shorts

short five

kind of a continuation from short one

Taking a deep breath, she entered her new workplace. Or should she say, former workplace, as she was late not by a few minutes but by two hours. Her first day at work as a waitress is not going well. A lady came over and asked for her order. She stuttered, explaining that she was actually here for work. The lady's eye went wide and her smile disappeared from her face.

"Chloe Marshall? 'Bout time you showed up. Thanks to you I had to come to work today. I was suppose to go watch my son's play but guess what? Someone decided to come in late. On her first day of work. I wish you luck!" The lady then threw off her apron and stormed out of the cafe.

Ensuring that all her curls were still tucked into her beanie, she made her way towards the office tucked at the back. She grabbed the apron the lady had thrown just now and knocked on the door. A man, in his twenties she presumed, opened the door and cocked his eyebrow.

"I'm Chloe Marshal and I'm-"

"Sorry for being late, won't do it again. The same old bull every single time. If you want the job, you come to work at time. Simple, not pimple." He turned away from her as he grabbed a notepad, hat and and apron. "From this moment on, these are your responsibility. Lose it, and you lose the job. For today just take orders and don't ever go near the cash registers," he warned before waving her off with his hand.

She went out, appalled by this unknown man's behaviour. She was just thinking that he had a great figure, aside from the slight paunch. Now she just finds him very undesirable and does not have a nice figure at all. She put on the hat and apron and went to the front.

Business was slow-paced. She got to know Max and Janie, who both had worked here together. Initially they were a couple so they applied for a job here. But relationships don't last forever so now they are exes. Broke up cleanly. And they work well together but try as hard not too. They now use Chloe as their middle woman to pass on orders or whatever.

First day came to an end. Max and Janie went to the office and Chloe decided to follow them. They signed off and talked with Rude Guy. Rude Guy turns out to have a name. Eric. Sounds suitable for a rude guy. Chloe was about to sign off to when he called for her.

"Came in late and signing off on time? I hate these kind of people. You have to work for another two hours or you're not getting paid for today's work," he said as he continued to write down stuffs.

"B-But I'm just a waiter. Besides the cafe is closed which means no more customer so what am -"

"Go wash the toilets or the dishes. Do work if you wanna get paid. Now scram! Standing in my office idly is not a way to get paid." He pushed her towards the door and slammed the door.

She let out a huff, thinking how could a human being be this rude and despicable. She went to the kitchen and started washing the dishes. So she washed and scrubbed for an hour. When she was done, she noticed a trolley filled with cleaning supplies. There was a Post-it note ordering her to wash the toilets.

Begrudgingly, she pushed the trolley towards the toilets. She decided to wash the female one first. The sight that welcomed her was disastrous. Tissue paper everywhere - wet and dry, and the stench was unbearable. She went through the cleaning supplies and luckily there was a mask. Putting on the mask, she tried her best to wash the toilet.

Done with the female toilet, she moved on to the male toilet as she had another half hour. She knocked on the door multiple times to ensure that no one was inside. When there was no reply, she opened the door and the same sight greeted her. She got down to business and was happy with the end result. As she was not happy with the air freshener's scent, she went to her bag and took out her perfume. She sparyed both toilets until she was happy with the scent.

Eric called for her as soon as her two hour was up. She signed off as he packed up his stuffs.

"Let this be a reminder for you to be on time. Now, where do you live? I'll send you home as it is quite late already," he offered as he took his car keys.

She was caught off guard by the offer and just stared at him. "I may be an asshole just now bit that was work. We have to be professional. Now that we are done, I am a gentleman who is asking for your address so that I may send you home."

Chloe told him her address as both of them exit the cafe. He locked up the cafe before walking towards a cute little car. Quite the opposite from what Chloe was expecting. A cute baby blue car. And then he opened the door for her.

Chloe pinched herself. She found it hard to believe that this chivalrous man was the same man in the office. He sighed when he saw her pinching herself and rolled his eyes.

Once both of them got their seatbelts on, they travelled in silence. More than once Chloe tried to start a conversation but all of the attempts failed. Eric liked the silence and told Chloe to shut her trap.

"May I at least switch on the radio?" Chloe asked meekly.

"I hate DJs. They blabber all the time and I had enough of blabber at the cafe."

"Then can we please talk? I hate silence. It drives me crazy!" Chloe continued to whine.

"How about you call up your friend who likes to talk?"

"It's almost midnight! Who would want to talk now?"

"Point taken."

The rest of the journey was silent aside from the light snores from the Chloe. They reached her house and he nudged her awake. She thanked him sleepily and got out of the car.

He rolled down the windows and reminded her not to be late tomorrow. Chloe gave him the finger as she unlocked the door.

Chloe's plan was to take a shower and then straight to bed. But when she stepped out of the shower, she felt fresh and awake. She decided to read a book and before long, she was too engrossed in reading that she forgot to sleep. Looks like someone's going to be late tomorrow.