I'd known Carmy Berzatto for literally my entire life. We grew up next door to one another, and due to my family just consisting of myself and my workaholic mom, I'd spent a lot of time at his place growing up and was extremely close to his entire family.

It wasn't much of a surprise when we'd reconnected only four years ago while both living in NYC. We'd known each other forever, and our families had always teased us about dating each other. It wasn't a surprise, but how it ended sure was.

It ended abruptly, and things went back to normal. Well, a new normal. A new normal where we barely spoke to one another. Now that Carmy was back in town, things were more awkward than ever.

I'd moved back home a year and a half ago to be with my mom, who had mental health struggles while I was growing up that only got worse as time went on and I moved out.

I needed to be home to be with her, and luckily Mikey had offered me a job at The Beef. It was the familiarity I needed and I would forever be grateful to him. Things were ok for a while.

Until they weren't, and things fell out of my control yet again.

When I first arrived home and began working at The Beef, I treated it like an extension of my old job. I'd wear some fancy "business casual" type outfit everyday, and arrive at least an hour early to each and every shift.

Two years later, however, that charade was over. My old clothes were stuffed in a plastic tote in the back of the closet, and most days I wore jeans, a sweatshirt with the restaurant's logo on it, and converse to work. It was a definite change of pace, one that I still wasn't sure I was ok with as it took away a sense of normalcy, and honestly, made me feel like a bit of a deadbeat.

It had been months since my boss and childhood friend/neighbor Mikey Berzatto had died, leaving the restaurant in a state of disrepair. I tried my best to make sure that things stayed the same from the financial side, but to be honest, The Beef was struggling for quite some time and Mikey's death only made the problems seem even worse.

Still, I made sure to arrive at least half an hour earlier than I was supposed to get there because now that I had access to all the financial records (which were previously under lock and key when Mikey was alive), it was a huge headache figuring out how much money the restaurant had to work with. Not to mention that Mikey used codes and abbreviations on everything that I couldn't even begin to figure out the meaning of.

Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto had been back in town for nearly two weeks now, and was now the de facto head chef of The Beef, which added both a sense of relief and stress for me. Relief because there was finally a sense of organization at the restaurant, and stress due to our shared past and the general sense of awkwardness that existed between us.

While I'd usually arrive at work a bit earlier, today I was almost ten minutes late due to not catching the train to work in time. By the time I arrived, the kitchen was in full swing with people yelling and stressing already.

"Morning Jules!" Tina greeted me as I walked through the kitchen on my way to the office.

"Good morning!" I replied.

I had barely made it to my office when the first crisis of the day began.

Despite the fact that I had specifically put in an order for 200 pounds of beef, only 25 pounds were delivered as that was all we could afford. Not to mention the fact that 25 pounds would probably last us like ten minutes.

Carmy had decided he'd sell some of his clothes to get the money, but considering the fact that his wardrobe basically only consisted of jeans and white t-shirts, I was a bit skeptical of how successful that plan would end up being.

I decided that I'd wait and see, and went back to my office to continue the reports I'd been working on for days on end. No matter what I did, I couldn't figure out how Mikey had kept the restaurant afloat for as lmk as he did.

I'd been in the office for a fraction of a minute before i heard Carmy yell, "Fuck!"

I rushed out to the main dining room, and saw Carmy almost unplugging the arcade games.

"Don't unplug it!" Tina and I shouted at the same time.

"The sound is so loud! I can't take it!" He snapped back.

"Buy earplugs, or better yet just ignore it," I suggested.

"You unplug it, it won't work again," Tina warned.

He rubbed his head in frustration, before turning around to face Tina and I.

"When was the last time you guys emptied these?" He asked.

Tina shrugged and turned to me.

"I can't remember ever seeing anyone empty them since I've worked here, so at least a year," I estimated.

Carmy sighed, "Figures. Jules, help me empty these?"

I nodded and got onto the floor next to him, helping him empty them out.

Tons of quarters poured out onto the floor,

"Woah. It's not enough to get all the meat we need, but it's something!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's something alright," Carmy replied.

