Zephaniah // z.m

2. The last bakery shift

Hannah

"Hannah, do you have a minute?" Mrs. Brown spoke from behind the counter, where I was standing, successfully startling me as I was too focused on typing down the right amount of money on the cash register.

I nodded, "Sure," and turned my attention to Jack, one of my younger colleagues. "Can you take over the cash register? Mrs. Brown wants to speak to me."

"Yeah, sure. Good luck, by the way. Brown's usually not too positive." He chuckled, his eyes crinkling when I gave him a playful shove.

After I made sure he was handling the cash register in the right way, I turned around and walked over to the door which led to a small private canteen for the coworkers.

Mrs. Brown looked at me from over her glasses and she gave me a small smile, "Have a seat, darling."

I pulled the chair from its spot and sat down, patiently waiting for her to speak up again while nervously picking on my nails as I had no idea what to expect.

"So, Hannah. As you know the economy isn't going great, and it sadly affects our bakery as well. We had to make a few decisions, very hard decisions but uhm.." She spoke slowly as she observed my face.

I played with my shoulder length, light brown hair and nervously bit my lip. Where they going to close the bakery? That'd mean I'd lose my job, and I really couldn't have that right now for specific reasons and as I was saving money for my own apartment.

"You're fired, I'm sorry." She sighed deeply and removed her glasses from her face as she kept staring at me.

I was quiet for what felt like ages. My heart had sunken to my toes, and none of my muscles could move at the very moment. It was like everything stood still, my eyebrows slowly furrowing and my mouth parting to say something, except the words never came.

"I'm sorry, darling, I really am. It's not because of you, though. You're one of the best coworkers here so it hurts my heart to do so, but it really is the best decision." She sighed sadly.

It took me a few more minutes to process what she just said. I'm fired. Fired! And that while I had been doing loads of courses just to stay up to date, so I could become better at my job. Which had worked well, as I was multifunctional.

This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be. Could it?

"But.. but why?" I breathed out, my voice sounding extremely quiet and unsure. I felt my eyes pricking because of the tears that appeared, but I definitely wasn't going to let them fall, no way, not here.

"Let's be very honest here, Hannah. You're twenty one, Jack is eighteen and we have a new girl from sixteen. They're much cheaper than you. Some people go for quality, which would've made me choose you, but the money is important too, so we chose for the cheap instead of quality." Mrs. Brown, the owner of the bakery, spoke.

I swallowed the lump in my throat away and slowly nodded my head, "Alright. I mean, I'd say I understand, but I don't, so. I guess, uhm, that I have to go now?"

Mrs. Brown smiled sympathetically and handed me an envelope with money in it. "It's your payment for this month and next month. I hope you'll find something that appeals to you as much as the bakery did. Thank you for your amazing work the past two years."

"You're welcome," I said quietly as I shoved the chair away, standing up after that. I shook her hand, faked a smile as I simply couldn't give her a real one and I swallowed the tears away when I walked outside the small canteen.

I ignored Jack, walked straight over to my car and drove off with the tears now finally streaming down my face. I blinked them away rapidly, though, as I didn't feel like having an accident because of the blur in my eyes.