Midway through their service, whilst Joey talks to his needy girlfriend, Amber, Harold cleans off the dishes, Bridgette and Trick flirts and Nico casually talks to Pickles about how cool their menu is like they aren't absolutely drowning in tickets, Ruby comes out from behind the line. Rolling up her sleeves, she wipes the sweat off her forehead.

Ruby looks around. Brad is bragging about how good he is at being a server to Aaron, another server, who's being a dork, while Terry, the manager, yells at all the others for sitting around, chatting and doing nothing, even saying his usual — 'you got time to lean, you got time to clean!'. But Nichole isn't anywhere in sight.

"Did Nichole not show up for work today?" Ruby asks nonchalantly, eyebrows furrowing.