The People Of Guilt

Five

"This is the Hotpot; it keeps water for the miso soup warm all day. Every morning you have to turn it on. If you don't, you won't have any hot to dissolve the soybean paste. Can't have miso soup without hot water." Zorana took mental notes as she followed Renetra around the restaurant as she showed her around. She made it there bright and early, waiting outside the doors to get her training started. Excited was an understatement; Zorana was ecstatic to have a distraction. For the past two days, she had only been trying to ignore the growing poppy seed within her stomach. When she wasn't Throwing her guts up, she buried herself under her blanket, trying to ignore reality. Thankfully neither Austin nor his mother was present at the apartment much. She wasn't prepared to tell anyone yet, not before her first doctor's appointment.

Renetra rounded a corner and pointed to a stack of boxes lining the wall. "Those are the intake beers. You need to refill those in the fridge with those in these boxes at the end of every shift. Think you got everything?" Renetra turns to her, with her short arms propped on her hips, "I know I explained everything quickly. I hope you got it."

Zorana smiled at her and nodded her head. "You explained everything well. I think I got it." Renetra smiled at her back and started back walking towards the kitchen.

"I have an excellent server coming in later today to show you the ropes. You can follow around and greet tables with me until then." For the rest of the day, Zorana stuck close behind renetra like a little duckling until the other server showed up. Then she was passed along and following behind the other woman, right on her heels. At times Zorana felt like she was bothering her, but the server reassured her that she wasn't annoying. At the end of the day, she helped close down the store and dumped the trash in the back of the building.

Renetra was sitting at her desk at the restaurant's back when Zorana came to her to ask if she was good to go. Renetra turned around to look her in the eye and gave her a wide smile. "You did amazing today, Zoro!" She said, putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "You really helped out and caught on to things so well. Thank you."

"Thank you!" Zorana replied, "It was nice to stay the whole day and get to know the restaurant a bit." Renetra couldn't have helped the feeling of proudness washing over her.

"God! I'm so happy; it's so hard to find servers that really take the initiative to thrive." Renetra turned a bit to her left and grabbed an envelope perched on the desk. When she turned back to Zorana, she handed her the small white rectangle. Zorana opened it up and looked over the money inside. "Those are the tips you earned from the tables you took today."

Zorana blinked down at the money and then back up to Renetra, "I took them under your name." She said quickly, pushing the envelope back to her manager. Renetra bellowed out a laugh and shoved them back to Zorana.

"Yes, I know, but you did all the work, and you killed it! My subconscious would eat me alive if I kept that money from you. Again thank you, Zoro. You were a big help." Zorana stared down at the money and smiled as she tucked it into her purse over her shoulders. "Well, you're all done for the night. See you tomorrow?"

"Yes, ma'am"

"Alright then! Go ahead home and get some rest." Zorana excused herself from her manager's office and out through the restaurant's front. As she made her way to her car, she got a text from Austin. In all caps, he texted her, "Where are you!" She rolled her eyes and decided to ignore him before getting into her car and making the short trip to his apartment. When she made it to the front door, Zorana knocked once, and within seconds, the door swung open to Austin's glaring face.

"You had to stay that long?" He grumbled. Zorana sighed, pushing past him into the living room.

"I wanted to stay all day and get familiar with the layout. Austin sighed overdramatically as he flopped onto the couch beside her.