At The Pudding Furnace, the afternoon flew by in a blur of menus, wine lists, tablecloths, food preparation and in general running around like mad getting every last detail in place for six o’clock when the doors would open for the first time. The assistant chef whom Alec had hired was busy in the kitchen and a couple of young waiters from an agency were setting the tables and doing a grand job out front.
Emma had been in better humour as the afternoon wore on and she and Alec had just passed each other by as they went back and forth around the place taking care of their allotted tasks. Now, as the moment of truth arrived, they both found a few minutes to sit down and survey their surroundings before it all changed and the public were invited in to join them. ‘It’s all looking good,’ Alec said, ‘we should be really proud of ourselves, even if I do say so myself.’ Emma looked around and nodded, smiling.
‘Absolutely. Hopefully everyone out there will feel as excited about it as we do and we, or rather you, will have a huge success.’
‘Now, it’s been a team effort. I couldn’t have done it without you. I think we make quite a good team. Hopefully we won’t be too busy tonight but I hope folk like it. You hear all sorts of stories of disasters on opening night. We might not get any customers at all!’
Emma squinted at him. ‘Oh, I think we’ll have some customers,’ Alec looked worryingly at her. ‘I mean there’s John for a start isn’t there. God help us if he turns up with his so-called friends.’
‘Is that going to be awkward?’ he asked, ‘We can’t afford to have any trouble so maybe you need to stay in the back if they do come in? From what you’ve told me it might not make for a pleasant time of it, under the circumstances. He clearly seems to think he’s got nothing to be ashamed of?’
‘That’s true, but I’m here to do a job and do it I will. I’m not going to hide in the back. Anyway, as long as I’m completely professional and just do my job I’m sure it’ll be fine. They’ll have their food and their free wine and then they’ll be off.’ She gave him a reassuring smile and then looked at her watch. ‘Will we get the show on the road? The proof of the, well, pudding, is in the eating after all.’ Alec got up laughing nervously and walked to the door, turning the sign around from Closed to Open, and unlocking the door. Emma and the other staff, who had gathered to watch the moment, gave a small cheer and a round of applause, as all eyes then fell on the street to watch for the first customers to arrive.
The first hour was painfully quiet. A few people stopped and looked at the menu on the window but when they peered inside and saw the tables deserted they walked on, presumably not wishing to be the only ones here. Just after seven o’clock a couple who both looked around forty years old came in and were shown to a table opposite the fire which, even though only lit up with candles due to it being summer, still gave a nice cosy feel to the place. They asked about the free wine offer but instead, as they were the first, they were presented with a bottle of champagne to launch the restaurant on its maiden voyage. If not quite like the opening of the floodgates, this first couple in the restaurant did seem to encourage others to join them. By eight o’clock there were three further tables occupied by a variety of people; an elderly couple who were celebrating an anniversary and wanted to try somewhere new, a family from France that had come here on holiday to immerse themselves in the history, and three men and a woman who seemed to be a group of friends. Alec was in the kitchen busily cooking away and the two young waiting staff were doing a grand job keeping everyone’s drinks topped up and ensuring courses were moving briskly along. Emma was in the kitchen when she heard the bell above the door go off again. She skipped excitedly towards the restaurant. ‘More customers, this is going to be a great night.’ Her excitement came to a crunching halt as she came through and saw John and two of his undesirable friends being shown to a table by the waiter. As she stood watching them with a disgusted look on her face, John saw her and just sneered at her.
‘What are you looking at?’ he shouted across the room. ‘Paying customers here so I want a bit of respect.’ The other diners tried to look around without moving their heads, as is the British way, with only the group of friends having a better look around at the annoying behaviour. Emma went over to the table.
‘Look John, if you want to come in here that’s up to you, but don’t ruin this. There’s been a lot of hard work put in here, which I know is a concept you’re not exactly familiar with, so please just button it!’ She turned and marched off to the kitchen as the waiter was returning to their table with a bottle of wine, selected not for its vintage or label, but purely because it was free.
