(Since there is no time estimate to this show, I will just put in what fits for this story. By now you can tell it isn't exactly like the show lol.)
A few months goes by, and Maia has finally developed a system that works as a cashier. Although, some of the methods she used would end up being an issue once Carmy found out... she was never properly trained, so that would be her excuse in the future.
Maia watched Sydney prepare a dish she wanted Carmy to add to the menu. Maia was proud of her friend, she was really making a name for herself in this establishment.
While she was putting on the finishing touches, their dishwasher gets their attention.
"When you guys are done with your containers, please take off the tape. It takes 2 seconds to take it off, other wise it gets impossible to take off by the time I get to it."
Maia looked over at the other chefs, because she hardly ever worked on the containers. But nodded her head anyway. All the employees even Carmy say "yes chef"
"Thank you for your time."
Maia looks over at Sydney, and she nods her head.
"I'm going to go talk to him."
"Go get him tiger. Stay strong, I got your back." Maia says as she hypes Sydney up and pats her back as she walks over to him.
Maia watches as she converses with Carmy.
"Here, chef I think my new dish is ready."
"Great. Can we look at it later."
"It's what we were talking about earlier." Sydney ignores Carmys talking making him visibly upset.
Maia bit her lip as she saw how Carmy was getting impatient by the minute.
"Later is better chef."
Carmy disengages from the conversation for a second, looking over at the other chefs who were prepping for the day.
"It's great to go." Sydney says, causing Carmy to focus back on her again.
"Are you saying risotto to-go to me? I'm barely convinced it's ready to go at all."
"I'm saying that dine in and dine out are basically the same thing.. we should try it. I can give you a taste of it.."
"Chef, listen to me. I'll think about it. And you need to slow down."
Maia could see the confusion in Sydney's eyes, and that's with she decided to walk over to them.
Maia could hear Sydney talking about how Chef called other restaurants about her working there.
"Is everything alright here?"
"Oh great, you brought back up? Chef, everything is fine. Please just, focus in the main area for now. This is a private conversation between chef and I."
"But chef. You should really try her dish, she's been working very hard on it-"
"Maia, I understand that. But now is just not the time, now please go, before I lose my shit." Carmy says to Maia as he turns over to look her in the eyes.
Maia sighs and nods her head.
"Yes chef..."
After the conversation, Carmy goes outside with Richie and Natalie Carmys sister. While the other chefs were preparing for opening. Natalie expresses concern over unpaid taxes making another mess that Carmy and Natalie have to fix for the restaurant.
Maia notices Sweeps and Marcus talking to each other and since she already finished her side work before they opened decided to talk with the guys.
"Hey fellas, what's going on?"
"Hey Maia, did you know about Marcus obsession over these donuts? Like he isn't for real is he?"
"Of course I'm for real, these treats are going to be the best this restaurant's ever had. They're so close to perfection." Marcus nods his head as he said that.
Maia smiled and then looks at sweeps.
"Hey, the man's passionate alright. Who are we to take that away from him." Maia defends her friend and sweeps puts his hands up in defense.
"If you want perfection, then start with a shower." Sweeps says to Marcus then walks away from us.
Marcus looks over at Maia and she nods her head, then heads the same direction as Sweeps to the register.
"Wait, you used to play for the fucking cubs?" Maia could hear from the distance.
Maia shook her head, and laughed.
As she finally got to the register, Sydney and Richie were already in the front.
"Oh damn, I didn't expect to see you guys here so soon." Maia says to the two of them and laughs to herself.
Richie didn't turn around and Sydney was working on her check list.
Sydney turns over to see Richie, and looks back at Maia and they both shrugged their shoulders.
"You alright Richie?" Maia asks, he finally turns around and sees that both Maia and Sydney were looking at him concerned.
"Yeah... it feels weird out there. Bar closed."
"You go there a lot?" Sydney asks, both girls were interested in what he was in his feelings about.
"Nah, the owner and I don't really see eye to eye. It was nice to know it was there though."
Maia nodded her head, knowing that feeling of familiarity.
"I get it, I grew up in a house and lived there for 20 years, had the same view to a house right across the street, with the same neighbors for 15 years... the moved out the last 5 years, and it just never felt the same after that."
"Where did they move to?" Richie asks.
"Better neighborhood... I moved my parents out of that shit hole as soon as I could afterwards." Maia replies, Sydney and Richie both nod their heads.
