Baby be Mine

Chapter 1

[Mic]

"Excuse me, can you wipe down this table." A man asks, as the rest of his middle-aged friends sit down. Purposely sitting leaning away from the table top.

I look down at the over-filled tray of dirty dishes I'm precariously carrying. "No problem, I'll be right back." I say politely. Even giving a friendly customer service smile.

"Geesh, the staff here are terrible. How hard is it to clear a table?" I hear from the group as I walk away.

'Well, it would be easier to clear tables if you didn't practically shove the last customers sitting there out of their seats.' I think scathingly. 'Was I meant to clean the table in the two second hover period. You know while also clearing the three other tables that all left simultaneously.' I could have moments where every table is full, nobody wants to leave. During this time, I shove as much items through pot wash as I can. I can get ahead, have a moment to relax while the customers enjoy their experience. Then after turning my back for a second the whole place has cleared out.

It's like going swimming during the holidays. Everyone with a green band your time is up, yellow you have thirty minutes.

Do they all co-ordinate to leave together?

I swear as soon as I clear away one table someone else will leave. Couldn't you have left two minutes ago while I was clearing the table next to you?

Danny's café was a nation-wide diner/café. Hand-made coffees unlike certain American chains. Then as well as the barista station we had a kitchen that served your typical diner food. I was hired as a barista but being the busiest store in our area it wasn't unusual to spend a shift just focusing on the floor, a.k.a. clearing tables and putting it all through pot wash.

After dropping off the tray in the rack outback I grab a spray bottle and cloth, placing a winning customer service smile back in place. Wiping the three tiny crumbs away, I pretend I didn't hear them slamming my job.

"It's hot in here." One of the customers at the table says, fanning their shirt collar.

'Really? I hadn't noticed.' "Yes, the air con's been broken since new year." I say automatically by this point.

"This is ridiculous. I don't think I can sit here." He moans.

I'm literally standing here, sweating, running around in this heat every shift. Yet he can't sit in it for twenty minutes. That's what I find ridiculous.

With a not-so-fresh tray of empties I head outback and take a moment to silently vent. Ash comes out just as I collect myself.

Her smirk tells me she realised what I was doing. "Having fun there?"

"Did you know it's hot in here?" I ask in lieu of answering her rhetoric question.

"Is it? I never noticed." She says with fake shock.

I smile at Ash's theatrics. Ash is in Uni so unfortunately is only home for the holidays, during the school year she transfers to another store. It's not the same without Ash here. She trained me here at Danny's Café, when I started just over a year ago. Unlike the rest of the mainly uni student employee pool, she doesn't treat me like the teenager I am.

At only seventeen I'm the youngest here. While they are all preparing for their what-ever year of uni I will be going back for my final year of sixth-form. Received my 'As' level results in the post this week, getting high grades for all five of my subjects. Now it's time for 'A' levels.

Hopefully I can get the grades again this year.

"Hey, just think, only an hour and a half left of your shift." Ash says, pretending to cheer. "I've still got seven hours."