Farmeed / One-shot Series

~ we're a team, right? ~

Her eyes widened in horror as she watched the cup of piping hot tea swing over from the waiter's tray to land on the customer's shirt. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, yet it was fast enough to not give any time to react. She watched as the man screamed and jumped at the contact with the hot beverage. She watched as he lashed out on the waiter. Everyone in the restaurant was now looking at table 4. She rushed over as quickly as she could.

"Pata nahi kisi ko bhi bghair kisi training ke tray pakra ke khara kar detay hein!"

"Sir, I am so sorry for this!"

She pleaded.

"You should be sorry! Ye hai aap ka professionalism? Aap ka café to abhi band ho jana chahiye for such poor service!"

"Sir, mein maazrat kar rahi hoon aap se. Naya larka hai, ghalti ho gayi. I'm sorry"

"To aisay larkon ko tray pakra ke mat khara kar diya karein na"

"Sir, what can I do to make up? Please mujhe batayein."

"Nothing. Ab to jo review mein aap ke is café ka daalun ka na har jagah, wohi aap ka sabaq hai. Dekhta hoon gaahaq kesay aatay hein ab!"

With that, the man got up to leave and Umeed could simply watch him go. All the other customers had seen this entire exchange and were now observing Umeed, who was trying her hardest to hold back her tears.

"Madam, mujhe please maaf kar dein."

Taimur, the waiter said out of genuine guilt. Umeed smiled lightly at him.

"Kuch nahi hota, ghaltiyan to insaanon se hoti hein. Ainda khyaal karna. Chalo ab ye saaf karo jaldi se."

She walked back to the kitchen, trying her best to not break down in public. Telling her chef that she had to leave early and to make sure to close up properly, she picked up her bag and ran out.

Once inside her car, she finally let the tears fall. This was the third time in five days that something had gone wrong. First it was the small fire that erupted in the kitchen during a rare busy Monday, then it was the waiter dropping an entire tray of utensils, leading to a lady getting hurt by the glass, and now this. The instances of wrong orders being served, hygiene issues pointed out or customers complaining about the food were frequent.

The café had entered its eight week of proper operations. It was still not profitable, but they had started gathering a small clientage of regular customers, along with some one-time visitors. Umeed was proud of how things were going, but lately, she felt like she wasn't able to handle anything properly. As the workload increased, she began seeing cracks in her managerial skills. She found herself getting overwhelmed more often.

At the signal, she turned left rather than her usual right turn. She couldn't go home like this. Twenty minutes later, she found herself standing outside Pasha house as she ringed Haya, asking her to open the door for her.

Haya could read Umeed like the back of her hand. The moment she saw Umeed at the door, she knew something was up. Her eyes were red and swollen. She was avoiding meeting Haya's eyes and she silently walked past her inside the house. Everyone was seated in the living room, but all Umeed could do was muster a small greeting and tell everyone she's tired and going to take some rest. Haya followed her to the room.

"Umeed, kya hua hai?"

"Kuch nahi"

*sniffs*

Haya sat her down on the bed, sitting in front of her. She forced Umeed to look up at her and could see her eyes welling up with tears.

"Tum mujhe buhat pareshan kar rahi ho. Batao to sahi kya hua hai?"