Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Thirteen

YOU AGAIN?

Rushing into the The Maroon, the friendly scent of beer, musk and week old food greeted me as I dashed to the employee room. Slipping out of my normal clothes and into the derogatory uniform required of me.

"Late again I see." Turning around Frank stood behind me an obvious glare imprinted on his face.

My mouth popped open to try and explain once again that I was a full time student and despite how many times I had given Frank my schedule he continued to only give me a ten to fifteen minute window to get from my campus to The Square. Though, Frank beat me to it raising his hand to silence me completely before I could even speak a word of my defense. "Don't even bother, I'll just dock it from your pay," he said taking a step closer. "Listen, we have a new waiter with us so I'm going to need you to train him today."

"So I'm just showing someone the works today?" For a second I felt my shoulder relax.

"Along with all of your other duties," Frank added. "We're short, Jenna and Amy called out so it's just going to be you, the new guy."

Exhaling, the exhaustion of the end of this shift had already begun to weigh on me. That wasn't just short that was absolutely criminal to only have three people tend to the entire bar by themselves and one of them was a new recruit who probably wouldn't even know what the difference between ale and beer was. However, I found my protest once again lodged in my throat. Then with a nod of his head, Frank's eyes scanned my scanty uniform.

The uniform was scanty to say the least. The black skirt barely covered my ass and the maroon top revealed not only too much cleavage, but midriff as well. The only thing that would be keep me warm was the body heat radiating from the customers because lord knew Frank wouldn't pay to get the heater fixed.

"You look good Cooper. Don't forget this though," he said before producing a tube of black face paint and handing it over to me before drawing two imaginary lines beneath both of his eyes to show me where the paint would go. "Wouldn't want you feeling left out."

"Yep because that's the last thing I would want to feel," I retorted dryly as I took the tube and opened my locker. "Left out."

Smearing a small amount of paint onto my hands, I drew the lines on the top of my cheekbones before turning around for Frank's approval.

"Now don't remember to give em a big smile when you get out there," he said. "Best way to make tips."

Because that's what her livelihood depended on now, seeing as by tomorrow every cent in my bank account would be going to Kappa Kappa Theta and I now had to figure out a way to pay for this semester. I no longer had the luxury of simply showing guests to their tables and seating them accordingly, now I would have to sell myself to make more than the two dollars an hour Frank paid us. And despite everything he had told me the other day, I still had a feeling that my demotion had more to do with him wanting to save money than them being short staffed.

Walking out of the employee locker room, I instantly went to the bar where Søren poured a pair of shots. "Look what the cat dragged out," he joked over the loud cheering of rowdy men. "You clean up... well somehow that outfit makes you look worse."

"Shut up," I joked tossing a napkin over at him. "I can't believe I doing this again, being host was like my dream. A small short-term dream but my dream and now it's like I've taken a step back. I think I've just about lost most of my dignity."

Søren handed the shots over to the two blondes before making one last one and sliding it over to me. "This should make you forget about that forgotten dignity."