Knight called the travel agent for the third time this week. “Yes, Mr. Knight, you’re still booked for the flight to Seattle. Yes, Mr. Knight, there will be roses in the suite. Yes, Mr. Knight, it has a private balcony. Yes, Mr. Knight, the itinerary is still the same.”
Kue couldn’t help but chuckle when Knight hung up the phone. “What’re you laughin’ at.”
“You’re a nervous Nelly.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Order up!” yelled one of the waitresses. Knight gave Kue a glare and glanced at the clock, then picked up the order.
Two days from now, he’d be a married man. He had Friday off to get ready, and Saturday, of course; and two weeks for the honeymoon. The honeymoon was going to take 10 days, and he might need a few days to recover, if he knew Mal.
Paulie came into the kitchen, surveyed the place. “I need to talk to you.”
“‘kay,” Knight said, and followed Paulie into his office.
Paulie closed the door and went to his desk, motioning for Knight to sit. “First thing’s first. You’re doing a great job, and I decided to give you a quarter an hour raise when you get back. Second, you’ve worked sometimes overtime without putting it on your card.”
“I din’t finish my work f’r th’–”
“Fair is fair, Knight. Put down your hours.”
“Okay,” Knight said, defeated. When Paulie got that tone of voice, there was no arguing with him.
“And last, because I don’t think anybody’s going to your wedding, we all pitched in and got you something.” Paulie turned around, picked up a box and passed it over to Knight. Knight took the box wrapped in foil-lined paper – it was heavy. Paulie motioned to it. “Open it.”
Knight did so, and it was a plain box which had Chinese characters on it. He set the box on the floor and opened the box. He took out one item, and unwrapped it from its plastic wrap. It was a cast iron Chinese teacup. “There’s a whole Japanese tea ceremony set in there,” Paulie said, “Including four different teas from Japan.”
“This’s…real nice, Paulie.” He smiled, genuinely happy. “Mal’s gonna love it.”
“And there’s a book in there somewhere. Glyn found it. You’re going to have to perform a tea ceremony with him. And when you do, I want to see you do it here.” He chuckled.
“‘kay, okay.” Knight put the piece back. “Thanks a lot. You guys’ve been great.”
“Ok, don’t go getting emotional on me. Get back out there.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Knight said, offering a salute and a grin, and gathering the box.