Switching Shifts

"Have a seat," Beverly pushed a wheeled desk chair my way when I walked into the office. Laid out on the desk in front of her was the daily sales logbook and the receipts from the night before, her attention was on those as I dropped down into the chair. "How are you finding everything Tanner?" She asked, flipping through till receipts. "Do you feel that you have the hang of what it takes to work the kitchen in the mornings?"

"Well, I haven't messed up too many orders and Hazel has only given me the evil eye once this morning," I joked.

"Right, right," she nodded but she didn't seem happy.

Shifting uncomfortably in my seat, I tried to think of something to say to make up for the stupid joke I just made. "I -"

"Look at these numbers," she turned towards me suddenly, pushing the till report she held in her hand, under my nose. "Does that look like a '6' or an '8' to you?" She pulled it back, glanced at it and then shoved it at me again. "I don't know how many times I tell those girls to make sure to change the ink when it's this dull; my eyes aren't as good as they used to be!"

"It looks like a '6'," I replied a little hesitantly because I didn't find it that hard to read at all.

"Yeah?" She tilted her head back a little and peered at the paper through the bottom of her glasses. "Hmm," she tapped the pencil she held in her hand against the receipts. "You know, I believe you are right -" she pointed to a couple numbers further down the paper, "2 and 4 equal 6." With a snort, she put the pencil to the logbook but didn't write anything down as she flipped to another spot in the report. "I just like to double check the numbers," she informed me without looking up.

I asked her if she was going to show me what she was doing but she told me that I would get plenty of practice at it when I started working evenings on Monday. "I'm going to evenings?" It was the first I heard about it. It wasn't like I had a problem with it, I just didn't realize that I would be switching to evenings yet when there was still the whole 'management' side of the morning that I didn't even touch yet.

Beverly looked up at me like I said something wrong. "Of course you have to work evenings Tanner; we have to manage the kids as well as the adults."

"Yes," I nodded. "I understand that. I just thought that..."

She raised a brow, "What did you think Tanner?"

I took a minute to think about what I wanted to say and how; I didn't want to come across as a rude little shit. "I guess I just thought that I would learn a little more of the administration stuff for mornings before switching to nights." Then I had a thought, something that never crossed my mind before that moment. "Am I going to be working mostly evenings?"

The fact that Beverly didn't reply right away make me nervous. I had hoped that once I knew what I was doing, I would have time to focus on Sara and our relationship - working all evenings meant that I wouldn't see her much at all.

"Tanner," Beverly removed her glasses with a sigh. "Right now, I would like for you to concentrate on evenings. We are short supervisors and I think that it would be the best way to have you learn the way we do things around here."

"Oh," I tried really hard not to look disappointed but fuck it, I was. I wanted to know why the hell she didn't tell me this in the interview? She told me that I would have to work some evenings but she would also be working some.

"Most nights you should be out of here just after 10," she told me. "You can still do something with your girlfriend."

"My girlfriend?" I gave her a funny look.

She pointed up at the security TV sitting in the cupboard in the corner. "I assume that you don't go around hugging and kissing all women that walk into this restaurant Tanner."

"No, God no! Sara, that's her name, she's my girlfriend." I was blushing, I could feel it. "I didn't...I mean I don't..." Fuck I felt like an idiot as I stumbled over my words. "She works nights," I finally managed to get out. "I haven't seen her much since I left my last job; we met at work."

Beverly didn't look happy when I said that. "Tanner we frown upon dating co-workers here -"

I damn near jumped out of my chair. "I'm not looking for a new girlfriend," I informed her. "I'm very happy with Sara; she's very important to me." I was a little surprised just how much I missed her once I stopped working nights - dreams with her had become more frequent and I couldn't get her out of my head - every little thing seemed to remind me of something she said or did.

"That's good," she gave me a small smile. "It's a good idea for you to keep your relationship with the staff to a working one, especially when you are working with the kids on the evening shift; you are here to be their boss, not their friend."

"I understand."

"Good," she turned back to the paperwork. "I had problems with the last assistant manager because she tried to be their buddy."

"You don't have to worry about me," I told her. "I'm not here to be any one's 'buddy'."