johnny Cash, and had a similar deep, smooth voice. He'd started playing guitar before he could read, he said. He pointed out my mistakes in a way that made me laugh rather than feel bad, and I made fun of his mutton-chops. As time went on, I could feel a tension between us begin to grow.

After working there for a little over two months, a snowstorm brought the place to a near standstill. It was four pm and we had about a handful of occupied tables in the place. The manager on duty cut the servers down to two, and the kitchen down to just one cook. I had moved my way past the kitchen after the first few weeks, and although Bo & I didn't work side by side much anymore, we still frequently spoke & joked around when we could. During the storm, the two waitresses hung out at the bar, showing each other things on their phones and giggling. My manager sat with a spread of blank schedules at the other end of the bar, taking advantage of the downtime to write out shifts. Since my only two customers at the bar were regulars who were filled up & content watching news coverage of the storm, I decided to take a bit of a break.

I skipped into the kitchen and slammed the door open, right into a bored Bo.

"Hey, hey, watch it, lady!" He jumped up from slouching and began straightening up the table in front of him.

"Don't act like you were busy doing something. Do you ever actually work?" I smiled as I said it, and his face switched from defensive to entertained in a moment.

"Shut up, you know I work harder than any of these guys." He pointed to the cook, who then threw a rag at him, laughing & yelling in Spanish. Bo laughed & leaned back against the wire rack behind him. He placed one black boot up on the second shelf, and put his hands in his pockets. He looked like a movie star from way back when. I wished I had a camera to capture the moment in black & white, complete with Buddy Holly & the Crickets serenading us behind him. That's when I noticed what I hadn't before. My eyes were immediately drawn to the bulge in his jeans. How had I never seen it?! It was so obvious and just...big. I'd never seen anything substantial like that on a man, especially when jeans were involved. I couldn't look away. After a few seconds, I felt his eyes burning into my head, and I glanced up. There was a silence between us for a minute, as I was still entranced in his image. He grabbed a toothpick & began chewing on it.

"Not much goin' on out there, huh?" He broke the silence, squinting to look through the kitchen doors.

"Not out there, but outside, it's really coming down." As I spoke, he reached around to his back pocket to pull out a small black comb & began to carefully comb through his precisely-styled hair. I began to giggle. He turned his eyes to me and smirked.

"What?" He asked, as he continued to comb.

"Are you a fucking greaser or something?" He laughed.

"I get that a lot..."

"I mean, who carries combs in their pockets anymore?!" I was still laughing as he put the comb in his pocket.

"Get outta here!" He gently shoved my shoulder, and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.

"Okay. Stay gold, ponyboy." I patted him on his shoulder as I walked back towards the bar. Though I turned the situation light by poking fun at him, I felt my heart beating faster than normal. The whole scene of him, looking like a badass drape leaning against that shelf with his...package. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Sure, I had caught him checking out my chest before, but I felt like women get that a lot. Chests are clearly visible, and like I said before, most men aren't noticeable in that area while fully clothed. My mind was busy with thoughts of what it must look like uncovered.

A couple slow hours passed, and a few more customers trickled in. After a while, I finally got my chance to do something when a keg of one of the more popular India pale ale's popped. I grabbed my keys for the cooler & walked down to the basement. In the process of tapping the new keg, a bit of the beer sprayed up onto my face, neck & chest.

"Damnit!" I wiped off what I could with my sleeve. Before turning to leave, I noticed a few of the lines on the ground tangled up. I got down on one knee & began to untangle them.

A few minutes into my new project, I heard the sound of the basement stairs creaking. Figuring it was my manager coming to grab some things, I didn't turn around, and instead called out to her.

"I just changed the tap, and I noticed a bunch of these lines tangled up! We gotta talk to the beer guys about this, this isn't good for us." When I could feel her behind me but she didn't respond, I turned my head. To my surprise, Bo was standing almost directly behind me.

"Oh, shit, Bo. I thought you were Jackie. What's up?" I started to straighten the kegs out before standing up. He didn't say anything. I stopped what I was doing, and the room was so quiet, I thought for sure he'd hear that my heart was about to pound out of my chest. I slowly stood up and turned to face him, rubbing my hands on my jeans to clean them off.

