The Break - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 As Annie pulled into the parking lot, she felt the dread building. It was her second day on the job, her first job ever. During her first training shift last night, her trainer made her feel like a teenager again. “That girl was not very nice.” Annie thought. “I’m glad she won’t be training me again.” At the end of the shift, Mary had made it quite clear that she did not want to train her again. The manager told her that a guy named Ronnie would work with her trainer on her next shift. Maybe that would make a difference. It just had to. Needless to say, her first shift had not gone well at all. In addition to being totally in awe with how efficient all the waiters were, she had made several dumb mistakes. Which Mary, the trainer, was more than happy to point out in a very loud voice. Trying to muster confidence, Mary decided to give herself a pep talk. She adjusted her mirror so that she could look at herself while she talked. “Today will be different.” She said out loud. “You can do this. New job, new routine.” One last time, Annie reviewed what had gone wrong the previous evening. Last night she lay in bed for hours thinking it through. Finally, it came to her. “When I was getting ready for work, I followed my before school ritual.” She said to herself. “Work is different than school. All I need to do is come up with a new pre-work ritual.” Before getting out of the car, Annie turned the car off and restarted and turned it off again. Then she flipped the automatic door locks exactly four times. Finally, she tapped in the center of the steering wheel seven times. Now she was ready to go into work. Everything would be better. Annie got out of her car and walked to the front door of the restaurant. She was almost there when she heard a voice. “Hey, new kid.” Annie turned and saw a very tall, skinny guy hustling to catch up from behind her. “I’m Ronnie.” Ronnie said as he did a quick scan of Annie. “Guess,you’re your trainer tonight.” Ronnie was surprised he was able to get the last part out. In the brief moment he had taken to check out Annie, he noticed how beautiful she was. “She’s freaking gorgeous.” He thought. “No wonder Mary doesn’t like her.” “Hi, Ronnie. I’m Annie.” She said as she extended her hand. “Nice to meet you.” Ronnie accepted her outstretched hand and shook it firmly and stared directly into her eyes. “Nice to meet you, too.” Ronnie said. He held on to her hand and gazed into her eyes a touch longer than he should have. Annie looked away from the stare. Ronnie noticed Annie’s discomfort and quickly released her hand and turned and opened the door. “Let’s go do it. Just stick by me tonight.” Ronnie said with a hint of false enthusiasm. “After you.” Annie looked back into Ronnie’s eyes and gave him a sweet smile. “Okay, thanks Ronnie.” She said as she pulled on her left ear three times. Ronnie responded with a smile of his own. “Oh yeah.” He thought. “She’s in to the Ron man.” As Annie walked past, Ronnie took a quick look at her butt. “Now that’s nice.” He said to himself. “This has potential.” He followed her into the restaurant. “Over here.” Ronnie said to Annie. “I’ll show you how to get off to an excellent start.” “Okay.” Annie said with a shrug of her shoulder. Without a question, she followed Ronnie to the bar. Ronnie approached the bar and said. “Evenin’ Mr. James.” Ronnie said in artificially formal voice. “How goes it?” “Not bad Ronnie.” Pete replied as he wiped of the bar in front of him. “How the hell are ya, ya big pussy?” Ronnie flinched and looked over his shoulder to see if Annie had heard the crude remark. Relived, he noticed that she had not. Effortlessly, Pete busied himself by putting away the freshly washed glasses. “Dude,” Ronnie said under his breath as he leaned in and motioned towards Annie with his eyes. “Take it easy. She’s new.” “Oh right. I’ll make sure to be more careful.” Pete leaned in and whispered as nodded his head knowingly. Standing fully erect, he added loudly enough to be sure Annie would hear. “You big pussy.” Ronnie let his chin drop to his chest and he shook it back and forth slowly. “Classy.” He said. Looking up at Annie, he gave her a smile and said. “All righty then Annie, this is Pete. Pete this is Annie.” Annie extended her hand and Pete took immediately. He squeezed a little too hard and Ronnie noticed as Annie winced. “How the hell are ya, Annie?” Pete said. “Damn dude, take it easy.” Ronnie admonished him as he threw Pete a glare. “Anyway, Pete’s the bartender tonight. He’ll help us out quite a bit. Right dude?” “Course, man. That’s why you tip me out.” He said. “You take care of me and I’ll take care of you, know what I mean?” He added with a wink. Then he raised eyebrows. Annie was taken aback by his brashness, but she was going to let it show. She did not want to repeat the mistake she had made with Mary. She desperately wanted to show she could fit in with the rest of the staff. “Are you sure you could handle it?” She asked. Totally stunned, Ronnie burst out laughing. “Dude, she told you.” He said to Pete, who quickly joined in laughing. “Guess she did.” Pete agreed. “Gonna have to keep an eye on you.” “Now give us our ticket book, bitch.” Ronnie said feeling more comfortable about being himself in front of Annie. “Yeah, she’s gonna be fine here.” He thought and a smile slowly crossed his face. Turning, Ronnie walked away without saying anything. Annie dutifully fell in step behind her trainer. Ronnie spent the next fifteen minutes running through his process for getting ready to start a shift. “I always make sure my wait station is ready to rock.” He explained. “It’s going to be crazy in here in about an hour and you don’t want to get off to a bad start.” Annie was very impressed by Ronnie’s dedication. “I’m impressed.” She said out loud. “You really put a lot into this. Is this that great a place to work?” “Hail, no.” Ronnie said. “I don’t do this cause I give a crap. I do it cause it’s the only way to make money.” Tags: Fiction, Online Book, Rebeleyeball, Paul GavinCopyright (c) 2006 Paul Gavin. All rights reserved.