A la Carte

Chapter 1

Bang!

The loud sound of the garbage bag hitting the side of the container was enough to wake Charlotte up. She sighed and heaved the other black bag up and over. Dusting herself off and tugging her uniform down ,she re-entered the Bistro. The kitchen was still bustling with activity, even after an hour and half of being closed. Chef Parker barked orders to his kitchen crew, but with a little less ferocity than before. She picked up a cloth and headed to the front of the Bistro where she was needed. Matt, Andrew and Stefan were busy cleaning tables, folding the table cloths and stacking the chairs on the tables, while Harriet (the older, friendlier waitress) swept the floor. Perry and Charlotte were on salt and pepper shaker duty, cleaning and refilling them, so that they were ready for the next day. Amanda Sanchez was the owner of the Hasta La Bistro along with her husband, James. Amanda was the hostess while James accosionally popped in to diffuse situations in the kitchen and he handled the business part of the Bistro.

"Charlotte?" Amanda called as she counted the money and divided it into neat piles.

"Yeah?" She answered.

"I have an extra shift for you tomorrow round lunchtime, if you want it." She said.

Charlotte grimaced, tomorrow was Sunday, which meant Sunday Lunch and it was the busiest time of the week for the Bistro because Hasta La Bistro had the one of the best and most well known Sunday Roast, which usually meant that the Bistro would be filled with rich people who thought they literally owned the place, but Charlotte needed the work.

"I'll take it." She said, before closing the container of salt and putting it away. Perry was still busy with the pepper shakers and hadn't stopped sneezing ever since she began with it.

Amanda nodded and turned to everyone as they all were finishing up their different jobs.

"You guys can leave as soon as you're finished. I'll see most of you tomorrow, wear comfortable shoes." She said, it was the same speech every Saturday evening,but everyone still chuckled. They all finished up, said their goodbyes and left.

Matt waited outside for Perry and Charlotte, he was dating Perry, but they always walked with her to the subway entrance, they claimed that it was just to chat with her a little bit more, but she knew the real reason was to make sure nothing happened to her on the way there, she never told them off, it was their little ritual.They walked in silence, it was comforting, the sounds of New York was enough noise at 2 am in the morning.

"Good luck with tomorrow, we'll see you on Monday." Perry said and gave her friend a hug as they reached the subway. She waved goodbye to them and watched as they walked hand in hand to Matt's car. She sighed and walked down the steps. The ride home felt longer than usual, but maybe it was just because she was tired.

Her apartment block wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either and she liked her neighbours, so it wasn't that bad. Her apartment was fairly big for one person, but would be small if two people stayed in it.

"Damn! " She cried out as she stumped her toe against the corner of the wall,making her way to her bed. She set her alarm and the collapsed on her bed, not even bothering to get undressed.

The blaring sound of Charlotte's alarm awoke her at 9 am, she groaned, she only had seven hours of sleep, tired she took a shower, letting the warm water wake her up, food was next on the list as her stomach grumbled. Quickly she got dressed for work and braided her hair in a Dutch braid, before gulping down her second cup of coffee, she left the apartment, toasted bagel in hand and made her way to the subway. It was now 10 am,Charlotte had an hour to get to work, which didn't bother her, it was more than enough time.