Julian and Catseye - Catching Up and Catering

[x-catseye.livejournal.com]

Julian visits the diner and reunites with Catseye, offering her a job.

The door opened and a bell rang to alert the attendants that someone had arrived. Julian stepped through the doorway, well dressed in a three-piece suit, despite the hot September day. He looked around the dining area getting his bearings as it was his first time here- not noticing anyone he knew, set to finding the owner of the DeliCATessen, his old friend and team-mate, Catseye.

Julian didn't have to work hard at finding Catseye. She popped out from the kitchen shortly after hearing the bell, tying a fresh apron around her waist in preparation for the next meal rush. "Hello," she greeted cheerfully, as she did to everyone who walked in, "welcome to... ohmygawd! Julian?! She squealed his name when the recognition sunk in. "Julian! Hihihi!" She rushed over to him, intending to give him a hug, but stopped short about a foot away from him. "Uh oh. Can I hug you?" she inquired with a tilt of her head. Despite the fresh apron, she'd been at the diner since before sun-up, helping the cooking team to make cabbage rolls. She'd gone nose-blind to the smell, but that didn't mean there wasn't one. "You look all fancy... I don't want to muss up your pretty clothes!"

He smiled and stepped into the space between them, wrapping Catseye in a friendly hug. "What good are fancy clothes if you can't have someone dry clean them regularly," he smiled and let go, still holding her shoulders. "It's good to see you, Cats."

"It's good to see you, too! I can't believe you're here in Westchester!" Catseye hugged him tightly, giggling over his comment about the clothes. In her usual frenetic fashion, she let him go suddenly and dashed behind the counter. "Want a coffee? Or an espresso? Or some juice? Or a sandwich? Or some soup? Or cookies? Or lasagna? Or something else?"

"I would like to try whatever you think is the best thing on your menu," he undid the button holding his jacket together and casually stepped up to the counter. "You're the master delicatessen, after all." He had ulterior motives for wanting to try what she thought was her best foot forward and was glad that she wasn't a telepath.

Catseye scoffed and waved a hand. "Master delicatessen! I don't think there really is such a thing, but it's reallyreally nice of you to say. And my food really is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. But everything's good here," she added, wrinkling her nose. "I don't know if I can decide what's best. There are many, many sandwiches, umm..." she grabbed a menu and put it out on the counter in front of Julian, "the bison reuban burger is one of my favourites... and same with the chickpea and almond burger. I could make a couple sliders for you if you want? Ooo, and cabbage rolls and perogies and different types of meatballs and gravies!"

Julian thought for a moment, "Those all sound good- I'll try them." He handed back the menu, "No hurry on them, either- I don't have any meetings today and I assume this place has WiFi, yes?" For a moment, he wished one of the mansion residents with a bottomless appetite was here, but found his courage to be equal to the challenge he'd just set to himself.

"Oh, yesyesyes!" Catseye nodded happily, scribbling the order on her order pad and passing the page through the window to the cooking staff before starting to make him a cappuccino that he could drink while he waited, "it's all very modern here. And we can charge more for drinks when people sit and use the internet," she winked. "So what's new with Julian Keller? How come you're in Westchester?"

He thought for a moment that she knew and just didn't want to broach the awkward subject, but realized that she'd likely been too busy to hear the news. What could he say, 'My father, he...he's in prison for a number of terrible things- my family lost control of the company, so I'm back here with what little the government left me.' "Family issues, I came back to start my fortune away from them," Julian took the cappuccino and looked around the room- "Is there anywhere I shouldn't sit?"

"Nonono, sit wherever you'd like!" There were only a couple people, whom Catseye was already beginning to call her 'regulars', at tables since Julian had come between meals. "I'm sorry to hear about your family issues," she told him sympathetically, ducking into the kitchen and watching him through the order window as she helped the staff prepare his food. "Are you coming back to live at the mansion with your mansion family? What are you gonna start your fortune in? And please don't say restaurants, or I'm retiring right now," she smirked.

Julian made his way to a nearby table so he could still chat with the deli owner, "I'm making investments in things I think will pay off- a good portion of my funds are in stocks. So far, I'm not sure, but I'm keeping my eyes open for possibilities. And I'm not staying at the mansion for long- just while my new place in the city is getting set-up." He put his tablet down on the table and shrugged out of his jacket, hanging it from a nearby hook. "Restaurants are pretty high risk, so you're safe...for now," he winked.

