I was on the schedule for 11-4. At about 11:15, Linda asked me if Nina had talked to me. Nina had told me she was going to be out of town Sunday night, it was a five hour drive, and it sucked to be her. But she didn't specifically say she couldn't work today, and I didn't volunteer. No one else was available. If Nina didn't come, I was working 11-close, and no one seemed to think she'd come in.

I spent the afternoon hating everything. There were a couple funky orders, and I thought I explained them clearly, but Raso screwed them up anyway. There was no credit card paper, after I had assured the guy whose order got screwed up that I could in fact take his credit card. Linda took a woman's order at 1:30. Linda left at 2. At 2:30, the woman moved over to sit with a friend of hers, but left all her stuff in the booth. At 2:45, she freaked out when I asked her if I could bring her stuff over to her, because someone else wanted the booth. At 3, the asshole she'd been waiting for finally came in. He didn't leave a tip. I gave the woman's tip to Linda, because that's technically what I'm supposed to do.

At 3:15, a customer told me Nina wasn't working tonight. That almost pushed me over the top. So...everyone knew she wasn't coming in. Linda knew. Nick knew. Fucking customers knew. I don't mind doing the 11-8. I don't like it, but I understand. If the schedule had said I was there till 8, I would have sucked it up, taken one for the team, etc. But ya see, the point of the 11-4 shift is, I get to leave at fucking 4! Don't let me think I get a night off, then drop this 11-close shit on me. The exact same thing had happened to me last week. So, as the afternoon progressed, I was getting more and more pissed off.

The funny thing is, all that happened was I got really nice. I'm a nice person. And when I get mad, I get even nicer. I could totally hear the sarcastic edge in my voice, and I knew I was about 30 seconds away from screaming and breaking stuff, but since I was still smiling and saying all the right things, (For the 400th time: "What's this?" "That's a picture. We don't actually have anything like that on the menu.") maybe no one even noticed. Strange.

At 3:45, Nina called. She was going to be a little late, but she was coming in. Instantly, I was all better. I assured her that was just fine. When she wasn't there by 20 after, I began to wonder if her call had been some sort of cruel joke, but then like magic, there she was. And there was much rejoicing.

previous--next