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 Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:51 pm
A job.
Sure, she'd done a few small odd and ends in the summers before - mow lawns, babysit children, that kinda thing - but this summer was different.
This summer, her parents had damn well expected her to get a job. That is, a real job. It was something so normal, among promotions and strange doors, that it had caught Ashley by complete surprise.
And well, try to explain to your parents that you're waging war against space invaders at night ? So, with little else for choice, Ashley had handed out resumes. Some places she hoped would never call her back. Some places she dearly hoped she would.
The small restaurant that now stood in front of her had been somewhere in the middle - not her first choice, but certainly nothing that sent her running in the opposite direction. She couldn't quite do the actual cooking yet, but maybe, eventually... For now, she was the newest waitress, as far as she knew. She felt a little odd, with her light blue button up shirt and her shiny new name tag that declared her name for all to see. Her make up and careful and subtle to enhance without being right in your face, and her hair had been spun and then pinned to the back of her head.
Well, she couldn't just stand here forever, couldn't she ? Ashley sighed, then pushed the door open. "Mister Connolly ?"
Always use your misters Her mother had carefully reminded her, clearly cheerful as she re-arranged Ashley's collar before she left. Her baby and her first real job, she'd all but sniffled.
She couldn't remember Matthew working at Subway having been such a big deal.
Ashley herself might have been more happy if her stomach wasn't currently running laps. What if she ******** up ? Oh god...
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:08 pm
"Who's here?!" A gruff, deep voice growled from the kitchen as soon as the bells attached to the door signaled someone entering. "We're not open yet."
And then a lilac haired man popped up from behind the counter, looking a bit dazed and then frowned, whirling around and shouting back, "Shaddup! Are you Mister Connolly? No? It's the new waitress, anyway."
"Whatever."
"Jackass."
It had been a year since the original owners decided to hightail it out of Destiny City and Noah purchased the little family run place known simply as "Maggie's". The original head cook decided to stick around after Noah built it back up and got it in working order, but they were having some issues agreeing on business decisions. constant bickering about whose name was on the lease and who had been doing this longer eventually devolved to petty digs thrown around between the kitchen and dining area.
"Hi!" Noah turned his attention to Ashley and jumped over the dining counter, rather than go around. "Oh, good, you're all dressed up. Um..." He glanced around, trying to remember what he needed to brief new hires on. There was stuff she needed to know, he was sure, but he was totally drawing a blank. "Well, uh... you can call me Noah," He said, extending a hand to shake.
After another second of trying to grasp on what to say, he ended up asking her, "Do you have any questions?" It sounded hopeful, almost. It was clear he was new to this being professional thing. He wasn't even dressed in the same attire as the other staff, in his regular t-shirt and jeans and hair that looked like he'd just rolled out of bed and shuffled right on over. And he was. Especially with new hires. Most of his current staff was there from the previous owners, and the other two new hires were shown around by their morning waitress, who, unfortunately, was off today and unable to save him from his own floundering.
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:13 pm
...Well, in all of two seconds, Ashley was able to understand that her new job was going to be... interesting.
Would it be a good interesting, or a bad interesting, remained to be seen. She had frozen up when the first yell came out, but she seemed to relax once Noah stepped forward to her.
And he jumped over the counter. Yeah, this wasn't what she'd expected. Perhaps her mother's careful advices would need to be... overlooked, really.
"I'll to my best to remember." She shook his hand with a bright smile, pushing her anxiety away for the time being. She had to make a good impression now - it was crucial. Through wasn't... he supposed to show her what to do ? What kind of questions should she ask ?
Dillemia. "Well, can you... Tell me how the whole thing works ?" This was her first serious job. "I mean... Are there any specific things I need to say when I take a client's order ? I know I probably need to ask them if they want a drink or dessert if they don't outright ask for it..." She's been to many restaurants ! Just... on the other side of the fence.
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:11 pm
"Oh!" Ashley at least managed to spark a string of things to say in Noah's head. Part of him was mentally chanting 'you can doooo thiiis' still but now he had a little bit of a jumping off point.
He leaned over and grabbed a pad of paper sitting on it and handed it to her. "Nope, just be friendly and write down whatever they want. They might go off menu since it hasn't been updated," Ever. The menu hadn't been updated ever. They were still using the same laminated sheets the old owner's did, even though Noah had added some self serving items he personally enjoyed and just coyly called the 'secret' menu. It was just laziness.
"Then clip the order over there at the kitchen window and Mike'll call them out when they're done. Just keep track of who you're taking care of, and offer refills often, then bus the dishes over there" Noah said, giving a firm little nod to punctuate his sentence. "Refills are free, so is coffee before 9, substitutions are fine, and if they don't tip well, please refrain from spitting in their food the best you can," He rambled, cracking a lazy smile at his own lame joke. "You eat free on break, and can help yourself to any send backs. I think... do you still have any questions?" It was really more of a clandestine way of asking 'did I do good?' but he almost instantly waved that off and started walking, waving her around to follow. "Counter, kitchen, orders go here, back here's the dish washing station, freezer..." It was a small place, allowing him to quickly ramble off sections as he pointed and just rounded one turn into the back area. It looked bigger from the outside, mostly due to un-renovated areas being covertly closed off. Noah was losing money on this place so fast his main concern was getting it up to code and looking pretty, so there were some issues with half-assed space usage.
"I keep personal beer in the 'fridge but I will notice if one or two cans go unaccounted for," He threatened, feeling it was necessary if he was going to give some new underaged kid access to his inventory. Responsibility met. "And definitely don't serve it to the customers."
