The Restaurant

Chapter 7

A few weeks went by and things were going great. Kat and Christy were happy about me bringing food home all the time. I was happy that I got to see Tina at least once a day instead of the two times I actually saw her before. And Tina was happy she hadn't knocked me out since the first time she met me. Well, sort of. I was running into the freezer to grab some vegetables one time and lo and behold she hit my face, again, as she was rushing out of the freezer herself. She 'claims' she didn't know I was going to be there, but the laughter from everyone else told me otherwise. I gave her a suspicious look as she smiled at me. After hours, we all would clean up and head home. A few nights I wasn't done when everyone else was so she stayed with me and helped me clean up. Those nights were my favorite since it was just me and her and we would talk for hours. Some nights, we wouldn't realize how long we'd been there until we looked at the time. It wasn't long until I started lagging on my cleaning just so we would be able to stay behind and talk. I couldn't help it, she made me smile and I wanted so much just to spend time with her. It was all going well, until one night, as I was slowly cleaning, she asked me to come talk to her. I wasn't sure about what until she closed the door behind me and had me sit down.

"May I ask you something?" Tina asked as she sat down.

"Aside from the rhetorical question you just asked," I jokingly responded, then looking at her serious face, I sobered up. "Sure. What's up?"

"Are you ok?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Well...when you started you would get all of your cleaning done as quickly as possible and would be on your way in less than an hour. Now, it seems like every night you need me to help you finish up. I mean, I didn't mind at first, considering this was your first restaurant experience, but by now I would've expected you to get the hang of things. I mean do you not like the cleaning or is it the people?"

I sat there stunned. Not really sure how I was going to answer that. 'Oh, it's because I love that I get to spend even a fraction of a moment more with you.' I don't think that would go over well. I played it safe.

"No that's not it. I can do the cleaning. I was just in a confused state before but now I'll be alright." I feigned a smile.

"Ok good. I was worried about you for a while there. My parents thought you were trying to pull a fast one and take your time leaving so you could get as many hours as you wanted," she said jokingly, as she smiled back.

Seriously? Why would I even care about the hours? Plus, I only would stay after an extra thirty minutes and I would try to clock out as soon as possible so they wouldn't have to worry about that.

"Me? Oh not at all." I smiled. "I'll be done soon enough. No worries. I'm so sorry about that. It won't happen again." I got up and walked out to finish cleaning. I'd wanted to tell her that she was why I took my time. But, talking to my boss like that wouldn't go over well. So, I hid it. I finished in record time that night, clocked out and went home, distraught. I got there to find a note that said Kat was at Christy's Really? Cuz you're next door? So I just went inside, put their food in the fridge and went to bed. No point staying awake on bad nights. I awoke sometime later to the sound of someone smacking their lips as they ate.

"Thank you for the food!" Kat said.

I groggily replied, "No problem."

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Just tired I guess."

Kat always had a sixth sense about me. "No, no. Something is up. What's the matter?"

"I just...don't understand girls."

"Ah, the enigma of girls that every man will never understand. Hell. I'm a girl and I don't understand them sometimes. What happened? Oooh before you get started we'll do this right!"