Syndicate

CHAPTER THREE

One glass turned into three and now I'm late!
I'm supposed to be at work by 9, it's 8:52 I'm just getting into the Uber.

"Can you driver faster?!" I urge the driver for the ninth time.

He shoots me a dirty look. I don't even blame him because I have been pestering him ever since I got in. If I lose this job I'm going to feel like I've failed at life. I should probably dial it down on the dramatics.

Finally I'm here. I finish sorting the payment with the driver and now I'm running towards the entrance of the building when I run into a man headed in the same direction as I am. He puts his hands out to steady me so I don't fall.

"Watch it bozo!" I say. I'm too frazzled right now to be polite.

And bozo is now gripping my arm and turning me around to face him. I look up at him to give him a tongue lashing and holy cow!!! Bozo is a MAN!
And when I say MAN I mean he is a beautiful man. This man was definitely created on the seventh day. His face is beautiful not handsome. He's got a chiseled and defined bone structure with a 5'0 clock shadow. He has jet black hair and his eyes....oh my gosh his eyes!!!! A beautiful stormy gray. They are the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. They look really intense and intimidating. His lips are red, luscious and plump. And his lips are moving right now. I think he's talking to me.

"Why are you here?" He asks as I zone back in.

"What?" I ask confused

"What are you doing in my city?" He says

"Your city?" I scoff. "Yea right. And I'm the Queen of England"

"When did you get here?" He frowns down at me. Probably trying to intimidate me.

"Okay you're starting to creep me out. Let go of my arm and buzz off." I jerk my arm free from his grip and head into the building.

At least there's one good thing happening today. The elevator is working! I finally reach the third floor and head into the restaurant. I say a prayer as I head into the managers office. He is bent over his desk looking at some papers.

He finally looks up at me and says "You're late."

"I know. I'm sorry." I respond quietly

"Go find Riley and tell her to give you your uniform. You are to start working now"

"Okay okay.... I just have one question. Who's Riley?"

"She's the head waitress. She's going to give you a rundown of your job. She should be in the kitchen right now. And before you ask the kitchen is on your left coming out of my office. Now go." He urges.

I immediately head out of his office in search of the kitchen. I find it and it's a bit rowdy. I ask the closest person to me to point towards Riley. He points me towards a tall, slender woman with pretty blonde hair.

I walk up to her and introduce myself. "Hey. I'm Leilani. I was sent to you by uhhh...." I blank. It is at this point I realize that I don't know the managers name.

She is looking at me expectantly.

"I was sent to you by the manager. He said to get my uniform from you" I finish.

"Oh you're the new recruit. You're so pretty" she compliments me.

"Thank you" I flush. My head has added a little more to its size.

"Yea he said that you have no experience so I'm going to try and make this explanation pretty simple. Your job is to attend to customers. As soon as a customer is seated you go to them. You get their order and start their tab. Make sure that you pay attention to them during their stay here in case they want to change their orders or have any sort of complaints. You can't attend to more than three different tables whilst they are here so that you do not get confused. Other waitresses can attend to them in order to space it out. I think that's the basics for now. Did you get everything?

"Yea" I think so.

"Okay good. Now here is your uniform." She hands me a bag. "You can go change over there" she points to a door.

I walk towards it, twist the handle and step inside. Its a small room. I immediately undress and change into the uniform. It's a dark grey dress shirt and simple black pants. The pants are a bit too snug in my butt area but it's okay. I'm pretty happy I get to wear a uniform to work. At least now I can finally get Kelly to stop dressing me. She thinks she's the shit at fashion. 'A fashion icon' is what she calls herself but in truth she's shitty at it. And I can't just tell her that because I don't want to hurt her feelings so I just accept being dressed like a moron. Today I am dressed in a green turtleneck, black bootlegged pants and block heels by yours truly. Lord the things I accept in the name of friendship. I finally head out of the room.

Riley is right outside. "You look perfect" she says. "Alright I have a customer for you. He is seated at table four. He's a regular here and he's very important so don't mess it up. He tips very well also. Now run along." She hands me a book and pen.

I head out looking for table four. I find it at the corner of the room and walk towards it. The mans head is bent over looking through the menu as I say "Good morning sir, have you decided on what you would like to have?"

He raises his head and looks at me. And I am immediately struck silent because why me? Why does this always happen to me?

The man I'm attending to is bozo.