"It's just like wicker." Sydney contributes to the team.
"Yeah they all suck now." Richie states.
"Yeah, they're different..." Sydney says in a questioning tone.
Richie rolls his eyes.
"That's why I tell them to stop fucking with the restaurant. It's a delicate ecosystem you know. It's held together shared, loved, and respected by history."
"Is that why you were upset with Carmen changing the restaurant." Sydney asks, Richie slowly nodded his head.
The three of them all fell silent.
Maia put her hand on Sydney's back, and before anyone could speak. A bullet goes through the window of the restaurant. Maia pulls Sydney down instantly by the sound.
Sydney gets up instantly after the shot happens, causing a commotion in the kitchen as well.
Maia too afraid to get up, she curls up into a ball covering her ears and in the duck and cover position.
Sydney looks down at Maia, still in distress on what just happened.
"Maia, it's okay, Maia, it's okay. You can stand up, get up, it's over, please." She keeps trying to reassure her, but Maia ignores her and keeps laying on the floor.
"Are you fucking kidding me." Richie says, causing Sydney to step over Maia and walk with Richie toward the window.
"Everyone okay?" Carmy asks, and before Sydney could answer for Maia, Richie cuts in.
"Yeah, fuck!"
"Where M- are you okay? Why are you still on the floor?" Carmy asks Maia as he kneels down to try and shake her.
Maia ignores him and she shaking.
"Maia, you can get up, it's gone. You can get up now." Concern is washed over Carmys face as he tries to reassure his cashier.
Anyone would feel heartbroken to find the bubbly cashier on the ground totally broken.
"Richie, find out who the fuck did this." Carmy says pissed off but stops yelling as he could visibly see Maia shake more at the sound.
"Marcus, take Maia to the back room, while we figure this shit out. Everyone else, get back to prepping we open in an hour."
Richie goes outside to see who shot at the window, Marcus helps Maia up, and Sydney and Carmy walk over to inspect the window.
Maia sat down on Carmys chair, still shaken up by the event that happened earlier. She sipped on her tea that Sydney made for her, Maia hated this feeling. This feeling of helplessness.
She enjoyed fixing others and yet she hated when others would try to fix her. She always hated losing control, those shots brought her back to her last year living at that house. Those same shots that would end up killing her dad, and leaving her mom and herself in shambles.
That was the last time she felt helpless in a situation, she would always take charge, but she couldn't in that moment.
Maia was lost in thought, she didn't even want to add this into her blog later... it would be too personal for her to write about.
Carmy walks into the office, ignoring Maia a little. Unsure if he should say something or just let her be. A piece of him felt for her, he knew he probably would have acted the same way if he was in her position. Yet, he wouldn't allow himself to, because he was the owner, he could lose his cool in other ways, but this wasn't one of them. His team needed him, so he would take charge in situations like this.
Before Carmy would walk off, Maia spoke up.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine chef. Take as much time as you need."
"You can call me Mai... if you want."
"Why?"
"Oh, I just notice you have nicknames for everyone, so I figured I'd give you a nickname to call me."
"What about princess?" Carmy gains the courage to say, he knew if she didn't like it he could just say he was joking.
Maia was surprised by that, she couldn't help but feel like he was flirting. She bit her lip. He watched as she did that but his eyes then feel to the ground.
"Why you say that?" She lightly teased.
"Cashiers have always been the princesses or princes. If you think about it, they're the ones who keep the customers happy, and if any of the chefs see them getting disrespected... they go off on them." Carmy shrugs and Maia laughs.
"But if you prefer Mai, that's fine too."
She weakly smiles at him and looks down at her shoes.
"Maybe Mai would be more work appropriate. I don't want any of the chefs feeling some type of way."
Carmy nods his head.
"I feel like I should be helping outside..." Maia says as she looks beyond the office.
Carmy shakes his head, "they're working on it. But if you're ready, we could use our cashier."
Maia nods her head, takes one last sip of her tea and gets up.
"Are you okay chef?" He asks her and she sighs.
"Yeah, just... bad experience with drive bys..."
"You can talk to me about it whenever you want. Or Sydney, or Marcus. We're all here for you." Carmy says that awkwardly, and Maia smiles sweetly at him and nods.
"I'll keep that in mind Chef Berzatto." She salutes him and he lets out a nervous laugh.
