"Shouldn't you tell me where this restaurant is?" she asked.
"I'll leave directions on the counter," he stated.
"Okay," she said, watching as he made his way down the hall and opened a white door, going inside and closing it.
Just like that, she was alone.
However, she had a place to sleep for the night—even though it was in a stranger's bed—and apparently she even had a job, so things could certainly be worse. As she opened up her suitcase to find a conservative pair of pajamas, she wondered if Aaron was a manager or something, and that was how he could just get her a job without the boss even meeting her. Perhaps they had been hiring, and Aaron was trusted enough that his word was good enough.
Or maybe they just weren't selective about who should wait tables. That probably made the most sense.
Shrugging, she yawned a little herself and wandered down the hall to find the bathroom.
That night Julie cleaned up her old non-slip sneakers from when she worked at Pizza Hut, she picked out a white button down shirt and a pair of jeans and got her outfit all planned out for her first day on the new job. She figured to save time she would just wear the outfit to school, that way she would be ready to work when she showed up at the restaurant.
---
The following morning when she woke up, Aaron was already gone, and there was a hastily written and very to the point note sitting on the counter telling her how to get to The Lofthouse Café. He added as a P.S. that he would give her a house key when she got done with her shift so she could get back in.
Julie went to her class, but she was distracted throughout the whole thing and ended up taking atrocious notes.
Somehow, in about 48 hours, she had gone from living with her lover –and his wife— to living with some stranger. She went from a nanny job with a sweet little girl that she adored to a waitressing job in a restaurant she had never heard of. She went from having a ten-year-plan (with kids near the end of it) to a positive pregnancy test, and impending single parenthood in approximately nine months.
And she had no health insurance, so she didn't know how the hell she was going to pay for the first doctor's appointment.
How did she get so screwed?
Oh, right. She left her shitty boyfriend for a married man who would apparently put her aside at his wife's request.
She left Butcher Boy for Jan.
And apparently she had been wrong when she thought that was actually the thing to do.
She made such good choices in life. What a wonderful role model she would be for her poor unsuspecting child.
After class (where she paid little attention) she hustled as quickly as she could to make it to the café. She wasn't altogether sure how that job was going to work out, seeing as she was working a four hour shift and she didn't really know how lucrative the waitressing business was.
Surprisingly, she did show up on time. Lofthouse Café was actually a cute little restaurant with a Main Street-looking storefront, large windows so people could see in as they walked by, and a large decal across the window that read, "The Lofthouse Café."
Glancing through the words on the decal, she saw Aaron standing at a table where an old man was sitting alone and holding a cup of coffee, and for the first time, she saw that he was smiling.
He had a nice smile, she conceded. From so far away she couldn't tell if he had crooked teeth or not, but instead of wasting any more time spying on him from outside, she glanced at the clock on her cell phone and saw that she only had three minutes, so she went inside.
Aaron spotted her immediately, and his smile waned into a tight little line of disappointment, as if he had been hoping she wouldn't show or something.
"Nice to see you too," she muttered under her breath, walking uncertainly in his direction.
Aaron said something to the customer and then walked over to her, his gaze dropping immediately to her hips. "Do you have an apron?" he asked without preamble.
"Um… no."
Sighing a little, he said, "I'll see if I can find you one in the back. Go clock in," he said. "Your code is 170."
With that, he swiftly walked away, leaving Julie to wonder where exactly she was supposed to clock in.
A cute girl with glasses and a brunette pony tail came walking over. "Aaron didn't even tell you where to clock in, did he?"
Julie shook her head.