He was gone for about an hour, but he'd somehow managed to trade all of the quarters and some of his jeans for 50 more pounds of meat. The jury was still out on whether it was beef or something strange like horse meat, but still food was food.

Due to his revelation of sorts, Carmy also decided that it would be a good idea for us to host a tournament for Ball Breaker —which was our most popular arcade game— as he thought it would bring the restaurant the money it desperately needed. I hated the type of people that those tournaments attracted, and it always left the restaurant a total mess, but at the end of the day I couldn't argue with his logic.

Unknown to Carmy, I had placed an ad online for a sous chef last week, because I could totally tell that the restaurant needed all the help that it could get.

I'd interviewed a girl named Sydney on the phone the other day, and we'd clicked right away. She was perfect for the job, and she'd be arriving that morning to be interviewed in person and to (hopefully) start her first shift.

Money was tight, but the lack of organization in the kitchen had been bothering me for months and despite him never admitting it, I could tell that Carmy was beginning to be annoyed by it too.

"Speaking of the plans for today, we have a new hire coming in," I spoke up.

"A new hire? For what? We don't need anyone," Carmy snapped, pushing his hair away from his face anxiously.

"Don't be mad. But, seriously we need a sous, Carm. Desperately. You're doing the work of three people already, you need someone to help out," I added, looking down at the ground as I was nervous to see his reaction.

Carmy took a moment, and then looked back over at me.

"Ok. Fine, I guess we do need somebody," he relented.

I smirked, "Yeah, we do."

Satisfied, I quickly walked into my office before Carmy could change his mind, leaving my door open halfway because I was waiting for Sydney to arrive.

After a few minutes, a younger woman wearing a chef's coat knocked on the door frame.

I looked up from my laptop and at the girl.

"Sorry, I thought it would be rude if I just walked in. I'm Sydney, by the way," she said.

I laughed, "No worries! I'm Jules, we talked over the phone a few days ago. Carmy, the owner, is in the kitchen. I'll show you around and introduce you two."

I got up and led Sydney to the kitchen, pointing out things as we went.

"Carmy, this is Sydney. Our new sous," I said.

Carmy looked blankly at the two first before nodding, "Yes, yes. Hi."

He reached for her resume and began to read through it.

"Uh, Alinea, Smoque, Avec. That's some serious heat. What...uh...what's UPS? Is that here? In Chicago?" Carmy questioned.

I looked down at the floor, trying not to laugh.

"That's...that's the United Parcel Service. UPS, Carm," I replied, trying to hide my smile.

"Oh shit, like the mail? What'd you do for them?" Carmy questioned.

"I drove my way through culinary school," Sydney replied matter-of-factly.

"CIA?" Carmy asked.

"CIA, yeah," Sydney replied.

"Okay, so then what are you doing here?" Carmy asked.

Let's just say subtlety wasn't his friend.

"This was my dad's favorite spot when I was a kid. We'd come here every Sunday. Special place," Sydney replied, a smile on her face.

"Okay, good. You know the drill, you're gonna make family. It's meat plus three, we eat around two," Carmy nodded.

"Yeah, heard," Sydney replied.

I looked at Sydney, "Ok, perfect. If you need anything, I'm in the office over there. And welcome to the family!"

"Thank you!" Sydney replied.

I nodded and returned to the office, leaving the door propped in case Sydney needed anything.

I'd been in my office for less than five minutes before I heard loud footsteps walking down the hallway.

So it was going to be one of those types of days, where I barely got any work done and instead was used as the mediator between one of Richie and Carmy's many, many stupid arguments.

I poked my head out the door, ready to play peacemaker yet again. But, instead of seeing the two of them at each other's throats, I instead saw Carmy walking down the hallway, his hand dripping blood.

"Holy shit! Are you ok?" I asked, beginning to feel a bit worried.

"Yeah, it's fine. It looks worse than it is," Carmy replied.

"Do you think that maybe you need stitches?" I questioned.