"You can call me Carmy too, if you want."
"Okay Carmy."
"Get back to work princess Mai."
This was the first moment that Maia and Carmen shared together. Both Maia and Carmen could feel themselves growing a stronger connection, but both of them pushed away those feelings.
Carmen may have pushed way too hard on the feelings, because what he would say later on in the day, he would come to regret instantly.
Maia and Carmy both walk together in unison to the register where Natalie, Richie, and Sydney stood.
"You okay?" Richie asks Maia concerned for her, and she just nods her head.
"Yeah, I'm fine now."
"Oh, you must be Maia. Carmy mentions you from time to time." Natalie says as she takes her hand out for her to shake.
Maia smiles at Natalie, and shakes her hand.
Natalie is a beautiful woman. In fact the Berzatto family was filled with beautiful people on the outside.
"Good things I hope."
"Great things actually, I think he-"
"Okay, anyways..." Carmy butts in as he folds his arms and we all look at the covered up window.
"Should we call the cops?" Natalie asks, and everyone in the room says "no."
"They're sweeping glass up..."
"I know."
"Tuesday afternoon..."
"Sugar." Carmy says clearly annoyed at Natalie trying to persist.
"45 minutes till open chefs."
"Heard." Everyone says including Maia and Sydney as they start to work on their opening duties.
Maia opens the register by putting her log in, in.
Carmy and Natalie get into a heated argument, while Maia and Sydney just awkwardly try not to listen in on their family drama.
Carmy ends up storming off, tension had filled the air. Sydney and Maia both look at each other and shrug it off.
Richie stood besides Maia as Tina flipped the closed sign to open.
"Alright chefs, look alive. We open." Tina shouts, and our regular Tom comes in right away.
"Oh shit, the man with a golden dick." Richie says as he walks in.
Maia smiles at Tom, "how are you today Tom?"
"I'm good, what about yourself Maia."
"I'm great, starting the day off with my favorite reg. Let's get a beef, lightly hot and sweet and dipped for my pal Tommy." Maia yells out to the kitchen.
Richie nods his head proud of the girl he resented only a month earlier.
"Look at her go, they grow up so fast." Richie says as he pats Maia on the back.
"What happened to the window?"
"Our windows just attract bullets don't they." Maia says jokingly causing Tom and Richie to laugh a little.
"Go check to see if you're needed in the back. I can take this line for a few." Richie says to Maia and she looks at him for a second.
"You sure?"
He nods his head and she nods her head back.
"I'll see ya later Logan, don't forget his cake like you always do Richie."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it."
Maia heads into the kitchen and looks around at all the chefs hard at work. In the distance she could hear Carmy yelling, and she could smell all the wonderful smells that her co workers were cooking up. She definitely missed this from working at a restaurant.
Maia walks over to Sydney who was putting her finishing touches on her second plate for the food she wanted to show Carmy.
"Can I try it now Syd?" Maia asks as she stops behind Tina.
"Nuh uh, I go first muñeca." Tina takes the fork and tries the dish.
"Oh my god, muy buen."
Maia then takes a bite and Sydney looks at her with hope.
She nods her head, "hell yeah, a little saucy, but it's amazing."
Sydney smiles, and Carmy walks past us, making brief eye contact with Maia. Before getting to the grill.
"Go back to being cashier chef."
"Yes, chef." Maia says and salutes him, but stays next to Sydney and pushes her toward Carmy.
Sydney gives her a glare, but shakes her head.
Maia already decided that if Carmy didn't accept Sydney's dish there and then, she would make a review about original beef and praise Sydney's cooking so Carmy would be forced to put her dish out.
"Hey, uh chef. Think you can give my new dish a try now?"
"Yeah of course, thanks for asking." He gives Maia the stink eye not sure why she was still with Sydney.
"This one?"
"Yeah."
He takes a bite of the entree, and Sydney and Maia both look at him with uncertainty.
He looks at Sydney blankly before saying. "This is tremendous chef."
Sydney not wanting to lose the momentum of the compliment, she goes on to talk about getting it out to people.
Carmy continues his blank stare, and shakes his head.
"Sauce is a little bit tight." He says and Sydney nods in agreement.
Everyone around us start to dig into the dish, getting in the way of Sydney's conversation and causing Maia to roll her eyes.
"Maybe we roll it out as a special soon?"
"Yeah getting close."
