The Jerk Next Door

Chapter 40: Work in progress

Maksean

"How do I hold these while walking to the tables?" Nichole asked as she held two large trays that had a bunch of orders. "And what does this have to do with my Sammy?" She huffed.

After a few days of thinking and one rough interview, Nichole was hired at Candy's diner, but only with my supervision could she work larger tables. Right now I had to teach her how to serve orders, or she'll be stuck behind the bar and won't be able to impress Samuel. I also noticed that Nichole doesn't call him by his name, it's always "My Sammy". Today we didn't have many customers, but I had to make sure she could take care of a larger table for when Samuel came. So I had every order on the two trays. Both Candy and Chief were in the kitchen so we had the floor to ourselves.

"Just trust me. Now you need to flatten your palm to hold the tray steady and just rest it at your shoulder so you can walk. Your hips are good to use for the medium sized platters, but eventually your side will hurt and cause more potential walking accidents. This way you can walk straight and look nice. Now I'll follow behind to watch over you, but you need to take those to their tables. Do you remember whose order goes where?" I asked the blonde who gave me an odd stare.

"Do you always take your glasses off to work? How can you see? Are they like your cover story or something?" She asked, stepping closer only to just barely miss taking out two meals with the sudden movement.

With a great sigh and a roll of the eyes, I shake my head. "No, I wear contacts, now do you remember where to take the orders?" I ask again. This time she huffed.

"Yeah, table three has the two burgers one chief burger with mustard and pickles the other plain. Table six had two mozzarella sticks, one chicken basket with tartar sauce, kids dog, and a loaded cheese burger. Then table nine had a pasta bowl with the order of onion rings. I can remember basic things. Ya know." She exclaimed before walking off. She almost lost her onion rings until she straightened her back and continued.

"I thought table six had the pasta bowl and onion rings." Dani muttered in the booth next to the dressing room. She was doing her homework as usual when she stopped to watch our lesson in waitressing."

I let out another sigh. "Yeah it was. And Nine had the kids dog, sticks, strips and burger. I should stop her before the kid starts crying." I rush over to the blonde in our newer blue uniform and try to stop her without spilling everything.

"Nichole, switch table nine and six's orders. They're backwards." I managed to stop her just as she got to table six. She had sat the tray with their other table's orders down on an empty table to free her hand. The two ladies gave me an odd look. "Sorry, new girl. She just switched the nine and six. But we have your order right here."

Nichole sat the onion rings down while I grabbed the pasta bowl. The two gave us an odd look before saying thanks. We turned away from the table, grabbed the tray that only held the two mozzarella sticks caskets, and walked forward towards table four. She did a nice job smiling at the customers and not complaining about the work, but it was only one p.m. on a Saturday. She didn't handle the lunch rush, and she still had dinner time to go. That's when the diner gets really packed with families dining in and others taking out.

The hours passed and it was time for the dinner menu, which wasn't much different from our regular menu other than the desserts and appetizers. Before the heavy "traffic" came in, Candy gave us a half hour break to eat and relax. I ordered the chief's burger while Nichole had a salad. Candy brought us a small order of fries for us to share. I had my money out to pay so she knew to pick it up, but we both knew she won't. Anytime I work the majority of my day, they always insisted on treating me despite my argument that it wasn't good for the business to just give food away.