“Perfect.”Hewas undeniably impressed. “Now comes payment.”
“Oopsie,” I giggled, “totally forgot about that. Open or closed, hun?” I turned back to the man.
“Open. Everything they get, too.” Heset downacardwhile nodding toward a group of men playing pool.
Sean led me to a computer and outlined the payment process, which didn’t take long at all. It was actually pretty self-explanatory.
“Johnny’s gonna feel stupid when he sees how fast you’re catching on,”hesaid.“Have you made an adios before, or was that your first?”
“It was my first. But I’ve ordered them a million times, so I remember how they’re made.I’m not as dumb as people think, you know.”
“I never said you’re dumb.”Sean leaned against the register, his eyes drifting past me to Dennis.“Whimsical,maybe. But never dumb. I know you’re smart.”
“Why’re you looking at Dennis?”I asked, following his gaze.
“No reason.”Sean set the card aside and led me to another area.
Training went much the same as that for the next few hours. I learned a ton, asked for a lot of repetition due to my foggy brain, shadowed a bit, and helped a couple of customers while Sean stayed close to oversee. Break time came and went.
Ari stayed in the booth playing on her phone while Dennis pretended not to eavesdrop on my training, until eventually Mateo arrived to play pool with him and Ari moved to the bar for a drink. Surprisingly, none of them had teased or distracted me so far. Maybe I was doing better than they’d expected.
“Looks like you have another customer.”Sean nodded toward the door. It was Benji. I briefly wondered how Sean knew that I knew him, but then I decided he must’ve seen us talking outside one day.“I’ll let you handle this on your own. Let me know if you need help.”
I noddedas heleft to help Nate with the two remaining customers, one of them being Ari. Just as he’d predicted, Benji headed straight forme.
“Hey girly.” Benji satin front of me.
“Hey manly.”I smiled.“I’ve never seen you inside before. This is new.”
“Because I never realized you work here.”
“I just started! It’s my first day.”
“Which means I have reason to come inside now.”Benji contemplated for a second before leaning forward.“I was wondering,would you like to go out sometime?”
“Like on a date?”
“Yeah, on a date.”
“Uh…”I glanced at the pool tables, my eyes reflexively going to Dennis.
“I get it. You’re taken.”Benji’s voice was glum.
“No,” I quickly turned back to him, “not at all.”
“It’s okay.”He slid from the stool and stood.“I’m not surprised. I should’ve known you’d get snatched up if I took too long.”
“I’m not,” I protested.But it was too late—he’d noticed, Sean had noticed, Ari had noticed. She was giggling loud enough to even catch Nate’s attention.
“Let me know if you ever free up, okay?I’d love a chance for a date with you.”
“…okay…”I watched as he left the bar. Well, that was embarrassing.
“So,”Dennisappeared, takingthe abandoned seat,“what was that?”
“What was what?”I grimaced.Play dumb. That always solves everything.
“Why don’t you wanna go on a date with him?”