"Ooo, new place in the city! That sounds exciting! Are you gonna be getting a roommate or living by yourself? Are you going to District X or somewhere different? What have you been doing since you left?"

"Penthouse, not in the district, and just me for now," he tried to keep up, but it was hard to do when she seemed to stop taking breaths. "As to what I've been doing- I transferred from Stanford to NYU, and negotiated a late start so I could get situated, but will have to start classes soon." He wasn't ready to talk about China yet and wasn't certain if the subject of Nick was appropriate, "Tell me what you've been doing...aside from starting a successful business I mean."

"Starting the business is pretty much all I have time for," Catseye muttered ruefully, scooping meatballs out of the pot where they were sitting with the mushroom gravy. "Nick and I live in a suite together and we barely even see each other, because I'm always here. Don't get me wrong," she added, wheeling around when she heard the ding of the oven where the burger buns had been toasting, "I love it here. I'm proud of it. But... sometimes, when the protesters and health inspectors get mean and there are fun things going on at home but I've been here for twelve hours and I sleep in the back and don't go outside for days on end, I wonder why I do it." She looked over the shoulder of the line cook frying the perogies and added a pinch more pepper to the pan. "What are you going to study at NYU?" she inquired, not wanting to dwell on her own negativity.

Julian ignored her question and pressed the issue, "You're not taking any time for yourself, Cats...do you have enough staff? If you don't find time for yourself you're going to burn out." He suspected that her burning out would be ages off given her seemingly endless well of energy, but it would also be equally epic on the scale of disasters.

"Are you asking for a job?" Catseye teased, dressing the burger while she waited for the cook to finish cooking the fresh bison and veggie patties. "I'm okay. It's just... like you said. Restaurants are high risk. I figure I have to put the time in now, while it's so new, and then once it's the best restaurant in Salem, and I start opening restaurants in the City and the other boroughs and other cities, I'll have lots and lots and lots of people to boss around and then I can sit in a lawn chair by my huge pool drinking lemonade and have all the time to myself I can stand. How come you're not telling me what you're studying?"

With a grin, Julian held up his hands, defeated, "Business with a side of physics- not terribly exciting, though I doubt it would qualify me to work here." He thought about the vision he had for his future, but wasn't as optimistic as Catseye. "I am glad you have a silver-lining to the hectic life you are currently living," his stomach rumbled slightly, "You mentioned protesters?"

"Ugh. Yeah. Weren't they outside when you came in?" Catseye craned her neck towards the windows even though she couldn't see outside from the kitchen. "The three of them? They're usually there. I bring them coffee and cookies sometimes. There used to be a lot, lot more," she smirked. "There were, like... crowds of them on Opening Day. But they all left except The Knitter, The Bald Volunteer, and Mr. Fancy Suit." She plated venison meatballs and eyeballed the sandwiches the line cooks were assembling. "Another bacon slice on that one, please," she instructed, arranging one of each dessert on another plate and bringing it out for Julian while the burgers finished cooking. "You can have your dessert while you wait for your meal if you want, but don't tell anyone, or I'll get a reputation," she grinned. "How come physics?"

He'd noticed the people on the street, but they hadn't been very animated when he was passing through- though he was certain, now, that if he'd been born with a physical mutation the story would have been very different. Turning his attention back to the plate in front of him, he picked up a fork and took a bite, savoring the sweet melody of flavors. His eyebrows shot up, "That's delicious!" He smiled and set down the fork with the prongs resting on the edge of the plate. "As to my academic career, a mentor recommended that a study of physics may help me learn to control my abilities." Julian picked the fork back up and got ready to pop another bite into his mouth, "He was not wrong. I can fly now...sort of."

"Fly?! No waaaaaaaay!" Catseye stopped what she was doing for a moment and just stared out at Julian, open-mouthed. "That's awesome! How come sort of? Can you carry people with you? How far can you go? How high?"

Julian thought it nice to finally meet someone as enthusiastic as he was about flying, "I can take people with, though maybe only a couple. I can go for a while, maybe thirty minutes before I need a break, and not very high, but high enough to avoid power lines at least. And..." he flushed slightly, taking another piece of the delicious dessert into his mouth to avoid having to admit what was wrong with his flying. "Catseye, I can not begin to tell you how fantastic this is."

