Beautiful Mistakes

"Okay, I'll go get the broom," she said.

"No," he said, catching her by the arm. "Leigh can get that, I was just letting you know so you know what your closer needs to be doing. Right now is not the time for them to be standing around. We won't see much more business, so they need to start on their floors. Now I'll take you to the kitchen so you can see what the cook needs to be doing."

"But I'm not a cook," she said, following him.

"I'm aware of that, but you need to know what the cook needs to be doing," he stated. "Now, one of the fryers is already off—he already cleaned that one. There isn't as much business this late, so we only leave one fryer and one grill on until it's time to close up. As you can see, the grills do come clean, contrary to what some cooks might try to tell you, they just have to use a little elbow grease. As far as the grease, follow me and I'll show you where that goes."

Aaron continued to show her what everyone else needed to be doing, but privately she thought he was overtraining her—she had no intention of ever becoming a cook, so she didn't see why it was relevant to show her where the grease went or how to filter the fryers.

Still, it beat sitting at home so she didn't say anything.

If she had questions when it came time for her to actually close, she could probably ask him then.

The restaurant finally did get to close, and she was more aware of what everyone employed at The Lofthouse Café did as part of their job, but instead of letting her stay out in the dining room and help Leigh finish up he just briefly told her what Leigh would be doing, then he took Julie over to the register to take the drawer and the last receipt from the one couple that had trickled in after the eight o'clock person left.

"Do you want me to show her the rest of this stuff?" Leigh asked as Aaron took the drawer.

Shaking his head, Aaron said, "I think she gets it. You're about done at this point anyway. You can clock out and go whenever you finish mopping."

Leigh nodded and went back to mopping her floor, but she still looked confused.

Aaron showed Julie the rest of the paperwork and how to do the deposit, then he took her around to show her how to check everyone's work. The last thing he showed her was to make sure the outside freezer was locked and the inside cooler light was on, then to make a round back to the kitchen to make sure the cook had turned all the equipment off. After that, all that was left was turning off the last of the lights, setting the alarm and locking the doors.

"Well, what do you think—was that better than pulling out your eyelashes?" he asked as they rode back to the apartment.

"Marginally," she said with a cheeky grin.

"It's not rocket science or anything. I could do it with my eyes closed, but that's because I've been doing it for too many years. Did you have any questions about anything?"

"Not really," she said, shaking her head. "I take it you do your own bookkeeping?"

He nodded. "I prefer to do it myself."

She nodded. "I probably would too."

"How did you like it though? Do you prefer doing that kind of thing, or would you rather stick to simple waitressing?"

Raising her eyebrows, she said, "What do you mean?"

He shrugged, not looking at her, and said, "I don't know, if you wanted to close up a few more nights… if it's something you'd be interested in doing it wouldn't be much trouble to copy a couple keys for you."

If she wouldn’t have caught herself quickly, her jaw would’ve fallen open, but for once she managed to keep a straight face.

Leigh was right! He was talking about keys.

"Really?" she asked.

Aaron nodded. "If you want to. I mean, I know you're not ready right now or anything, but it's not diffic

ult and you're a pretty quick learner. If you'd like to do that I could copy you a set of keys, you would be able to pick up more hours that way, plus there's a little bit of a raise in it."

"So… I wouldn't be a waitress anymore?"

"You'd still be a waitress. You'd do what Leigh does—you're still a waitress, but you're more of a head waitress—you supervise when I step out, you can open the register, you can set the alarm, you can get into the safe if you need change. I close myself most nights, but things are going to be changing a little bit and one more person with a set of keys might help out."

She would do what Leigh did.

Leigh—his best friend, the only person besides Aaron with keys and any sort of authority.