Before the sleep

Chapter fifteen

Mommy

Let's just get this out of the way – working sucks. Especially working as a waitress.

I stood behind the counter of Devi's Heaven for Your Mouth restaurant wearing a seaweed dress that squeezed my chest uncomfortably and scratched my skin everywhere it touched. I had never hated my name so much as I eyed each letters carefully impressed on the tag fastened to my chest. Joseph just left just a few minutes ago after heartlessly stolen a picture of me in this ridiculous outfit.

That should be a fun story to tell the grandkids.

I wanted to behead him for making me take this job but I also wanted to hug him for staying with me and helping me when everyone else I knew had gone incognito. I didn't think it was possible but my feelings for him had burgeoned from a fleeting crush to the big love. I hadn't told him yet but it was there.

It was cruel for me to let him hang on thin air like that but with everything going on right now I wasn't ready to take on a bigger responsibility. I wasn't ready to love someone else when everyone else I had love had just left.

Everyday he said it to me and waited for me to say it back but courage had failed me. He had earn an Oscar in my books for his patience and tenacity. He was the best man I've ever known.

We spent the past weeks going job hunting unsuccessfully. It's such an enigma how everyone expected their staffs to have experience while no one was willing to hire someone to provide them with said experience.

This waitressing job was a like a gift straight from Heaven. That might had been the origin of the place's name.

"Hey girlie," my boss clamped a hand on my shoulders, "Ready to work?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," I answered him.

Mr. Lay was a heavy weighted old man of an impressive height with a large bald spot from his forehead to the center of his scalp. The silvery white hair at the side of his head ended short of his slightly hunched back shoulders. His body was made up of slouched muscles that were wearing out after years of intense workouts. There was a big hole right in the middle of his mouth where he lost a tooth during one of his stunts as a young man. At least that was he told me. It distracted me every times he spoke.

I was eternally indebted to him for taking this chance on me.

"Why don't you start with the table by the window?" he pointed me towards the booth in the corner, facing the window closest to the door, with two young men and a girl cracking jokes.

"Sure."

I took a deep breath then summoned a big friendly smile to my face before heading towards my first task as a worker. I made sure to put extra pressure on the balls of my feet as to keep them on the crimson tiled floor. They wobbled a bit but I pushed until I was standing in front of the booth.

"Hi," I exhaled a much needed breath and rearranged my facial expression. "What can I get you today?"

"I don't know," the guy sitting by himself as the third wheel said, "We'd have to know what the house offers first."

"I-I," my wide eyes flittered to him then to his friends, the window then came back full circle. I was missing something but my mind refused to recall all the information Mr. Lay had dumped on me during our whole hour of training yesterday.

I was on the edge of bursting into piles of frustrated nerves when a menu appeared in front of me. I thanked Mr. Lay for the help and handed the large folded plastics to the trio.