𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋| joe mazzello

one

new year's eve. a day that was usually spent preparing for the year to come and celebrating with friends and family. but this year, aoife james would be instead spending it waitressing on one of the busiest nights of the year. aoife moved to london a number of years ago from a small place in ireland in order to pursue a career in law, but in the end, she was in the wrong profession. it wasn't what she wanted to do. she had joined a law firm and left within two years, her university degree going to waste. aoife didn't want to waitress either but she had to make a living somehow, and if this was going to provide her with enough to live on, so be it.

aoife arrived in work on the night, the bar already full up with people who were ready for what the next year would bring them. aoife went behind the bar into the small staff room that was there, aoife hung up her coat and dropped her bag on the chair next to the door. aoife greeted a few co-workers before grabbing her apron and leaving the room to begin her shift.

"iyla," aoife greeted, walking by the girl wrapping the apron around her waist. iyla matthews. the only person who ever seemed to make working bearable. "aoife," iyla sung back, pouring another drink and handing it to aoife. aoife took the drink, placing it on a tray and waiting for iyla to pour the rest. "table five," iyla said in disgust, pointing over at a table of rowdy boys. that particular group of boys came in every weekend and attempted to hit on every female member of staff the bar had and aoife really didn't appreciate boys who must have only been eighteen, twenty at most, hitting on her.

aoife took the drinks, groaning internally, and brought them to the table. one of them nudging the lad who constantly went after aoife. "well hello there," he smirked, earning a blank look from aoife as she placed their drinks in the center of their table. aoife took the tray, tucking it under her arm and trying to make a quick getaway. "ah darling, it wouldn't kill you to smile," one of them called after her, aoife stood still in her spot, attempting to compose herself. aoife turned around, staring the boy right in the eye, feigning confusion, "why?" the boy stared back at her, his smirk growing. "it'll make you look prettier, women should always be smiling, sweetheart." aoife felt sick at his words, but unfortunately she was used to it, a bar wasn't the classiest place to work. "well, i'm not here to be your eye candy, so if you're finished making sexist comments, you can stay and have a drink, if not, i'll kindly have to ask you to leave." aoife whipped around, leaving the group dumbfounded. aoife joined iyla back up front, waiting for the next few drinks to be pulled. "lord give me strength," aoife growled, rubbing her temples. iyla sent aoife a look of pity, "i'm sorry babe, but you know how it is, they're not going to be the last ones to make a comment like that tonight." aoife nodded, unfortunately she understood that, "yeah, i know."

aoife waited on many different tables for the first half of her shift, during which she was told to smile at six different tables, was hit on at four and someone attempted to grab her at two. the workload wasn't what drained her at the end of the day, it was the people who treated her and her coworkers with a lack of respect. some people treated them like shit because they believed they were above them in society, just because they had a better job than they did. others assumed that the people working in the bar had a lack of intelligence, which is why they were seemingly unemployable anywhere else.

aoife left the tray with another waitress as she stepped out to take her break. the girl grabbed a few things for her bag before stepping outside for air. aoife lit a cigarette, taking in a puff of smoke and exhaling it, a content smile forming on her lips. smoking wasn't something she was proud of, aoife had been pressured into it by some 'friends' way back when and she had been hooked ever since. aoife took out her phone, seeing a message from leanna thomas. aoife's eyebrows furrowing together in confusion, it was out of the ordinary for her sisters best friend to randomly text her. it would probably become more common now since niamh had decided to come to london and stay with leanna while she was interning at some movie production. aoife wasn't quite filled in on all the details but she managed to pick up on some information that niamh gave her when she arrived at her doorstep the night before. leanna was interning, she had a thing with one of the actors, blah blah, blah.