At Aaron's Work…
"Order Up! Guest #24" Aaron shouted. "Guest #24, your order is ready!"
The time was a little past noon and the uniformed employees of Ben's Burger Joint were in the middle of a fast food style lunch rush. The place was at full capacity, filled to the brim with various customers that either waited in line to order their meals, sat down at the tables scattered throughout the restaurant, talked about events in their daily lives, or ate their lunch. The scene bustled with people in a sort of organized, yet loud chaos of workers and customers that interacted with each other.
All of the restaurant's staff were on the shift, working through their separate duties that flowed together inside the greasy environment. When one took an order, another assembled the customer's sandwich while he or she yelled at the cook to restock their tray of burger meat. Meanwhile, others either scooped up french fries, made desserts, worked the drive-thru window, or helped with the cleanliness of the entire establishment. Every now and then, one or two workers might be seen sitting off to the side, trying to enjoy what they have left of a thirty minute break.
Then there was Aaron, the floor manager.
During the lunch shift, he was in charge of the whole operation. Besides gathering the orders appearing on the various monitors within the workspace, Aaron's duty kept his employees on their toes throughout the day. He was responsible for assigning tasks, break times for certain employees, and other higher matters that came with his job title.
Aaron was also the complaint manager, a position he dreaded the most. Every single customer complaint came to him throughout the day in an never ending, atrocious cycle. Often times, they were simple problems varying from a forgotten food item to a child not receiving a toy in a kid's meal. Other times, they were over what the customer considered a serious manner of importance. Though really, what Aaron thought of as important often didn’t match the customer’s.
Aaron absolutely hated those types of complaints. Those were the ones where he knew that trying to get the customer to comply with the situation of the restaurant wasn’t going to work. To Aaron, they were always selfish to him, the employees, and the rest of the customers since the complainer always wanted to have their problem fixed straight then-and-there. It also constantly boggled Aaron’s mind since those types of complaints happened almost every single day, and today wasn't an exception.
“I would like to speak to your manager.” a young, blonde haired woman demanded, wearing a white crop top and blue jean shorts. A purse and a cup full of water laid next to her on the counter.
“Certainly...” the male attendant groaned, looking upon the woman with dismay. He instantly knew that she wasn’t happy. “Give me one second.”
Stepping away from his register, the attendant made his way over towards the end of the assembly line where Aaron stood. He was in the middle of bagging an order, sweat lightly covered his face from all the running around he did. The last thing Aaron wanted to do was deal with a customer’s problem since it would interrupt the smooth flow of orders that got out as quickly as he assembled them. Yet, Aaron knew it was inevitable. Someone was going to complain sooner or later.
The attendant nudged Aaron’s shoulder. “Hey boss.”
“Yes?”
“There is a lady at the front counter who wants to speak with you.”
Ugg! Aaron groaned to himself. Here we go again! He made sure his back was turned from lobby so no customer saw him roll his eyes. It was another complaint, probably along the sames lines he had dealt with before. It shouldn’t be new to him at all. Whatever the customer had to say to him, Aaron hoped it was something quick. He didn’t have the time or the patience to listen to everyone’s bickering in the restaurant, especially during the lunch rush.
Aaron sighed, “Thanks.” He signaled for his store manager, “Hey, Carrie!”
“Yes?” she yelled back, standing inside a small office while typing on a computer.
“Can you take my position for one second?”
“Why?”
“Customer” was the only thing he said, yet she instantly understood why.
Carrie replied, “Certainly.”
“Thanks!”
Getting off the computer, she walked over to where Aaron was and grabbed a bag. After Carrie was told what order was to be assembled next, Aaron stepped away from the end of the line and over to the front counter. Wearing the most fake, yet subtle smile he could muster, Aaron greeted the woman that asked to speak to him. The lady’s eyebrows were low, arms were crossed, and toes were tapping. She appeared to be infuriated by whatever was bothering her.
“How may I help you?” was all Aaron asked, triggering the woman’s inner rage to spew out at him.
