Working It

I still can't believe how difficult it is for me to get back into the groove of shift work. How is it possible that after only six months working nights, my body totally refuses to understand that it sleeps when the moon is shining? I can't tell you the number of times I've caught myself nodding off in the office while I was supposed to be reading all the training material for the restaurant. Fuck! You want to talk about boring stuff; the training manuals certainly make that grade!

My first couple days weren't focused on the management role of my new job, I was actually standing side by side with the ladies in the kitchen, learning how we make everything on our menu. Not that it's really difficult to learn or anything, it's fast food, the most complicated stuff was the many different ways to fry eggs - sunny side up and over easy seem to be my undoing at the moment; it's just one of the reasons I prefer to run a restaurant rather than cook.

For the most part the women who work in the morning are a good group but fuck, are they bitchy! Backstabbing and bitching seem to be how they survive! In just a couple hours I knew the life story of most of the crew and half of the customers!

It was on my shift Friday morning, the 8th I believe, when they finally put their foot in their mouths. It had been pretty steady since we had opened the doors at 5:30 but as it neared 7, it slowed down a little. With this little window of time before it would pick up again, we started on the prep work for the day.

"Tanner?" Beverly came back from the front. "After you make the order that's coming up, I would like you to take your break. When you are done, come see me." She disappeared into the office as the first 'beeps' from the monitor over the chutes sounded, alerting us to an order.

We were in the middle of making the order when Hazel, one of the oldest ladies that worked in the kitchen, happened to glace through the chutes. "Augh," she shook her head in disgust. "I don't know who they think they are kidding, everyone knows he's gay."

A couple of the women looked out as well, all adding their own comments to Hazel's. "They should be ashamed of themselves, it's not right," Hazel stated as I glanced out to see what the hell they were talking about. "What woman pretends to be with a gay man?"

"Ummm," I straightened up, turned towards the grill where my breakfast was waiting to be served.

"Don't you think its immortal Tanner?"

"Ah," I shook my head, "No, I don't." I stared Hazel right in the eye. "I think it's wrong that you are standing back here passing judgment on a guy who happens to be my friend and the woman I'm dating."

There were gasps of surprise from the room as I made my way to the front with my food. The women didn't miss a beat though; the door didn't have a chance to shut behind me before the air was a buzz with this new news.

Out front, I spotted Sara and Billy at the condiment stand, grabbing straws and napkins. Smiling, I walked over to them, placed my tray on the stand next to Sara's. She was talking to Billy, not really paying attention to anything else so I was able to get really close to her as I reached around to grab a straw. She jumped, turned towards me, perfect position for a kiss. Which is what I did.

Sara's hands came to push against my chest. "Tanner!" She gasped when she saw me. "What -” She stopped, giggled and then wrapped her arms around me. "Hey, I was hoping to run into you."

I laughed, "Checking in on me, were ya?"

"No," she tried to turn towards Billy as her cheeks turned a light shade of red. "We thought having breakfast here instead of -"

"Who are you trying to kid Sara?" Billy chuckled. "You were dying to see him this morning." He turned to look me in the eye. "She was useless at work last night, all the nervous energy about showing up here - worrying that you wouldn't want her to come here and all that bull."

"Not want..." I gazed down at her. "Sara trust me, I'm happy to see you and I-" I paused as a customer came up beside me. With a smile, the elderly gentleman nodded to us and went about getting cream and sugar for his coffee. It was a little bit of a surprise, remembering that I was at work and out in front of all the customers and staff with my arms around Sara. I wasn't ashamed at all, I wasn't embarrassed either but I knew that it wasn't something Beverly would appreciate if she were to see me. "Maybe we should sit down," I motioned towards the nearest booth.

My break wasn't long enough. It seemed like I had just sat down with them when my watch beeped. I didn't want to get up and go back to work at all. I wanted to leave with Sara, take her back to my parents' place and get her naked.

"I'll talk to you tonight?" Sara asked when I told her my time was up. "Did you want me to call when I wake up?" When I told her I was supposed to go to my grandparents' place for dinner and I didn't know what time I would be home, she nodded slowly. "Well I guess it's a good thing we stopped by this morning!" She glanced around and then grinned up at me. "So...ummm...can I hug before you go?"

"Sure," I replied. "Come and get it."

Normally she would hesitate and change the subject, so it was a little bit of a surprise when she damn near leapt out of the booth, almost knocking me over as she wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Control yourself," I joked, squeezing her tight before kissing her cheek. "I'll call you when I get home from my grandparents' place, ok?" She nodded, telling me that it sounded good. "Ok then. Billy take care of her for me."

It used to be that I would hate it if a chick I was seeing showed up unannounced at work. In fact, when I was living in the city and working at my restaurant, I told Nance not to come by work at all unless someone was dying. And even then, I told her to call first. It would throw me off, having people visit me while I was working but it was different with Sara, seeing her just made me want to work harder. It's difficult to explain the reasoning behind it, so I won't even try.

With a smile on my face, I pushed the kitchen door opened and walked into a sea of curious women waiting to ask me everything about Sara and my relationship with her. "I'd love to tell you," I told them after Hazel fired off the first question - how long I've been seeing Sara. "Unfortunately Beverly is waiting for me."

They looked so disappointed when I headed for the office but their disappointment didn't do anything to their curiosity levels. "We always find out!" Hazel called after me.