"Do you need somethi--" He walked towards me as I began to speak, one hand wrapping around my lower back and the other pressing against the wall that he pushed me into with his body. His mouth covered mine & his tongue forced open my mouth with a sexy sense of urgency. He pulled me against him, hard, and I submitted. I realized my hands were still at my side, having been taken so aback by his sudden action. I took one and placed it on his hip, and placed the other on his left pec. If I thought his chest looked good, touching it was the best thing ever. I could feel that his heart was racing just as much as mine. I moved my hand up to his shoulder and squeezed it. I could feel him smile as he kissed me.

He pushed me harder against the wall with his hips, placing both his hands on either side of my head. I could feel him against my thigh, pressing hard against his jeans. It felt even bigger than it looked. In a surge of lust, I took his lower lip between my teeth and gently bit down. He moaned, a deep manly sound. He grabbed one of my hips and squeezed it, running his other hand up the back of my neck through my hair. Reaching one hand up to my shoulder, he used the other to grab a handful of my hair to pull my head back. He trailed kisses along my cheek and jawline, down my neck & sucked on my collarbone.

"You taste like beer." He whispered in a breathy, lusty way. I let out a small laugh.

"The keg got me." He moaned again and licked me from my collarbone back up to my mouth. The movements of his mouth were so smooth, and his lips were soft & not overly saturated. He was one of the best kissers I'd ever had the pleasure of kissing. I didn't want to stop, and as his hand dropped to the button of my jeans and his fingers tickled my lower stomach, I wanted to go even further. I started to move my hand lower, as I was shaking with excitement to feel what had been teasing me all night. Right before I got to my goal, the soda lines began to go crazy. He pulled away.

"Sounds like we got some people." He looked at me, his eyes serious and full of bad intent. "We should probably get back up there." I leaned against the wall, looking up at him from under messed up hair, and sighed, tipping my head back.

"Yeah, probably." I closed my eyes for a moment and placed my hands on my forehead, trying to regain my composure. I heard the creaking of the stairs, and when I opened my eyes, Bo was gone.

I speedily fixed my hair and walked upstairs. Sure enough, several people were sitting at the bar awaiting drinks. I jumped behind the counter & started to take orders. Every once & a while, I would glance up at the kitchen doors, hoping to catch a glance at Bo, but he never looked at me any differently than usual. As the night went on, I started to wonder if it all was just a crazy realistic daydream.

As I was clearing off the bar after the group left, my manager came up behind me.

"Piper, I'm gonna cut Juliette." I looked up and realized she was the only server left. "I just told Ricky to go home, and I'm probably gonna head out once Juliette leaves. Do you think you out here & Bo in the kitchen is enough to close tonight?" She was leaving us two to close...alone?!

"Yes!" I said, a little too enthusiastically. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at my response. "Yeah, sorry, I'm just happy it's almost closing time. That should be fine, we've seen almost no one all night. I'm sure he and I can take care of things."

"Awesome." She turned to talk to Juliette & I heard her open the kitchen door.

"Bo! I'm heading out with Juliette. You & Piper are gonna close tonight. Don't fuck anything up, got it?" I heard the two of them laugh, and Bo found my eyes through the kitchen doors. He winked, then turned away.

Jackie, Juliette & Ricky left, and the last table headed out about half an hour before closing time. I got everything done with time to spare, and so did Bo. At ten on the dot, he walked out of the kitchen and up to the front door, locking it. He walked over to the bar & sat down, leaning back in his chair.

"I'll have a whiskey old-fashioned, sour." He smiled, clasping his hands together in front of his stomach. I began to make him his drink & he walked up behind me, placing his arms on the bar around me.

"Snow's pretty bad out there. We should probably wait a little bit before we leave." He leaned his mouth against my ear when he said it, his breath tickling me.

"What are we gonna do until then?" I grinned as I said it, already knowing the answer.

"Ohh, I have a few ways we could pass the time."