"How soon.. like tomorrow..."
"I said it was great."
"You actually said tremendous." Maia says butting in trying to help Sydney out.
Carmy doesn't look up from what he was doing, "I didn't say it was perfect. I do remember saying go be cashier though Maia..."
"Right..." Maia says but gets cut off by Sydney
"Well, I can definitely loosen up the sauce a bit. I like this I think it's great..."
"Sydney... Sydney.. Chef it's not ready." Carmy says, causing Maia to loose her cool a little.
"What do you mean it's not ready?" Maia asks as her blood begins to boil a little as she looks at her disappointed friend.
"Maia, butt out of this alright. I said no, Sydney understands right chef?"
Sydney just nods her head as she stares at the plate upset.
"Sydney put her blood sweat and tears into this meal... I mean sure, it can be loosen up a bit, but come on... that can be fixed in two seconds. The guests want a new dish, and this would be perfect to the addition. Trust me I would know, I hear them bickering about it every other day."
Carmy looks at Maia his face beginning to get a little red.
"Maia, it's okay. It's fine... I'll just.. try harder next time." Sydney says in defeat.
"Maia, I will give you 5 seconds to get the hell out of my kitchen before I send you home for the day. I seriously don't want to deal with this shit today alright."
Maia rolls her eyes at him and he slams his fist on the counter causing Sydney and Maia to jump a little.
"Alright, alright... chill. I'm leaving." Maia says as she pats Sydney on the back one last time before grabbing the other dish and nodding her head at her.
Maia knew she would be writing that blog as soon as she got home.
Maia takes the plate to a guest who seemed to be new. She planned on giving it to someone who wasn't a regular, just in case they wonder who the person she gave it to.
Sydney goes over to the window as she hears a commotion outside, Richie runs around the kitchen looking for his gun, and Carmy comes out to check on Maia who was just standing around looking at the guy she handed Sydney's plate to.
"That's not what I think it is... is it." He asks Maia as his face starts to become red. He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
This was the build up that was mentioned earlier. That Carmen would regret saying to Maia instantly, he let his anger build up, and he felt bad that Maia had to be the one he yelled at.
Maia stayed silent as and Carmy knew she gave the dish to the guy she was looking at.
Carmen without thinking grabs a hold of Maia's arm, hard enough to force her to follow him. She would have willingly went with him, but Carmen wasn't sure if she would so he forced her anyways.
He took her outside to the dumpster out in the back. He didn't want anyone else to hear him yelling at her.
"What the FUCK did I say about that dish."
"Sorry, I didn't want it to go to waste." Maia shrugs him off and puts her hands to her chest annoyed.
"Oh, sorry? You're sorry? I told you and Sydney that it wasn't ready. So you go behind my back and sell it to a customer. Do you even have a brain? What the fuck were you thinking? Oh I know you weren't thinking at all, you were being just a dumb cashier."
"Fuck off Berzatto. I'm sorry that I wanted to help my friend out."
"Do you have any idea what could happen to my restaurant just because you fucking gave a free dish?"
"It's amazing, he ate every last bit of it."
"That doesn't fucking matter Maia... you, it's like you lack fucking brain cells."
"Oh my gosh, calm down. It's really not that big of a deal. Nothing happened."
"We can lose the fucking business because of this. But of course you don't give a shit, you're just the cashier, you don't know anything to do with businesses."
"Hey, I know how businesses work asshole. I asked him his allergies before hand Carmen. I'm not a fucking idiot. But it's nice to see how you really feel about me."
Maia says as she shakes her head and walks back inside the restaurant. Carmen follows behind her trying to keep the same pace as her.
"Get back over here, we aren't done here."
"Yeah well I fucking am."
"Maia, wait!" Carmen pulls her toward him and she swats his hand away from her and rolls her eyes.
"Leave me alone chef."
"Where are you going."
"I'm fucking leaving that's what. I'll see you tomorrow chef."
"You can't fucking leave in the middle of your shift Mai. We need all hands on deck. Don't leave us like this."
"Yeah well, you should have considered that before calling me a fucking idiot." Maia grabs her things from the locker and flips off Carmen.
Lucky hardly anyone was paying attention to the situation, otherwise Carmen would have to fight off a lot of people, because what he said earlier was right. Everyone defends the princess cashier.
Carmen watched as Maia left through the back door, he banged his hand on the door and shouted "fuck."