Catseye beamed at the compliment. She did all the baking for the restaurant herself so it was always a matter of personal pride when someone enjoyed a dessert. "Yay! I'm really glad you like it!" The line cook finished the burgers and brought them over to Catseye, who was adding a number of half-sandwiches to the same plate. "Can I go flying with you sometimes? I wish I could fly. It would be the best thing ever. Maybe even better than becoming a purple cat," she admitted, though she sounded almost guilty saying it. She instructed another of the cooks to put perogies on the meatball plate and brought both plates out to Julian. "Here you go. A Deli-CAT-essen sampler platter," she grinned.

His eyes went wide at the giant platters set before him, heaped with a variety of things that were likely not overly healthy for him. "Wow, this looks really good." He picked up a tiny sandwich and took a bite, mulling over her words about flying- his brow raised as the combination of savory flavors hit his pallet. "And it is really good. Very nice." He smiled at his hostess, "I'd be happy to take you flying, and you're right that the overall it's awesome. The problem is..." he sighed, an embarrassed flush spreading to his cheeks as a memory of Cassie breaking her arm on landing crept into his head. "I haven't really, learned to, land...yet," he trailed off with the last couple words.

Unable to help it, Catseye giggled a little at his embarrassment. "You must know how to land if you're not still up in the sky flying," she pointed out.

Julian chuckled, "Yeah, I meant to say, land without crashing- my brain somehow throws up shields to protect me when I hit the turf, but usually my passengers aren't as lucky." With a slight sigh he tried another bit of the sampler, "This food is fantastic- honestly, Catseye, this is probably the best thing I've had since I got back here." He paused, "I have a party coming up, a house-warming for my new place in the city. How would you feel about being one of the caterers?"

"Seems to me like you need some passengers who are indestructible, or... y'know... have healing factors?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. The notion of flying, however, went completely out of her head when Julian mentioned catering. "Uhh... really? Really really? Me, cater a party? You mean a party for, like... the mansion people? Or fancy people?"

"I expect some of the mansion's population will be by," he smiled at what seemed like her tentative-excitement. "It's more so for the young, wealthy, and powerful of the city- the socialites and page-six superstars who want to be seen being where the next big thing is. If I'm to cement myself as one of them, I need to announce my presence to the city- hence the party. I'd need you and your staff- hire however many you need- for an overnight, expecting something like upwards of a hundred guests at any given time. The second night of the party, you and your employees would be welcome guests yourselves." Julian cocked his head slightly and relaxed into his chair, "And if the guests like your fare, it could lead to more opportunities like this...though likely not as large."

Catseye was rendered speechless, just staring at Julian for several moments and then looking back into the kitchen where the staff suddenly started moving around as if they'd been caught eavesdropping. "Uhh... wow. Wowwowwow. That's... Julian, that's big. I mean, this is a big deal. You really want to serve our food to fancy people? A hundred fancy people?!" Julian was right- it could lead to more opportunities in catering, which she'd never done before, and more business for the restaurant. But it would be a lot of work. Which she wasn't opposed to. But she'd have to ask her staff how they felt about it. "I definitely want to say yes!" she told Julian excitedly. "But can I say yes for sure and officially and all that after I talk to the staff?"

"Of course," Julian pulled a pen from the inner pocket of his vest and scribbled down his contact information. "If you need to hire additional temporary staff, I can help with that too. This food is too good- it must be shared. I hope you'll say yes," he smiled and popped something delicious into his mouth without look at it.

"I probably will," Catseye retorted with a grin. Especially if he was offering to help with temporary staff. That meant she could get the job done even if her own staff weren't keen on the assignment. She poured two glasses of water and sat down at the table with Julian, sipping from one and pushing the other onto his side of the table. Setting her own glass down, she pulled her notepad and pen from her apron pocket and set them on the table next to a diner menu. "Wanna help me make your menu?"

"Let's," he paused, not having meant to speak with his mouth full. "You should know, you'll be sharing the first night with another caterer, but the kitchen facilities should be enough for you both- and there will be another company handling alcohol...copious amounts of alcohol." He dusted his hands off, "Now, I was thinking...."