Romance · Enemies to allies · Slow burn
Behind You
She has worked this kitchen for six years. You were hired over her head this morning. Doors at six.
A Fernlit original
- Where it starts
- Maud's kitchen under a railway arch, an hour before doors on your first night as head chef.
- You will meet Margo
- The sous chef who expected your job. Fast, flat, funniest when she's angry, and she calls you New.
Margo is a fictional character. In the story, a language model writes her replies as you read; they can be wrong or inconsistent, and they are not advice.
How chapter one begins
At 4:52 a train goes over the arch and every pan on the rack rings, softly, like a glass someone has flicked with a fingernail. The two cooks at the stoves don't look up. Nobody looks at you either. Your knife roll is under your arm, and your name is on a strip of blue tape on the top shelf of the walk-in, spelt wrong.
Friday. Eighty-six covers. Your first night at Maud's.
The back door bangs open and a woman shoulders through it with a crate of lemons on her hip. Chef whites, sleeves shoved to the elbow, dark hair under a black bandana, a tasting spoon in her breast pocket like a pen. A shiny burn scar on the inside of her left wrist, and above it three strips of blue tape, each one written on in marker. She sets the crate down, reads the kitchen in one turn of her head, and finds you last.
“You're early,” she says. “That's one.”
She dips the spoon in the stock on the back burner, tastes, and taps it twice on the rim. Then she peels a strip of tape off her arm and sticks it to the shelf above the head chef's station. It says NEW.
“Margo Fenn. Sous. I've worked this kitchen for six years, and for the last four months there's been nobody above me, so you'll forgive me if I didn't bake a cake.” Another train is coming; you hear it in the rails before the pans do. “Patrick says you're here to save the place. Patrick also says the walk-in's fine.”
The walk-in is not fine. You can hear it from here.
She leans on the pass, both hands flat, and looks at you the way she looked at the stock.
“The lease is up in four weeks, New. Men like Patrick don't hire a stranger by phone the month the lease is up unless they want someone to blame.” The pans start to ring. She waits them out. “So which are you? The rescue, or the excuse?”
Your first choice
Pick one and see how Margo answers. In the story you can also say anything in your own words.
“Heard.” She doesn't sound as if she has. “Everyone who walks in here says that. The bank said it. Patrick says it with his hand on your shoulder.”
She pulls the ticket rail toward her and clips three blank tickets on it, as if service has already started.
“Here's what keeping it open looks like. Eighty-six covers. A walk-in that's dying. Twelve bookings cancelled this week by somebody who isn't any of us.” Her eyes go to the office door and come back. “And a kitchen that's been mine for four months, and is yours as of now.”
A train goes over. The pans ring. She waits it out with her eyes on you.
“So if you mean it, New, go and look at the walk-in before six. If you don't, I'll be at that end, calling tickets.”
She watches you do it the way a cat watches a door.
“Well?”
The stock is good. It is very good. It is also short of salt by a pinch you would only notice if you had made it a thousand times, and her face says she knows exactly how short, and left it that way on purpose.
“That's two,” she says. “Early, and you taste before you talk. Patrick's last find tasted nothing for three days and then sent back my jus.” She takes the salt down from the shelf and sets it by your hand, not in it. “Go on, then. It's your stock now.”
Dev, at the grill, has stopped pretending not to listen.
Margo peels a strip of blue tape off her forearm. It says STOCK. She sticks it to your sleeve and goes back to her lemons.
The spoon stops halfway to her pocket.
“Noted,” she says.
That's all, for long enough that a train comes and goes. Then she puts the spoon away and starts wiping down a pass that doesn't need it.
“Patrick hires. Maud cooks. Maud's at home with a new hip and a phone, and Patrick had a list.” She folds the cloth into a square, then a smaller square. “I wasn't on it. Ask him. He'll tell you something lovely.”
It sounds very nearly like the truth.
Bunmi puts her head round from the dining room. “Margo. The Hendersons have cancelled. And the eight-thirty six. Neither of them rang me.”
Margo looks at you, not at Bunmi.
“Still want to ask me things, New?”
What you do next is up to you.
Choose from the story’s suggestions or say something to Margo in your own words. Margo answers as herself, and every later chapter remembers what you said to her.
Make the first choiceOther ways in
Chapter one can also begin here. Each opening is a different first meeting; the story remembers which one you chose.
Maud's is closed when you find it, chairs up on the tables, one light on over the bar. The door gives anyway.
Five in the morning at the wholesale market, and the floor is all ice and shouting. There is one good turbot left on Lennox's stall, and two hands land on the box at the same moment. One of them is yours.
More stories
Romance · Slow burnThe Lantern MarketA canal city, a night market that floats on barges, and an archivist who never says your name.
Mystery · Cosy mysteryFourteen Hollow LaneThe last page of the guest book is signed in your handwriting.
Romance · Second chancesSaltglassEvery summer the tide returns something you lost. This year it returns him.
Fantasy · Found familyThe Cartographer’s DaughterYour father mapped every road in the kingdom except the one he vanished down.
Fantasy · Enemies to alliesThe Moth CourtThe queen's crown is made of living moths, and every one of them has turned to look at you.
Romance · Second chancesThe Second SummerHe reads the letter twice, then folds it along the old crease.
Fantasy · Found familyUnclaimedEverything lost in the world turns up here eventually. Tonight, so did you.
Mystery · Slow burnSong, Spirit of the ForestOne year ago, Song Grimley went hiking on the Appalachian trail, not knowing she would never leave.
Fantasy · Enemies to alliesJasper AudenA handsome, intelligent but short-sighted and affluent son of a merchant family in the steampunk world of 1852 New York. You, an engineer, accidentally turned him into a minotaur.
Fantasy · Slow burnCritterSent back to the cretaceous, she's learned to live among the dinosaurs. You're here to get her home, but she doesn't remember what home is.
Romance · Slow burnCrow MomWhen a goth girl gives up on dating, she doesn't become a cat mom, she becomes...
Romance · Slow burnLet's Talk About the StarsShe's sitting alone at the side of the lake on a clear night, hoping for company.
Mystery · Found familyGhost HuntersA brother and sister have been recording their ghost hunting adventures since they were young. Aiden does it for the glory, Vero does it for the action. Both of them want to find someone they lost.
Romance · Slow burnKieran QuinShy guy at the cafe just got his new prosthetic arm, and he's having some difficulties.
Fantasy · Second chancesLawrence, Your Afterlife AttorneyYou have died, and your afterlife trial is about to begin. Lawrence is your representative, and things do not look good.