They ordered their meals and during the main course they were loud, uncouth and swore at each other as if they were sitting in the roughest of pubs, clearly doing it to try and provoke Emma. Why is it that these people can’t go more than two words without swearing at each other, Emma thought as she watched them from the back of the restaurant. She didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of her disappearing into the kitchen, but she didn’t have any particular desire to be close to them either. Their pudding was then brought out and more wine was ordered, making them become more drunk. Alec was still working in the kitchen but keeping an eye on things and Emma could sense he was feeling that his dream of opening a nice, cosy restaurant had evaporated already.
Emma had had enough. She walked over to their table and lifted the half full bottle of wine from the table and passed it to a waiter, telling him to take it away. John was on his feet, swaying towards her. ‘What the hell do you think you’re playin’ at? Eh? We paid for that.’ Emma could feel her heart quickening but she held her ground.
‘No you didn’t; at least not yet, but in any case, you’re upsetting the other customers and it’s time you all left. Please don’t come back again.’ John staggered towards her but she didn’t move, letting him barge into her and then send her keeling over onto the floor. He stood over her, his face flushed red and he was raging at her.
‘You think because you moved away from me that you’re better than me? Is that what you think, I’m goin’ tae show you; you’re nothin’ without me. All this fancy restaurant, but I know exactly who you are!’ He lunged towards her while she was still on the floor but, before he could get to her, four hands grabbed him roughly by the arms and dragged him back so fast he was lucky he didn’t get whiplash. ‘Hey, what the …’ The group of friends were on their feet and now one had John with his arm up his back, face down on the floor, while the other three were standing over the table with his friends giving them a look to say, ‘Just try it.’ One of the men turned to Emma and helped her up from the floor.
‘Are you OK?’
She brushed herself down. ‘I’m fine, thanks.’
The man smiled at her. ‘No problem. We’re off-duty police, glad we came in now. We saw what happened and it constitutes an assault. Do you want to press charges?’ Emma looked down at John squirming on the floor.
‘You know I think I do. After the way he’s behaved it’s the least he deserves.’ They all shared a quick glance with each other. The two friends who had come with John were clearly worried judging by the look on their faces. The two policemen nearest to them turned and then bent down, giving them a quiet word to which they nodded vigorously before being sent on their way. The one who had been holding John now dragged him to his feet and out the door. The man who had helped Emma up turned towards her again.
‘We’ll need you to come in and make a statement tomorrow, but we’ll take it from here for the moment. Shame about this; it looks like this will be a nice place, especially as I’ve heard you’re offering a discount to the police. By the way, my name’s Chris Buchan. Anyway, I hope the rest of the night will be a little calmer.’ He smiled warmly at her before joining his colleagues.
Emma turned and saw the faces of the other diners watching her. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m very sorry for the interruption to your meals. Unfortunately the offer of free wine seems to have been too good to resist for the wrong types of people.’ Everyone turned back to their tables and after an initial period of gossip about the incident, they settled back into their meals and life went on again. Alec came around the tables and topped up glasses and introduced himself and was pleased to find that the people who were there were quite prepared to put the evening down to experience and not let it put them off coming back. More people came in afterwards, filling another half dozen tables, and as the doors closed at eleven it could be said that the evening, overall at least, had been a resounding success.
Alec locked the door after letting the staff away and he and Emma sat down for a drink at one of the tables. ‘Well, that went well,’ he said cheerfully, ‘all things considered.’
‘Yeah, sorry about all that, just a bit of my past catching up with me.’
Alec shrugged. ‘Well, not your fault. We’ve all got our baggage. I don’t think it’s been too bad, it was all over as quickly as it started really and no damage done thankfully. I must say it was lucky those police were here? What are the chances of that, although I’m a little bit confused over what they were saying about a discount?’
Emma blushed slightly. ‘Well, I thought it might be a nice idea, you know, support our local police, what with us having the headquarters here. Might be good business even with the small discount I proposed.’
Alec finished his whisky and laughed. ‘Quite right! Now, I think we’ve done quite enough for today. Time for home – we’ll have it all to do again tomorrow, although hopefully not quite everything!’