"I don't have time for stitches."

"Ok, fair enough. Can I at least bandage it up for you, though? For my own peace of mind? And also to ensure that the nerds won't be ingesting your blood?" I asked.

Carmy smiled slightly, "Yeah, sure."

He followed me into the office, taking a seat on the edge of my desk. I quickly went over to one of the file cabinets and pulled out the ancient first aid kit.

"Ok, so I think all the medicine in here is expired? So no antiseptic today, unfortunately, meaning there's a slight possibility you'll get an infection and your hand will fall off. But, who knows," I said, opening the kit.

"I think I'll take my chances," Carmy replied.

I quickly pulled out the gauze and medical tape, wrapping his hand tightly in the gauze and securing it with the tape.

"It's not the best, but it'll do I think," I said once I was done.

"It's good, thanks Jules," he replied, smiling at me.

"Do you need me to close this so you can get some privacy, if you know what I mean? I don't mind", Richie said, smirking at us from the hallway.

Carmy quickly pulled his hand out of my grasp and brushed past Richie and back towards the kitchen.

"Fuck off Richie!" I exclaimed.

"Wait, what did I do?" Richie asked, faking innocence.

"You know what you did," I snapped, reaching around him to shut the door.

I sat back down at my desk, and worked consistently for the next hour or so until I heard a knock on my door.

"Jules! Time for family!" Marcus exclaimed.

I quickly got up and walked into the dining room, where I took a seat between Tina and Sydney.

"This looks great, Sydney!" I exclaimed.

"Thank you!" she replied.

And without further ado, we began to eat. The food was absolutely amazing, and I felt super confident in my decision in hiring Sydney.

We'd gotten a few minutes into the meal, when we began to hear banging and yelling from outside. The nerds had arrived.

Despite The Beef not opening for another 45 minutes, the nerds inexplicably wanted to be let into the restaurant now.

"Should I go out there? I can't take it any longer!" I exclaimed, once the banging and yelling had gone on for several minutes.

"They'll get tired eventually. Don't waste your time, honey," Tina replied.

I sat there for a few more minutes, but it didn't seem like the nerds were letting us anytime soon.

I stormed out the door and stood facing the group of nerds.

"Hey! See this sign? We don't open for another half an hour! Meaning, you're not getting inside till then. So give it up!" I shouted.

Despite what I'd just literally said, the nerds took me being outside as their invitation to come into the restaurant, meaning they started literally trying to stampede their way in.

Carmy and Richie rushed outside once they heard the stampede, but before they could get to me, I was swiftly knocked over and onto my ass, by the nerds, which was not my finest moment.

Carmy quickly came over and helped me off the ground.

"You ok?" He asked.

"Just embarrassed," I blushed.

Carmy was quickly called over to the front of the restaurant by Richie, who was trying to calm the situation in his own special way, which meant yelling and calling the nerds every expletive in the book.

Things really went to shit when one of the nerds accidentally hit Carmy, causing Richie to lose his shit even more.

Because he's Richie and his logic makes no sense to no one but him, Richie pulled out his gun and fired a shot into the sky, which luckily scared the nerds back into submission.

The three of us went back inside, satisfied.

"So, this is good right? Lots of business for the restaurant, right!" Carmy said.

Richie and I looked at each other and then back at Carmy.

"I guess so? But Carm, do you really think we're ready for this many customers? The place is still a hot mess!" I exclaimed.

"She's right, I don't think we're ready," Richie nodded.

"Well, we have to be", Carmy snapped brushing past us and back into the kitchen, as Fak went and opened the door to all the nerds.

Let the games begin, I guess.

Author's Note: Hey friends! I hope you enjoyed this! It was super fun to write and I can't wait for you to see what I have planned for future chapters! Also, I'd like to put it on the record that my iPad consistently kept autocorrecting "Carmy" to "Camry" so there's that. Anyways don't forget to vote and comment and stuff. A new chapter is coming soon! Love you guys!

Love, Beth ❤️❤️❤️