Loving Your Imperfections

You Crossed The Line

Mia

It was as if a destructive chain reaction had been set off against me. The entire night, I had to deal with Jade's angry stares being thrown my way. It got so bad she had two of the other girls trying to sabotage my day, murmuring amongst themselves, purposely bumping into me, and almost making me spill my drinks on a customer.

They messed with my orders, writing, adding or deleting things from my tickets, and making customers become irritated with me. Most of the customers were locals, so they didn't go completely off on me, except for a group of men acting rowdy and calling me an incompetent brat.

By the end of my break, I just wanted to roll into a ball and act like I wasn't even here anymore.

I sighed as I sat at the lockers and closed my eyes. Today's event played over and over in my head. Jade was not shy from throwing daggers my way all late afternoon and into the early hours of the evening, making me feel so stupid... so incompetent. What started as a good day soon became a nightmare.

The entire night, I kept getting orders wrong, and to top it off, a few girls who knew Andrea pretty well came into the restaurant to eat and made my night worse than it already was.

Jade saw this and took advantage. She talked to them as if they were best friends, and she pretended to take care of them, correcting their orders. My manager kept groaning, and I just knew she was becoming irritated with my performance today. By the time my shift was over, all I wanted to do was go home, take a very long hot shower, and forget today ever happened.

"Mia, Mr. Patterson wants a word with you in his office. Please make sure to see him before you go home tonight, ok?" The manager says, making me jump in place from being startled. "Yes, ma'am." I dropped my shoulders, groaning inside.

"Wait... am I... getting fired?" I dared to ask, feeling scared. "It's best you go and see what he needs to say to you, so don't take long, ok?" she says calmly, making me want to die this instant.

I grabbed my things and went straight to his office upstairs on the fourth floor. I knocked lightly and heard laughter. "Come in, please." I hear his voice say.

"Sir... you wanted to see me?" I ask, opening the door slightly. Our head manager, Mr. Pascal, sat across Mr. Patterson's desk in his office. Mr. Patterson sat at the head of his desk, clicking away on his computer.

"Yes. Mia, come on in, please. Pascal, would you mind if I have a quick word with Mia? This won't take long." he says, and immediately, Mr. Pascal stands up, nodding his head and smiles.

"I have no problem at all. Come on in, Mia. I should head home anyway. My wife is probably waiting on those steaks for us to start dinner. By the way, Mia," he says, turning toward me. "Yes, sir." I smiled slightly.

"Nate is downstairs waiting, said he'd be waiting for you to finish your shift to take you home. Have a good night, Richard. Good night, Mia." he smiles, making me vow politely. "Oh. Thank you." I moved to the side to let him through.

"Good night, old friend." Mr. Patterson replies, making him smile.

"Mia. Take a seat," he says, making me nervous. "Thank you, sir."

"Mia, I just wanted to tell you that I had Jade stop me today outside the restaurant while I was coming to my office. She came by to tell me about a little incident between you and her." He says, giving me a serious face, making my nervousness grow.

"Sir, I can assure you it wasn't on purpose; I didn't mean to," he raised his hand, making me feel embarrassed and silenced.

"Now, before we get into any details, I wanted to hear your side of the story. I was able to hear her side of the story in full detail, but... before I make any decisions about this matter, I wanted to hear from you what happened," he says calmly, making my heart race as I look up at him in shock. That's it. I'm fired. Without a doubt, I'm fired. God, what am I going to do? I need this job so I can continue saving for college. How did this day become so bad? I love this job. I don't want to lose it, damn it.