yes, chef ~ carmen berzatto

paint in the crawl space

one month later. february.

and now we're back, finally getting started on the bear and working towards opening day. "corner!" carmen stops in his tracks seeing i was holding the picture of anthony bourdain that was on the wall.

"always loved him, you know?" carmen's lips upturn in the slightest "oh i know-" "bear, back to what we were talking about! it is a facelift and a gut" fak sighs "i don't think he's wrong, carmen" i wrap up the frames in old newspapers.

"how's my budget looking?" syd asks. i look to her awkwardly "not good" "shitty" fak and tina say at the same time "soft delivery works too guys-" "alright. fuck this. watch." carmen opens up an old pizza box from last night.

"the bear" he draws out while writing the same thing on the pizza box "alright, we have.... equipment that works-" "yeah that's zero" i tilt my head as carmen writes further onto the cardboard "then the deep clean-" "very deep" sydney adds in.

i laugh as everyone starts listening things that are beyond repair in the kitchen, meaning we would need completely different new ones "..oh! and the oven- that oven is scary so add another 10k on there" i snap my fingers at sugar, thankful she didn't forget the oven.

"alright, so we got 20-" "30 because of the oven" i correct carmen "fuck. me!" he shakes his head. everyone continues to list off everything we would need, completely brand new for the kitchen "so 85- ha ha just kidding
,95k-" carmen smiles at me sarcastically "i don't make the fuckin prices carmen-" "cousin! where the fuck is he it's so weird when he doesn't answer me" carmen tells sydney.

"he's downstairs" "he's downstairs" carmen looks back and forth between sydney and i "you two gotta stop doing that" he points the end of the sharpie marker at us "doing what?" i knit my eyebrows at carmen "whatever. i'm gonna go get richie" the bear wasn't the only thing that was getting worked on.

richie and i have come to a point where we couldn't be at each others throats all the time. we were working on the place almost everyday and i wasn't going to let my feelings towards richie get in the way, so we called a truce.

whatever he or i have said to each other in the past was in the past, doesn't mean he still gets on my nerves but for the sake of everyone else we try our best. i walk downstairs and see richie standing over the work table "did you get the drywall estimate?" i stop at the last step, waiting for his answer "13" his eyes wonder a bit "okay. thanks" i nod.

i could tell richie had more to say. he taps the work bench with his fingers. i stay there waiting for him to speak up "you know i'm trying... to get on board with this new shit, i'm tryin here" he truly was, i've seen it "richie.." i call him, he finally looks me in the eyes "i see it" a small smile forms on my face.

i tap the rail of the wooden stairs before heading back upstairs "so?" carmen asks as i shut the door behind me "13" he sighs along with nodding his head "i need to talk to sugar about something-" "we need to start working on the menu!" carmen shouts as i walk to the office "yeah! and i will definitely talk to sydney about that!" i say quickly before shutting the office door behind me.

i slump back on the door and let out a deep breath "listen i need to talk to you about-" i stumble forward as carmen opens the office door "fuck carmen!-" "paint in the crawl space" carmen snaps and points to me "you're right- richie can you grab the paint from the crawl space?!" i shout "i'm on the operating table right now"

sydney had accidentally ripped one of mikey posters when she almost fell into the wall "purpose, chef" i pinch carmen as we say the same thing "listen sugar i needed to talk
to you about somethin'" carmen says.

"well so did val-" "it can definitely wait- but i've been thinking about something. it's the money... we don't have enough" we all knew that, though it hasn't been spoken about "we never do. how do we get more?" carmen asks.