An hour had passed since Kit walked into the kitchen, there was nothing left for him to do. He was surprised at how quiet it was inside his kitchen.

In the last configuration of his restaurant noise would flow from the dining area into the kitchen. Now it was blocked by solid walls. Still Kit thought he should hear a murmur at least, from all the patrons in his restaurant.

Kit decided to duck his head out the door to see how full his restaurant was. His pushed open the door just enough to slide his head out. As soon as his eyes swept across the floor, Kit banged the door wide open.

Not one single customer sat in a chair! Kit swung his head left and right confirming there was no customers in sight. Panic began to build. Had something gone wrong with the opening schedule?

Kit looked around the empty room, then noticed another problem, not a single employee was in sight! Before his head could muster up worst case scenarios, Dove walked through the connecting door from the animal café.

“DOVE! Where is everyone!” Kit rushed toward the young man and gripped his hands. “Is everything alright?”

“What?” Dove stopped and took in Kit’s frantic eyes. “Oh, yes. Snickers just sorted it out.”

Kit started to desperately shake Doves hands. “What is sorted!”

“The animal café, Snickers implemented a time system.” Kit started to get frustrated with the confusing information coming from Dove’s mouth.

“What? Ahhhh! Start from what went wrong in the first place!” Kit demanded.

“The animal café is more popular than we expected. That’s why it’s empty in the dining area. We needed all employees to help settle the crowd outside.” Kit finally took a good look at Dove and noticed his uniform was a bit dishevelled.

“Is everyone alright?”

“Yes, everyone is fine, we were just scrambling to set up a ticketing system for the animal cafe. We have moved all the customers to the waiting to enter area. Things should go smoothly now.”

Kit finally let go of Dove’s hands, red marks stood out on Dove’s pale skin. “Ah sorry Dove, I didn’t realise I was gripping you so tightly.”

“That’s ok Kit, the marks will be gone soon.” Dove just shrugged and dismissed the red marks.

“But Dove, what is this time system?” asked Kit.

“Snickers set up a 30-minute restriction for each customer inside the animal café. Before you ask it was set up because the first customers to arrive were refusing to leave and let others in.”

“There was also anger about missing out from those at the back of the line. Honestly, I don’t even know if the 30-minute restriction will let everyone have a turn inside the animal café today. Snickers is already trying to think of ideas for this issue.”

As Dove finished talking Snickers walked into the dining area from the front door. “Kit, I need to talk to you.”

“It’s ok I think Dove has already filled me in. You did a great job Snickers!” Snickers stopped in her tracks.

“Really, then you’re not mad?” Kit frowned, why would he be mad about her fixing the problem.

“Absolutely not!” Kit enforced.

“That’s great, I was worried because I spent the last of the restaurant funds.” Snickers let out a relived breath, then walked over to his side.

Snickers words took a moment to register, he then opened his restaurant menu. Kit blinked as he read his available funds, 36 bronze crowns. Kit slid a hand down his face and groaned.

There hadn’t been much money left in his kitty, only around 10 gold crowns. Now he was completely wiped out! Kit closed his menu and looked at his restaurant manager, then sighed. He knew Snickers wouldn’t have spent the money if they didn’t desperately need it.

“It really is fine, I trust your judgment.” Kit prayed that today was going to be a big success, they now urgently needed to earn money so he could at least pay wages.

“But what did you spend the money on?” inquired Kit.

“Huh? Did you not just say Dove filled you in?” Kit quickly advised Snickers of what he already knew.

“My little Kitty has lots of confidence in me, telling me its ok to spend all the money without knowing what for.” Snickers looked very pleased at finding out how much Kit trusted her. “I used the money to buy a magical ticketing system, I figured we would need one sooner or later so I brought a good one. That way we won’t have to replace it in the future.”

As soon as Kit heard the word magic, he became curious how it would work. Snickers didn’t leave him hanging and explained. “The ticketing system looks like an ordinary wooden chest, all the customer has to do is pick out a white ticket from the box. The ticket becomes warm and changes to gold when it’s the customer’s turn to enter the animal café or restaurant.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Kit thought about the waiting area. Without a line it would be difficult to sort out who was next to enter without a ticket system. He was surprised that the waiting area didn’t come with this benefit, he said as much to Snickers.

“It actually did, the only problem was that the ticketing system could only be assigned to the restaurant dining area.” Kit was a bit disappointed after hearing that, he could have saved some money if it could be assigned to all his extra additions to the restaurant.

Just as their conversation was winding up, the front door opened. In walked more of his staff followed by some unfamiliar faces. Kit felt his pulse spike as he watched the facial expressions of the new arrivals.

Four people stopped dead and their eyes went round. “Honey, are you seeing this.” A middle aged man was tapping a woman standing next to him with his elbow. The man’s eyes didn’t stop darting all around the room.

“How is something like this in a town this size? This is like one of those fancy restaurants in the city!” The middle-aged woman replied.

