Customer Number Four

iii

                  

It was around lunch time when people started arriving at the restaurant Gaia worked at. It was this famous little posh restaurant in town where rich men in office clothings and chirpy female socialites come for a bit of snack. Nobody ever really ordered their main courses, they always aimed for appetizers and desserts.

And by that time, half of the drunk and hungover workers in the kitchen had already gone home, mumbling about taking a deep ten hour sleep or eating drunk foods in the tiny pizzeria near their apartments. Gaia cared more about her salary than sleeping, so she made sure that her performance was pretty okay despite the other employees slacking in the kitchen.

It was New Year, so not that many people came. But still, it was quite a well-known restaurant. Gaia tried hard to fulfill every customer's wishes, but with only half of the waiters and only three of their chefs in the kitchen, their efforts were barely enough.

It was around six in the evening when Gaia took off her apron and sighed. The restaurant closed at eleven. She still had five hours to go. She looked around and saw Jacq biting his lip as his fingers danced on the screen of his cellphone.

"No one told me that you guys were having a party in this kitchen," Gaia said rather loudly, hoping Jacq would take the clue, and he did.

Jacq was one of those guys people had an immediate crush on. He had dark brown hair with deep blue eyes, and the facial structure to die for. Gaia had lost count on how many groups of girls asked for him to be their waiter.

He told everyone that it was his job to make this place alive, and he said that they all owed him for keeping the customers flooding in. He said that it was all because of his good looks. Gaia thought that his ego is much bigger than his head, and his head is already big enough. Nevertheless, she still loved him. He was one of the four people that greeted her on her first day of work.

He smiled apologetically and went to Gaia's side. "You said you were going with that friend of yours, so we thought it was pretty useless telling you!"

"But that didn't mean you could leave me." She huffed and pulled out a hairtie from her pocket then tied her hair into a low ponytail.

Jacq tried to give his friend his best puppy eyes, but Gaia was not up for his mishaps that day. She was tired, she had a killer headache, and she hadn't had a proper rest. She needed a break.

Just when she thought of leaving work and going home, another waitress, Jo, peeked from behind the door connecting the kitchen to the front part of the restaurant.

"Gaia, we need you here," she called and gave Gaia a sympathetic smile. Gaia moaned in exhaustion and walked out, not bothering to put her apron back on.

There was a new customer, sitting by himself in the seat in the corner near the window. He was looking through the menu, looking uninterested.

"Hello, welcome to—"

"One banana fritters and a mineral water."

He didn't even let her finish the introductions. Her mouth opened and then closed as she stared at the man.

He closed the menu and put it on table, then looked up at her expectantly. She frowned at the sight of his sharp green eyes. Gaia huffed and forced a smile while jotting down the order on her little memo.

"One banana fritters and a mineral water coming right up." She mumbled as she walked back to the counter, ripping the piece of paper with the order from her memo and gave it to Keenan, one of the chef.

"Who is it? Customer Number One, Number Two, or Number Three?" Keenan smirked knowingly while reading the memo.

"Number Three, I guess." Gaia chuckled.