Despite not being loved, the girls after their miss had given out her order reluctantly swallowed up their words and handed us the aprons which we put on and joined them fully in the kitchen duties. The girl left the kitchen after some time and we were left alone with the girls.
"By the way, what are your names?" The girl, the one that seemed to be the leader of the others asked rudely.
"What has our name got to do with our duties and besides, if you want to know our names, you have to ask politely and not rudely," Ruben who didn't like taking nonsense replied with a deep frown on his face.
"You!" The leader snapped.
"You better watch your tone here or you'll get punished!" Another girl chipped in.
Ruben turned and looked at the girl and then sighed, "Well, we don't have the time to spend on any of you, you better chill out and get used to us being here or get ready to be on the bad side of the miss!" He said and stopped talking. As expected, the girls hissed and didn't say another word.
Later on, a waiter walked in and whispered something to the ears of the leader who shot us a glare and dropped what she was holding.
"Where are you all going? Why are you leaving?" I asked as I saw all the girls leaving the kitchen along with the waiter.
"Kudos! You both have successfully snatched our duties from us, I bet you are now happy, huh?" One of the girls complained bitterly.
"I don't understand what you are saying," I pressed further while looking at them confusingly.
"Beth, it's enough, it's not like it's their fault anyways," a girl with glasses spoke for the first time. She then turned to us, "The miss says you two will be taking over the kitchen and so you must try your best to achieve great results," she politely said with a smile on her small face.
"Oh, I understand now! Thank you for the explanation," I replied to her and she smiled and left with the other girls who were already leaving angrily.
"Men, I don't think we'll be able to do everything!" Ruben wailed as he turned to me. I sighed in response as I understood his worries, the inn is a large one and so are the meals prepared. Inwardly, I believe the girl wasn't trying to punish us because if she was, I don't think she'll make us be in charge of the main place in the inn. The kitchen is like the centre of the inn, the meals prepared and served to people matters a lot but is that all? I think there's more to it than I've guessed.
"You aren't saying anything, don't tell me that you are okay with it?" Ruben moaned. He saw the calm look on my face coupled with the fact that I haven't complained a bit about anything, he must be thinking that I'm okay with everything that was happening.
"It's not like I'm okay with it, okay? We should be grateful that we are in charge of this place, it seems like she trusts us more than those girls and so we must try and win her trust, make her trust us more than she does now. Besides, I think we'll be making more money than just two silver coins," I replied.
Hearing the term 'money', all the frown on his face melted away and was soon replaced by a grin. "As long as we make more money, I don't mind. She better get ready to pay us enough or we'll revolt!" He said.
I laughed, hearing his reply, this is what you get when you have a lover of money as your friend, nothing else matters except money!
After laughing together, we got down to business. Thankfully, I learnt how to cook when I was still little, I had mastered a lot of cooking techniques then because it was all my sister would let me do while she goes out to work and so preparing meals wasn't going to be a trouble for me now. I also noticed that Ruben knew a lot about making meals and together we decided to create our unique meals.
"So what should we name our meals after we are done preparing them?" Ruben asked me while we were making the meals.
"I actually don't know for now and I didn't even have that in my head," I replied honestly and it earned a click of the tongue from him.
"Bro! You make me want to smack you! We should better come up with a special name for every new dish we make to avoid it being stolen from them! I don't trust that girl even for a bit," he said.
"I get you, but my IQ is low, how about you come up with some names and then I'll choose the interesting ones?"
He looked at me as if ready to pounce on me, I could not help but chuckle and move away from where I was initially standing.
"Two plates of meals and three bottles of drinks!" A waiter yelled by the door of the kitchen.
"Hey, help me out! Will you?" I said to Ruben who hissed and reluctantly went to dish out the food and hand them over to the waiter. "Let's hope they'll like the food as much as I do," I mumbled as she walked away with the food.
"Of course, they will!" Ruben who heard me replied, "And if they don't, I'll make them to!" He added with a wink.
Not long after, the same waiter returned with a complex look on her face, seeing this, my heart was ready to fly away.
"Who cooked the food?" She asked with a voice not rude and not polite.
"I did!" I replied, not sure if I made the right choice by being truthful.
"Follow me!" She said and turned around immediately. I turned and glanced at Ruben, he motioned for me to go ahead and I had no choice but to. I followed the waiter into an office, with the girl and two other unfamiliar people seated together.
"You can go!" She said to the waiter who passed me a worried look and walked out of the office.
"You are the cook?" The man asked as he sized me up and down.
I was forced by the way he looked at me to look down on myself before answering him, "Yes, I am. Is there any problem? If there is, blame just me and don't implicate others," I replied, the others I meant are the girl and then the inn. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to the inn just because of me.
"Hahaha!" The man laughed as he looked at me. While he was laughing, I briefly glanced at the girl and as expected she was looking sour. Could it be?
"There's nothing to be afraid of," the lady by his side said after the man must have finished laughing.
"What do you mean?" I had to ask.
"It's simple! How about we pay up the money you and your friend owe them and in return, we hire you to work for us!"