cw - inappropriate touching from a customer, general male grossness, pls be careful ily
september 2015
houston tx
"Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"
Ashley nods, anxiously, continuing to listen to the customer who's angrily complaining to her, and has been for the past fifteen minutes.
"I am, ma'am," she says, calmly. "I'm really sorry about the wait, but—"
"If you're sorry about the wait, then hurry up!" The lady shouts, causing Ashley to flinch.
She begins shooing her away, rudely, so Ashley turns on her heels and heads straight back to the kitchen.
She lets out a shaky breath, once the door is closed behind her, earning an odd look from the head chef, Michael.
"You okay there, Ashley?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Just got an earful from table twenty five," she sighs, running a hand over her face. "Might want to hurry up on that order before she comes in here herself."
"You should just start shouting back at them one day," he responds, with a shrug.
"I think I'd lose my job for that, Mike," Ashley laughs, weakly, earning a sympathetic look. "Someone else can take their food to them when it's ready, though. I don't want to have to fucking deal with that again."
"No problem," Jacob, one of the other waiters, pops up from behind her. "I've got you."
"Thank you," she smiles, graciously.
"You can take table twenty one," Michael says, sliding the plates across the counter to her.
Ashley balances the four plates carefully, earning an odd look from Jacob as he watches her.
As she takes a step, one of the plates begin tipping; Ashley panics, but thankfully Jacob catches it with ease.
"Want me to help?" He asks, taking another plate from her.
"Thanks," she murmurs, really wishing she could do it by herself, but she knows she can't seem to balance more than three plates of food at a time.
Ashley frowns as Jacob holds the door open for her, mumbling another thank you, as they make their way to the table.
"The House Burger, and the Lasagna?" Ashley stamps on a smile as she arrives at the table; although, her presence is only met with some quizzical expressions.
"You're not our usual waiter," the man sat at the head of the table comments, plainly.
"Oh, uh— she's busy with another table at the moment," Ashley keeps up a polite tone. "Sorry about that. But, we wanted to get your food to you as quickly as possibly," she explains, nicely.
"Okay," he replies, bluntly, still with a skeptical look.
Ashley places their food on the table, and Jacob follows suit with the remaining plates.
"Enjoy your meal," she smiles, earning only a flat hum in response, as she turns away and heads back to the kitchen.
"Well they were...Pleasant," Jacob says, sarcastically, causing Ashley to sigh heavily.