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Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 5:49 pm
Oh, a secret menu ? Exciting ! Ashley didn't notice the laziness aspect at all. "Is there a listing of the off-menu items somewhere, so I know what's what ?" Bright green eyes were still looking at Noah, head craned upward. She was on the short side, but hey, at least she reached over the counter !
The pad had been taken and was now carefully held, and Ashley was keeping careful attention to everything that Noah was saying, following his waving. The place was indeed small - it helped.
"Understood, sir." Okay, this was where Ashley was amused. But she knew better than to drink on the job - even if he'd said the beer had been free to grap.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:46 am
"Um..." It was all Noah could mustered out before he started scratching the side of his jaw and drifting off into a ponderous state. A list of off menu items would probably be good to have, huh?
It wasn't like that hadn't been suggested before, Noah just had a habit of brushing things off until they were absolutely 100% cannot-move-on under-any-circumstances needed.
"I guess if they ask just... yell?" Yeah. Prime management material there. Noah definitely gave off that vibe of 'guy who took too long to grow up', and to say he didn't seem very experienced at this being the boss thing would be a pretty accurate accusation.
But then, yelling random things into the kitchen seemed to be the prime way of communication around here. It certainly wasn't restricted to Noah alone, as evidenced when another waitress casually strolled in and got right to greeting the large fry cook behind the scenes with a shout.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:33 pm
...This was really awkward. Ashley really was getting the vibes that, well... Noah didn't really do this all that often. Maybe it was because someone else usually took care of training ?
Oh well. She could figure this out. Right ? Nothing complicated with taking orders. At least, in theory.
Still, she couldn't help feeling nervous, and she didn't like feeling this nervous. "Yell. Okay..."
Well, she was more likely to just step in and ask rather than yell, but she got the jist of it.
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:39 am
Noah was more than willing to stand there all day as his mind slowly crept towards whatever other important things he should probably tell her about. But the bells on the door announced customer ready to spend their lunch break on one of the burgers the little place was slowly getting known for and she was definitely needed.
"Well, uh... I guess your shift starts now!" He said, going back to his scuttling around. At least the other waitress had the good sense to tell her which section of seats was Ashely's to man.
The entire diner had a sort of lazy, homey feel to it. Almost to the point it was a wonder anything got done. But there was the occasional yelling as the cook finished orders to remind people what needed to be escorted where.
"Oh," Noah said as if there hadn't been a pause between their last conversation at all when he passed her with a new stack of fresh take-out boxes. "Sometimes I stay late but uh... yeah, don't stay late," He rambled off, half not paying attention as he looked for a place to stash the boxes. "We've had some trouble in the area with terrorists so... You know, you probably shouldn't hang around after dark." Stupid terrorists. Stupid city. Noah wasn't exactly aware of the whole negaverse vs alien sailor senshi battle, but he DID know everyone was going crazy with monster talk and there were terrorists in miniskirts. And from the tone of his voice he had a whoooole rant on those terrorist freaks he was repressing.
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:29 pm
Apparently her shift started right now, indeed. Nothing like the hands-in approach, right ?
She wasn't doing so bad, really, once she had figured out which seats were her's to take care off. The older waitress seemed more than willing to help her out, and she hadn't messed up anyone's order, through she still carried herself with the kind of nervousness that came with doing something for the first time.
Ashley had taken a minute aside to work her hair back into her updo when Noah crossed her path again - by the time he started talking, she was washing her hands.
Ah, Yes. Terrorists. Through Ashley would have been happy to let him know she wasn't one of those invaders in miniskirts, leaving the whole thing unsaid was the much safer option. "Understood, I'll be very careful." She said with a smile.
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 5:02 pm
Noah just gave a sharp little nod, completely oblivious. He might've been less concerned about his waitresses walking home, or at least this one, if he had even the slightest clue of what really happened on these streets after dark. Well, besides property damage.
Magic aliens and monsters were way beyond his scope of knowledge.
He went back to his milling about. There was some bickering with the cook about whether or not he had the invoice from the butcher, and during an especially quiet lull he started playing with the fryer and made some sinful, greasy concoction wrapped in bacon he ended up showing off like a kindergartner who drew a new picture.
Easy, easy, slow atmosphere all around. Unfortunately that also meant customers to give out tips were more sparse than a busier place too.
"So do you think you'll be sticking around?" He asked, after getting bored and having nothing better to do but swing on a barstool and watch her with a few straggling customers.
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Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:45 pm
Likewise, Ashley went back to work - busing herself along the restaurant, cleaning tables when needed - she was a quick learned, it seemed, and got the hang of her tasks quickly enough.
"Oh ?" The question seemed to have caught her by surprise. "Ah, I think so. I really like it here." Even if she often got startled when the cook started yelling at her. Through she was starting to get the hang of yelling being the primary mode of communication here.
"If you want to keep me, that is. How am I doing so far ?" Good, she hoped.
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Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:55 am
"Oh, good... good," Noah said offhandedly when she asked how she was doing. He didn't really know, he hadn't been keeping track that well, but he figured she must've since no one was complaining.
"Yeah, we want to keep you!" Actually, if he lost her, he wasn't really sure what he'd do. Go back to simultaneously trying to janitor and wait tables? That might put customers off a little...
"I'm gonna go explore. Just... uh... um," He was going to say clock out but then he realized they didn't really have a clock out system. "Feel free to take off when your shift's done?" And then he was gone. Typical trusting doormat.
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:20 pm
"Um, okay !" She managed before he took off, and was left mentally headscratching. A little odd, really, especially considering the strictness and hierarchy of her... night job. But perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing in itself - the looser work environmental would keep her from stressing out too badly.
She could probably get used to this.
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