Kit felt his heart swell with pride. This was the impact he wanted to settle in people’s minds when they first entered his restaurant. Then he wanted to back it up with his exceptional food. He now felt his restaurant would leave a lasting impression in all his customers minds.

“Ai… quick, lets get a seat so we can order!” The man pulled his partner towards the front of house desk where Charlotte was waiting.

More people started flowing through the door and Kit felt his heart soar as similar exclamations came from each person. Once he had his fill of people watching Kit decided to go and check on the other areas.

The shop in the shop was bustling when Kit walked in. “So many chocolates! Which one do you recommend?” Kit turned his head and followed the sound of the voice to see Twix surrounded by a small group of young girls.

“They all taste divine, so it is best to try them all.” Twix gave a dazzling smile to girls.

Kit watched as the girl blushed and stammered a reply, “Oh, yes, they are that good then.”

Then to Kit’s amazement she picked one of each of the chocolates on the shelf in front of her. Kit looked around the room to see that the girl was not the only one filling her basket with treats. It looked like he would be making chocolates very soon to restock the shelves.

Kit left the shop in a shop with a bounce in his step and headed towards the animal café. As he pushed open the door a loud squeal pierced his ears. “SCREEEEE!”

Kit slapped a hand over his ears and looked around to find the offender. A Piabbit was charging towards a customer that was patting Snowball. Kit’s eyes went wide, and his heart stopped.

Before disaster struck, a hand shot out and picked up the streaking Piabbit. Tiny legs pumped in mid-air as Bundt held the Piabbit by the scruff of the neck. “No you don’t! Out you go!” Bundt took the Piabbit over to the flap in the wall that connected to the outside. “You are banned for 30 minutes!” A pitiful squeal accompanied Bundt words.

Bundt dusted his hands and walked over to Kit. “Ah that is the twenty second time this morning. I had to shorten the banning time or there wouldn’t be enough Piabbits to go around all the customers.”

Kit was still standing there with his mouth open, he was the only one that had reacted to the event. He snapped his mouth shut and scanned the room. Not one of the customers looked displeased about the commotion.

“Haha, the customers don’t mind the Piabbits crazy antics, Kit.” Bundt looked amused at Kit’s reaction. Bundt wasn’t lying, Kit overheard more than one customer talking excitedly about the Piabbit that was just thrown out.

What shocked him even more was that the remaining Piabbits were happily enjoying scratches or cuddles from the customers. Even the midnight guardians were loudly purring from the petting. Every customer he looked at had an enwrapped expression as they interacted with the animals.

“Bundt even though the customers liked the Piabbits antics, they could cause an accident. I think I should have a word with them.” Kit didn’t want to picture what would happen if a Piabbit attack succeeded on one of his customers.

“No need, I just started scooping the Piabbits up because the customers seemed to like it and it annoys those little rascals.” Bundt had a mischievous twinkle in his eye as he talked. “Besides the café won’t let the Piabbits attack any customers, if they get close a magical boundary appears over the customer and the blue pigs bounce off.” Bundt made a flying motion with his hands.

Kit’s anxiety calmed down after hearing Bundts explanation. He took one more look around the room, this time with a smile. It looked like his animal café was a huge hit. It was time for Kit to head back into the kitchen.

When he returned it was a flurry of action inside, Kit rolled up his sleeves and joined in. The day flew by and before Kit knew it, Snickers came in and told them the restaurant was closed. Kit didn’t know where the time went. He had wanted to spend more time on the floor, but he had been swept up in the kitchen activities.

His tired legs carried him into the dining area where the rest of his employees were already digging into a meal. He plopped down on a chair next to Mars. “Looks like your one star opening was a huge success Kit.” Mars complimented.

Snickers spoke from behind Kit, “It sure was.” She flopped down on the other side of Kit.

Now that he had stopped, he remembered their conversation from this morning. “Snickers what did the restaurant reviewer say?” Kit felt his nerves bubble.

“Ah that.” Snickers waved her hand. “Grandpa forgot to tell us that the reviewer wasn’t coming, he received a letter stating the person would be delayed.”

The new information made all the tension leave his body. Kit hadn’t even realised that subconsciously he had been tense all day. “That’s good news, it will give us time to prepare. Did the reviewer mention how long before they arrived?”

“In about two weeks. But Kit do you know what the reviewer will be evaluating when they come?” Snickers raised an inquiring brow.

Kit scratched his head. “I think they will just assess our food.”

“Then that’s ok. We probably don’t have to worry too much about getting ready then, your food is already fantastic.” Snickers seemed to dismiss the reviewer coming as nothing special.

Kit wasn’t as assured as Snickers, he just hoped that her confidence became reality, after all he didn’t want his restaurant to get a bad review. Especially because for the next restaurant promotion one of the conditions was getting his restaurant into the top 1,000 in the forsaken state restaurant rankings.

“Thanks Snickers, but just in case I think I should inquire more about what they are looking for in their appraisal.” Kit made plans to send a letter to Chef Kate in Fairweather town to get some more information.

He didn’t get to think about the upcoming review for long before he was swept up in conversation about the one star opening.