Unfortunately, those consequences affect me too.
My first inclination, after the shock wore off, was to help him get through it. That’s what I do. But his hostility blindsided me. I keep waiting for the sweet man who adored me to reappear, but I’m not sure he exists anymore. Part of me thinks I should getfar, far away, but I can’t believe I could’ve been so wrong about him.
I read people well. Thanks to my dad, I can sense a disturbance in the force by the way a key turns in a lock or non-slip soles pound across linoleum. I can feel the temperature drop when a mood shifts, a tone changes, or the pantry door is opened and closed a little too swiftly.
I got none of that vibe from Nathan … not at first.
I’m probably just extra sensitive because of how I grew up. That’s what it is. People are allowed to have negative emotions.
Not me, but you know … I’ve heard it’s normal.
Nathan’s frustrated.
It’s not personal.
I’m lost in thought, cleaning the back dining room, when I hear a customer complaining to Lainey at the counter. It’s near closing time, and the woman says she was charged for a soda when she ordered water. Yeah, I did that.
She ordered water at the counter but moved her kids to a table and told me her drink was Sprite when I offered a refill …twice. So I adjusted her ticket to charge for soda before I printed it out. She also stuffed her purse with ketchup and mayo packets, and her kids have been pouring salt in the booth seat for the last hour while she was on her phone.
I’m not in the mood for this, but Lainey’s sixteen, a little younger than my sister, Layla, and I’m not going to let this woman crush her spirit quite yet. At twenty-three, I’m a seasoned veteran. My dad scheduled me seventy-six straight four-until-close shifts with no days off when I was a senior in high school because he didn’t have enough help.
You can’t hurt my feelings. I don’t have any left.
Lainey looks nervously at me across the room, and I hurry to her at the counter.
“All ready? I can get that for you. You didn’t have to get up!” I smile brightly. Purse Packet Lady glares at me. She knows I remember what she had to drink.
“She says I got her ticket wrong,” Lainey sputters.
Child. Shhhh,I think to myself as I activate my customer service voice and a fake smile. “Nope! I served it myself. Can I add a slice of cheesecake or anything for the road before I close out?”
“Absolutely not. I didn’t order soda, and I was charged right here!”
Purse packet woman points triumphantly, but I calmly remind her, “That may be true, but you asked for Sprite refills at least twice. I totally understand if you forgot, so I made the adjustment for you. Will that be cash or card?”
If looks couldkill.
Lainey has turned so pale, I’m afraid she’ll pass out, and the She-Devil Ketchup Bandit is almost making me wish I had let this go so we could all get out of here without incident. But food costs have been drilled into me since childhood. I’m not about to let this woman own us.
When you let three dollars go on one soda, next a whole family will do it, and then people will tell their friends, and it’ll turn into entire parties demanding Sunday Special prices on busy Fridays … andoh my word. I’m turning into my father. Not that he’s wrong about this, but I could pick a better hill to die on.
“Brooks!” I hear my last name hissed through a crack in the swinging kitchen door.
Is there anything worse than a balding, middle-aged man who regrets all his life choices?
There isnot.
My manager, Dave, lurks behind the door, because he doesn’t have the guts to address a customer. I don’t know why he feels so confident against me, with all my sixty-two and a halfinches of sass, but he does, and he barks at me like an athlete he’s about to bench. “Now!”
“Excuse me,” I say walking confidently to the door. “Hey, Dave, do you need help with something?”
He mutters under his breath with his face red and sweaty, “Fix the ticket and close it out. Refund it all if you have to. We don’t do business like this! You’re not the soda police, and we’d all like to go home.”
He wants to yell at me, but he can’t, and for Lainey’s sake, I’m glad. She’s already shaking. Purse Packet Bandit has been holding her glare for an impressively long time. Why does this woman have children out at this hour, anyway? They’re sitting on top of their table flicking sugar packets, competing to see how far they’ll go. But the salt barrier must be working because the little demons are staying put.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I must’ve been mistaken. Your soda’s on the house tonight.” I begin to void and reenter a new ticket.
“I said I didn’t order soda, and I will not be called a liar in front of my children. You owe me an apology and compensation for this traumatic experience.”
