Liam pulled into the parking lot of Mo’s ten minutes later.
I gathered up the paper towel and orange peel before getting out of the car.
“Thanks for the ride.” I smiled politely at him.
He grunted in response.
I tried to hide the roll of my eyes, but I was sure he caught it. I closed the car door and he sped away. I rolled my eyes again.
I couldn’t let his behavior get to me, though. I had a job to do.
Throwing away my trash in the outside dumpster, I headed inside.
The restaurant was already insanely busy and panic rose up my throat, nearly strangling me. I hadn’t worked anywhere…Ever.
Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I turned to see Darren heading toward me. His smile was huge, and the corners of his eyes crinkled.
“Ari,” he greeted me, “you’re right on time.” Continuing without pause, he ushered me toward the bar. “This is Rebecca; she’ll be training you.”
“Hi,” a perky blond greeted me. Her hair was so light it was nearly white and pulled back into a straight ponytail. Like me, she was dressed in khaki shorts, but while my shirt was purple, hers was yellow.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ari.”
“I know who you are.” She smiled, removing dirty glasses from the bar and wiping down the shiny wood. “Darren’s filled me in. You’ll be shadowing me for your first week. Less if you get the hang of things sooner.”
“I’ll leave you two to get started. I have a mountain of paperwork waiting.” Darren smiled briefly at each of us and gave me a pat on the shoulder before leaving.
“Come around here.” Rebecca waved me around to the back of the bar.
Once I stood behind it I felt like I’d stepped into a spaceship or something.
There were so many glasses—some clean, and others dirty—bottles containing alcohol, and a large sink with some kind of odd contraption.
I felt overwhelmed, but I tried not to show it on the outside. I needed the job, and I had to appear semi-competent.
Rebecca immediately launched into a spiel about working the bar. It mostly included warnings about some rowdy regular patrons, and not so much on how to actually mix drinks.
A guy sat down at the bar, and she pointed at him. “Why don’t you take his order?”
I began to panic. “Um,” I started awkwardly, “when are you going to teach me to mix drinks? If he asks for something like that, I don’t know what to do.” I didn’t really know how to do anything. I didn’t even have a notepad to write anything down.
Rebecca shook her head sadly. “You’ll get there.”
Her words made me feel a little better. At least she didn’t look at me like I was crazy for not knowing those things.
“Forget him. I’m trying to push you off on your own too soon. That’s my bad.” She reached out and tentatively touched my shoulder. “We’ll start with the basics.” I nodded. “First, we need to grab you an apron. Darren was supposed to give me one for you, but he must’ve forgotten.” Turning to the newly-seated man at the bar, she said, “We’ll be back in a minute.”
He tipped his head at her words.
“Follow me.” She moved from behind the bar and headed toward Darren’s office.
I trailed behind her, and we stopped outside his office door. She tapped her knuckles against the door, and he told us to come in.
“What do you ladies need?” he questioned, a slight irritation in his eyes. He had a phone clutched in his hand, and I hoped we hadn’t interrupted an important phone call.
“Ari needs an apron.”
He winced. “Sorry, I forgot to give that to you. It’s there.” He pointed to a long table beside the door.