She screamed, “I HAVE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR ABOUT HALF AN HOUR AND YET MY FOOD HASN’T BEEN DELIVERED TO ME-”
“Ok, ma’am,” Aaron sighed, putting his hand out at her, “I need you to calm down.”
“NO!” the woman snapped, “Thanks to you guys, I am now running late so I need my food now!”
Well it seems like you have plenty of time to talk to me, Aaron sarcastically thought to himself, trying to keep his sanity from breaking to the point of him snapping back at the woman. He was already high strung from the lunch rush, at the point where his mind couldn’t take the pressure of the restaurant anymore. Almost about to break, Aaron felt ready to completely ignore the woman’s problem altogether and walk out of the burger joint.
However, Aaron had to remind himself to also look at the situation from her shoes. To which, Aaron could personally admit that he would get mad as well if he had to wait for over a good length of time for fast food. Therefore, he could sympathize with the customer on that aspect. However, this woman was something he rarely ever saw.
She was absolutely insane.
Aaron tried to say, “Alright, ma’am-”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Ok...” He shook his head, “Do you have your receipt?”
“No!” the woman griped, hitting the counter with her hand. “...but, I want my food now!”
Grrreeeeaaaattttt! She doesn’t have the freaking receipt. Aaron internally groaned, wishing he could say to the woman that he can’t help her unless she has the piece of paper. Sadly, though, he couldn’t since their was a reason why. Besides the fact that he wanted to keep his job, Aaron knew the restaurant's computers have the remarkable capability to store the last one-hundred orders. Therefore, it only took a simple reference to the contents of the any order before Aaron could find and print the woman a copy of her original receipt.
“Ok, ma’-” Aaron stuttered, “I’m sorry… but, anyways, can you recall your order? Maybe I can find it in our system.”
The woman scoffed, “Fine! I had a two large #1 combos with an apple pie and a cherry sundae. It shouldn’t be that hard to find!”
“I understand ma- erm... I’m sorry, um, just please give me one second to find your order.” Aaron begged, walking over to an unattended register.
Pulling up the last one-hundred orders on its screen, he desperately scrolled through the list and tried to find the exact combo of contents on a single order. No results showed up, irritating Aaron. The first thing he never wanted to say to the customer was the fact that he couldn’t find their order in the register, especially if they were mad and tapping their foot from being impatient.
“Any minute now!” she screamed, starting to become the center of everyone’s attention.
Unfortunately for Aaron, the order wasn’t found. The manager sighed, knowing that he couldn’t help her out. The lady didn’t have the receipt and the order wasn’t stored in the system. As far as Aaron knew, the woman could possibly be lying about making a purchase or her order was put into the computer before another one-hundred orders were stored. Aaron could only assume the latter, but it didn’t help the lady’s temperament or the fact that now everybody was staring at her in bewilderment.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU COULDN'T FIND IT!” she hollered, throwing her hands into the air. Aaron swore he could see the blood flowing through the veins in her head. The lady shrieked, “I ORDERED ABOUT HALF AN HOUR AGO AND NOW SUDDENLY YOU CAN’T FIND IT!?! WHAT THE-”
“Look!” Aaron touched his chest, “...I tried everything that I could, but I just couldn’t find it in our system-”
“WELL LOOK AGAIN!”
Aaron huffed, rubbing his forehead, “I did, double checked it twice as a matter of fact. It's not there, so I cannot help you.”
The lady was exasperated, completely fed up with Aaron’s reasoning. “Ugh! You are the manager, right?”
“Yes?”
“So you can’t just give me my order since I already paid for it?” she asked with bits of animosity slipping from her tongue.
“I’m sorry,” Aaron repeated, trying to remain calm, “...but I just can’t help you out.”
Her hands curled up into a fists. She banged them on the counter, “This is a disgrace! I PAID FOR MY ORDER ABOUT HALF AN HOUR AGO AND YOU TELL ME YOU CAN’T FIND IT!?!”
“I’m sorry,” Aaron tried to explain, “...but we are extremely busy at the moment and more than likely we might have lost it in the rush.”
