Customer Number Four

ii

Sometimes Gaia thought that her fellow coworkers were crazy.

Correct that, she meant all the time.

Not the kind of crazy where they talk to the wall or scream when nothing's happening, but the kind of crazy where they're absolutely not aware that this might be their whole life, stuck in a shitty restaurant serving shitty people. Or maybe they were, but they just didn't care. Whichever kind.

Last night, she was on her nineteenth—or twentieth?—beer when her phone suddenly rang in her pocket. She ignored it the first time, continued bringing the red cup to her lips and observing the hoards of drunk people shaking their hips and doing all these moves that were considered "dancing".

Stupid New Year parties. She had never let herself get this drunk, but hey, it's the last day of 2013. Best spend it hammered.

And then it rang again. And again, and again, and again.

Gaia finally twirled on the heels of her sneakers and answered the phone. She didn't even bother to walk out of the house first into somewhere quieter. "Heeeey, Larry, what's uuuup."

She's dragging words. Sober Gaia would never drag words.

"Gaia. Are you drunk?"

Gaia stunned. Crap, she thought, this isn't Larry.

"Mr. Miller!" Gaia managed to splutter out a coherent word. "Just... slightly tipsy, Sir."

That was a lie. One more drink and Gaia would spill her dinner on the floor of this stranger's home.

"Huh." Her boss scoffed. "I need you to come tomorrow. Or, today, would be more appropriate."

She gulped and checked the tiny watch around her wrist. It's almost three in the morning, she's pretty sure she's trashed, and because of her own stupidity, she's in an unfamiliar part of the town, and her boss needed her to come at 8 a.m. for a New Year morning shift.

Great. Bloody fantastic.

When it was finally 7 a.m., she rushed to the nearest bus stop with a massive hangover, three aspirin in a bundle of tissues and a bottle of water. She took them all in the bus, groaning as she struggled to swallow three aspirin at once. She saw an old woman glance at her in sympathy, then whispered to her friend beside her, "I was like that too, once."

Gaia couldn't care less. She just wanted this hangover to be over.

It was half past seven when she stepped into the kitchen through the back door of the restaurant, the whole room was trashed. Beer cans in every corner of the room, there were pans and pots everywhere. Some condom wrappers were even on the floor, and the place looked like a frat party gone wild (a frat party is already wild. Can you imagine it gone even wilder?).

She couldn't help but turn around and banged her head on the kitchen door. When she looked up, she noticed a banner; "HAPPY NEW YEAR F---ERS".

And at that moment, she knew that her coworkers are definitely crazy.

Gaia didn't even notice that the front part of the restaurant were filled with the drunken bodies of her coworkers. Larry, Miranda, Jacq, Wendy. And some others that she's not very close with.

They walked in rubbing their heads as she finished scrubbing the sinks clean. Thanks to Gaia, there were no condom wrappers around to be seen. Pots and pans were where they're supposed to be, confettis were in the trash bin, and the floor was spotless. It took her two hours to clean the whole place. Thank goodness customers hadn't come in yet.

As soon as her friends gathered in the kitchen, she took one of the pots and began banging on it with a spatula. First bang, some of them glared at her. Second bang, all of them were protesting. Third bang, a few plastic cups flew at her.

"Get to work, you twits." She snarled and strode to the toilet to change into her work outfit.