Maggie asked, poking at the stainless- steel box that sat in the middle of Nick's new kitchen. Thunder rumbled overhead. “It looks dangerous.” Nick paused in his task of adjusting the shelves in the reach- in refrigerator to glance over his shoulder. “That's a plate elevator.” He slid the refrigerator door shut and approached his latest kitchen toy to demonstrate. “The plates go in here, see? It's spring- loaded, so every time a waitress takes a plate off, a new one pops up to the top.” “I had no idea there was so much machinery involved in running a restaurant,” she said, her curious gaze roaming around the room. Nick proudly looked around. He had worked like a demon to get his kitchen in shape. Now freshly painted yellow walls made a cheery background for the equipment he'd purchased. There was the brand- new stove he had spent too much money on. The ice maker, plate elevator, and reach- in refrigerator had all been bought used to get his budget back in line. The center of the room was dominated by a long, high worktable with a butcher block at one end and a sink at the other.