“Lost it… LOST IT IN THE RUSH! BULLCRAP! THAT IS A LIE!” she fiercely pointed at him, “You are a LIAR!”
“I am not a liar.”
“You are a liar and a thief!”
“Lady, I’m not-”
“YOU ARE A LIAR AND A THIEF! YOU STOLE MONEY FROM ME AND NOW YOU SAY I NEVER PAID FOR ANYTHING!”
“Lady, I never said-”'
“YOU. ARE. A. LIAR!” the woman slowly declared, pointing at him.
The store manager couldn’t anymore of the abuse she witnessed. Rushing over to the aid of Aaron, Carrie intervened and tried to take a hold of the conversation. “Ma’am! Ma’am! I’m very sorry to tell you this, but I need you to calm down. All he is-”
“YEAH? WELL GUESS WHAT!” The lady declared, looking back at Aaron, “SCREW HIM!”
“Ma’am, I-”
The woman had enough. Taking her cup of water off the counter, she hastily unscrewed the lid. Using every single ounce of force she could muster, the lady threw the drink at Aaron. It hit him square in the chest, splashing water upon his uniform. With his clothing was now dampened and his skin soaked, Aaron just couldn’t comprehend what just happened. He, along with everyone else in the restaurant, was shocked by the response.
“SCREW ALL THIS! I AM NEVER COMING BACK HERE EVER AGAIN! UGG!” The woman left, leaving the entire scene in complete silence. A few whispers could be heard, but the remaining customers, employees, and managers were in awe. They all couldn’t comprehend why someone would throw a drink at a manger and consider it acceptable. That alone was mad, and a couple parents in the dining area were already lecturing their kids on how what they saw was unnecessary.
Meanwhile, Aaron just stood there as a dripping mess. His face was frozen, stuck in a temporary state of expressing how mad and upset he was over the woman mistreating him. Aaron tried to recall what he could have done to prevent it, but those thoughts quickly sailed through his head as he buried it into his hands. Aaron had enough of the lunch rush.
While he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, Carrie and a couple of the customers tried to offer sympathy and apologies on the behalf of the angered woman. However, Aaron simply dismissed them with “thank you’s.” Despite the kindness he received, their words weren’t going to help him. Aaron was mentally stressed out beyond this limits and couldn’t take being in the workplace anymore. He needed to step away from the customers and employees before he lost it as well.
He needed a break.
It had been about five minutes since Aaron had confronted the woman about her missing order. Now sitting down on the couch in a small break room, the manager shook his leg as his hands clenched around his soft drink. While he tightly held onto the cup, Aaron tried to refrain from gritting his teeth in anger over what just happened. He felt abused, knowing what the woman did was extremely necessary and uncalled for.
Shaking his head, Aaron then contemplated upon what exactly possessed her to act out in such an outrageous matter. So, she didn’t get her food after an extended period of time, correct? So that means it’s justifiable to throw a drink in my face and act like the typical soccer mom? Right?
He sighed, not seeing the logic in that. The woman, in his mind, was crazy for what she did. While Aaron could admit the woman did have every single right to bring up the issue about her order, it didn’t entitle her to scream out loud, draw attention to herself, and then finally throw a drink a him. Kids and babies do that, not fully grown adults.
Yet, it still happened, and Aaron knew he couldn’t change that. Therefore, he asked himself this question. How could I have prevented the whole ordeal from happening in the first place?
Maybe I shouldn’t have rushed through those orders. Maybe I should have took my time, like our training manual says, and made sure each order was being made and not skipped. He then shook his head and groaned, No, no, no, no, no! I don’t have the time for that! I need to push out those orders a quick as I can since those customers are depending on me to have their orders made within a short amount of time. After all, this is ‘fast’ food isn’t it? Not a freaking sit-down, two-hour long course at a restaurant in Italy!
He huffed, letting his own thoughts prevail over the questions he imposed on himself. Fuelled by the stress from the work environment, Aaron couldn’t stop his hasty thought process as the questions and answers kept on flashing through head. After rubbing a temple with his unoccupied hand, the manager tried to calm himself and slow down the thoughts within his mind.
