Being gay is a curse when the homophobia you grew up with was so bad that you're homophobic yourself. Especially when you're into unavailable guys like your roommate, whose girlfriend is everything you're not (though appearances can be deceiving). S...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The job interview went really well.
Krista's boss, a middle-aged woman named Sandy with sandy brown hair, was lovely. At first glance, she looked stern with a pair of black glasses on the bridge of her nose and stark blue eyes peeking out over the frame, but she was very smiley and she seemed genuinely excited to know more about me. Her enthusiasm was comforting. I had a feeling that she knew I was nervous because of my lack of work experience when I came in, since she kept saying, "We're gonna teach you everything!"
She even joked about hiring me as her lawyer once I'd finished studying.
And... that's when the anxiety returned. I didn't even know if I would get to finish. My parents were the ones who'd been paying my tuition fees and I had another year to go after this one. I didn't have ten thousands of dollars lying around. Law school wasn't fucking cheap—
I gave Sandy a wry smile and replied, "Maybe."
"All right, well, let's just give it a try before we make it official," Sandy said, bringing her hands together. "It's pretty empty right now, so I'll show you around, okay?"
"Oh... okay. Already?"
She nodded as she got up from her desk chair. "I think it'll be easier for me to judge whether you're cut out for the job if you actually join us for a few hours, you know? Are you free tomorrow?"
"Sure," I agreed immediately.
"Good. Follow me." She led me through the back to the kitchen, where she said hello to the cooks and pointed out things like how they received their orders from the waiting staff. They all smiled and waved at me, and one of them even shot me a wink. So far, it seemed like everyone here was friendly. Krista always said they were, but I could never really believe anything she said until I'd seen it myself. She had a tendency to overdramatize things.
After showing me the restrooms and the outside area, which was completely empty because of the cold weather, Sandy brought me to the main area of the restaurant. There were a few customers scattered across the room and there were two waitresses in the corner, by the cash register, waiting for something to happen. One of them was Krista.
"Let's go say hello," Sandy said.
When we reached them, the young woman that I didn't know extended her hand and introduced herself as Janelle. Krista patiently waited for her to be done before going in for that hug she'd promised me the day before. I melted into her soft embrace while she whispered, "Everything's gonna be alright, babe."
I really hope so.
After showing me around and giving me instructions for my first day, Sandy let me go home—Carl's home, that is.
I'd slept on his couch the night before and he and Kylie were awfully nice and hospitable despite not even knowing me, and I knew I should be happy, but I felt horrible. I didn't want to take advantage of them. They even offered me breakfast in the morning. They said I could just eat whatever was in the house! No, thank you. It wasn't their fault that I had nowhere else to go, and they shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes.
