For Whatever May Come

Sixteenth Chapter

Friday 31st January 2019
11:47am
Golden Leaf Restaurant

As he promised, Hayden took a couple of days to decide about submitting a job application. Three days after he found the jobs, Hayden applied for the jobs at Acacia Burger and the restaurant, Golden Leaf. Hayden got accepted for both interviews, however he lost the fast food job to a young woman, which forced him to accept the job at Golden Leaf. It was agreed that Hayden's schedule would work around his college times, which left him mainly working nights. Being the new guy, Hayden was given the worst times as well as the most offers to work overtime, which he gladly accepted.

Hayden sighed as he sat down on the couch in his world break room. It was nothing compared to the grand restaurant; the only aspect that was almost as impressive was the wallpaper, with it being the same ivory as the rest of the building. However, the old, small couch and almost broken vending matching was nothing compared to the large chrilstaline chandeliers that adorned the large rooms that spanned the building.

Having gotten there too early and Mr. Patterson refused to pay him for his thirteen minute overtime, Hayden was forced to stay in the break room until his shift started at noon. Hayden was left scrolling through his phone with nothing better to do than check his social media and check other pointless things to kill time.

"What are you doing here?" Arleana asked as she walked inside and removed her apron, and folded it onto the small table in the room's corner.

"Simon isn't letting me work, I'm too early," Hayden said as Arleana rummaged in her pockets and pulled out some change before she inserted it into the vending machine and pushed in the buttons that made a packet of crisps fall. "Tips?" Hayden asked.

"Yeah. That's the benefit of being a young server. I'm sure you know what I mean.," Arleana said with a wink. "One group of customers demanded to be served by you." Arleana said with a roll of her eyes. "They couldn't understand it when Bret explained you weren't at work yet today; they threw such a fit! It was hilarious. Simon had to kick them out at the end!" Arleana said through laughs.

"Did he ban them?" Hayden asked.

Arleana put her finger up to motion him to wait for a second as she swallowed her mouthful of crisps.

"Unfortunately not. They gave us all a laugh though, not that they know that," Arleana said with a smirk. "What shift are you working?"

"I'm here until five at the earliest... Well, if Jacelyn's on time for once, which she probably won't be," Hayden added with a sigh.

"She won't be. She's never on time! I get it I do, working while you're still in secondary school's hard, but come on! Simon's getting annoyed at this point. Between you and me, I think he's considering letting her go if she keeps being late. I hope he does. We're all sick of working with her," Arleana said.

"She can't be that bad!" Hayden defended.

"She is! You have to babysit her if you actually want her to work. Simon caught her flirting with a customer instead of taking their order. Another time, she refused to work and just child out back here until her dad came and picked her up, so I had to be called in to cover her." Arleana complained as he dumped another handful of crisps into her mouth.

"It's probably just hard for her; she's just sixteen and this is probably her first job. She's got her exams coming up in the summer. Give her a break," Hayden said.

"So what? It's stressful, yeah, but that doesn't give her an excuse to not work when she's here. Why should she get paid the same money as you when she doesn't even do half the work you've done and she's been here since September, and you've only been here two weeks?" Arleana reminded. "Simon tries to give her a break Hayden, you aren't here to see her refuse to complete the simplest of jobs. She's asked to give a hand, taking people to their seats during the rush. She doesn't ask for bookings and ends up taking them to the wrong seats, which confuses everyone involved!"