She opened her mouth, not sure whether an apology or snarky comment was about to exit, when Mr. Brimley turned the corner in search of the destruction. A look of utter shock and repulsion covered his features.
“Sam!What are you doing?Waitstaff do not come behindthe bar!” He definitely wasn’t a ray of sunshine, either. Sam stammered out a quick apology for the sake of her job, trying to explain that she needed help, but was unaware the new employee was deaf and couldn’t hear her.
Newbie-Asshole quickly slid his earbuds out with a bored expression.
“Really? Going there, are we? Ableist much? I was busy, if you couldn’t tell, and by the time I noticed you, you were already stalking back here on a mission, and besides, I don’t respond to random yelling across the bar.” She guessed Newbie-With-An-Attitude finally decided to have a voice.
“Oh, you can hear me now. Good to know,” she said back with as much bite as she could muster.
She was going to lose her job. She was going to have to ask Kristin to pay her half of the rent this month. She was going to stress until she couldn’t think straight, and then she was going to fail a class and lose her funding and have to drop out of college, all before she even got into medical school.
She officially loathed Newbie-Asshole.
But she also knew that if he was working behind the bar on a Saturday night, then Mr. Brimley must have liked him, and that meant he would be around a lot. And shehadto salvage this job. She absolutely couldn’t afford to lose it. Not with how great the tips had been over the last few weeks.
“Listen, I’m sorry about your shirt, okay? I’ll buy you a new one if that one is ruined. I’m dealing with the table from hell and I need your help. I’m sure they will be even more pissed now that it’s taking three years to get their drinks.”
Tired of the back and forth, and just wanting to move along with the night, she threw up a silent prayer that both men would let her off easy and that the plethora of patrons still staring them down would soon find something far more interesting to stare at.
“Just please help me get the drinks, and I promise you won’t have to see me anymore,” she urgently whispered in his direction.
Mr. Brimley began to speak in an awkward rush, “Sam. He doesn’t need to–”
“It’s fine. I’ll take care of it,” Newbie-Asshole quickly cut in.
“I want a few words with you before you tip out tonight, Sam,” Mr. Brimley said sternly as he reached down to lend a hand to Newbie-Asshole. But his offer for help was quickly brushed away as Newbie-Asshole stood by himself, further brushing off what he could. By the time he reached his full height, Sam was practically staring at the ceiling. He had to be at least a foot taller than her, maybe more.
“I’m so sorry about that. Sam’s only been here a few weeks.”
She jerked her head back toward Mr. Brimley.
A few weeks! More like going on four months, and she pulled in the best tips of anyone on her shift.
Sam almost came back with something snarky, but remembered how much she desperately needed this job and sealed her lips shut.
“Do you need anything?” Mr. Brimley questioned the newbie, but received a quick shake of his head in answer. Then, with a rather obvious look of disgust in Sam’s direction, Mr. Brimley returned to the back.
“Just put them in under their tab and I’ll make them,” Newbie-Asshole said without even looking her way, but she could still see the obvious eye roll he made.
“That’s the problem. I’ve never heard of them. They aren’t on our specialty menu and I don’t even know what to look under,” Sam replied as she handed him the paper with the drinks written down. He gave her the side eye.
“What the hell are these?” His forehead creased in confusion. She was about to comment on their mutual unknown knowledge of the drinks when his face changed and a laugh bubbled out. “Wait, please tell me this isn’t a sad excuse for trying to spell Negroni and Sazerac?”
“Well, yeah, I think that’s what he said,” she stammered back at him.
“Do me a favor and go back to first grade. Learn how to spell before your next shift.” He laughed a little more at her expense, which cut deeper than it should. She started to make a rebuttal, but he cut her off while shoving the paper back toward her chest, “Don’t get all pissy, okay? I’ll make them.” He headed over to the counter, and by the time she made her way back around to the kiosk, the drinks were waiting on the mat and he was nowhere in sight.
Chapter 4 - Sam
By the time Monday came around, Sam was exhausted. She had spent the better part of the weekend either with her face in a book or serving drinks. Newbie-Asshole hadn’t been at work on Sunday, so at least she’d been able to avoid that miserable excuse of a human being. Still, with all the stress of the last few days, all she wanted to do now was sleep.
As she walked into her 8 a.m. lab, she found Stacy sitting in their usual spot giving her the customary look.
“Girl. You look like shit again. Don’t get me wrong, most people do for Monday morning lab. But not for the same reasons as you.”
“I know, I know. I just didn’t feel prepared for the midterm next week so I stayed up studying and I had to work, too.”
“Maybe this weekend you should just hang out and try not to work and study so much. You will survive if you don’t make all A’s. You know that, right?” Stacy laughed a little at herself. “And it’s not like you have to work, anyway. Your tuition is basically covered by that scholarship, so can you start to chill?”