➴ 𝐓𝐢𝐩𝐣𝐚𝐫 ⋮ 𝕺𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑

🍵 - A Different Option: Part Two

I knew what I wanted. I wanted this instead of the café. Cosmina and Cedar had their communications and Cosmina relayed the news to me.

"You're meeting her tomorrow, she already wants you as an employee, so the meeting is actually your first day," she told me.

I was overly ecstatic from that moment on, I couldn't think about anything else. It would be different for me, I knew that, but I was ready to take it on.

    It's about noon when I get there, barely anyone's inside because the building functions as a tavern that serves other meals, meaning its busy around happy hour. I was told to see Cedar so she could place me in my station and show me how to get started. I looked for her and found her behind a counter in the back cleaning the walls and picking up trash.

    "Hi," I stuttered, "you're Cedar Graham?"

    She looked up, seeming half annoyed, "That's me."

    I don't think she knew who I was, why should she anyway? What was I supposed to do? She's already giving me a weird impression, it's not bad but she's making me uneasy.

Did I really just quit a job for this?

    "I'm Adelaide Crina, Cosmina's friend?"

    "Oh right, well go over there," she pointed to a small closet-like room, "and just wait for me, yeah?"

    "Sure," I said, I didn't want to get in the way of whatever she was trying to clean up, so I walked over to the room and leaned against the wall, that's when Cedar finally got up and came over me.

    "Listen, I know it's short notice but we're gonna be hit by waves of folks tonight, so I need you to waitress, are you prepared for that?"

    "I can be, I-"

"Great, get to it, clean the tables, your section is right here, I'll be chilling in mine when you need it."

She walked away, no other words said, I wasn't sure where she ran off to either.

I wasn't sure what to say, I didn't know anything about the place and how they run it, so I did my best to clean the gunk and sticky, dried soda from the walls and seats. Before I knew it, customers were floating in and ordering, a few went from that to large groups and I was stressed over it. I seemed to be doing okay, but I felt super alone. Cedar had disappeared from my view forever ago and I knew no one else on the team yet. I was tired and the customers weren't making it any easier.

    --

    I finally got to leave just after 10:00, which was super late for me. I had to take the chance to slip out when the customer rates died down.

I felt a little gross. The amount of sodas and other drinks flying the room and being spilt was insane. Grown men were looking at me and some women were too, which made me more than uncomfortable. Cedar had probably left right after showing me my station because I hadn't seen her milling around since that moment. It took me a while to realize it but...

I hated this.