Taking a couple of deep breaths, Aaron tried to clear his mind until it was left completely blank and free of thought. With nothing now occupying it, this allowed for his own peace and serenity to soothe over his body while alleviating the stress from his head. Then after letting out a sigh, Aaron mentally scanned through his entire body and tried to relax every single tight muscle until it didn’t feel strained or agitated.
Turning his neck towards the sides, he popped it a few times along with his knuckles and toes. He felt how loose and free his fingers and feet were by wiggling them a few times afterwards, making sure every single tiny bit of tension was released. Still keeping his mind at ease, the whole process from the deep breaths to the cracking of his fingers allowed for Aaron to feel completely, and totally at ease mentally and physically.
Until another thought, or rather a specific word, came to his head.
Another five minutes had passed when the store manager, Carrie, walked into the break room and saw Aaron still lying on the couch.
“You alright?” she asked, making sure her employee was still fine.
“Better,” Aaron replied, though the apathetic tone in his voice suggested otherwise.
“Look,” she smiled, her hand extending out towards him, “I came here to tell you that you handled that women well considering how crazy she acted.”
“Yeah.” Aaron rubbed his forehead, “I still can’t process how that came to be. You know? Why on earth would somebody do that?”
Carrie shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t really know, honestly. But what I can say is that there are just some people out there who are very willing to throw such a fuss over anything.”
Aaron rolled his eyes, “You can say that again.”
“Besides, it’s over now,” she sighed. “You handled the situation well and despite the dramatic outcome, I don’t think you could have done anything to prevent that.”
“You mean the drink being thrown at me?” Aaron deadpanned.
“That, and the orders getting mixed up.” Carrie remarked, reaching down by her feet to pick up a brown paper bag. “Apparently her food was accidentally left on top of the fry station and no one seemed to mention it.”
Aaron facepalmed, frustrated with the fact that the whole situation would have been avoided it he or his fellow employees had simply paid a bit more attention to their surroundings. He groaned, “You’re kidding me, right?”
She bent her head down, “I wish I was.”
“Thanks.” Aaron said with the least amount of enthusiasm he could muster into his voice.
“Are you alright?” she asked, noticing Aaron peer his eyes down towards his drink.
Aaron huffed, knowing that he could brush off the frustrated attitude with a simple “I’m fine.” However, he knew he wasn’t, and he’d feel bad if he lied. His mind was now bothered by not what happened, but by a certain matter outside of his job.
The manager admitted the truth to Carrie with a sigh. “No. I am not alright.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, drawing more of her attention towards Aaron’s pressing matter. She went over to a side of the break room and pulled out chair for her to sit on.
“It’s… It’s,” he stuttered. “It’s what the woman said that bothers me.”
“The part where she said where you were a liar?” She squinted her eye, as if calling it out was hard.
“I mean, sorta.” Aaron curled his lip. “Alright, yeah. A lot.”
“How so?” Carrie probed, “I mean, I have known you to be one of the most honest workers in the restaurant.”
“Well…” Aaron’s words trailed off. “To tell the truth, I haven’t been great for quite a while, and I guess it’s just now catching up to me.”
Carrie rose a hand to her chin. “Well how did this all start?”
“Umm…” It took Aaron a moment to recall the exact time when he knew his lying had started. “I think it honestly began after the passing of my sister a couple months ago. I mean, I knew at that time I was very much grief stricken to the point where anything related to truth of what was going on wasn’t easy to take. To which, I guess that was when I started lying left-and-right to not only just cover up my own feelings, but to just get by on a regular day.”
Carrie sat at her seat and nodded her head, “So you think the passing of your sister sorta triggered this unpleasant habit out of you?”
Aaron took a sip from his drink. “I think so, because it just went on for a while until I just stopped recognizing it as a bad habit of mine. It’s just sorta became more of a natural impulse to cover up whatever was going on… besides anything at work, of course!”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Hmm.” Aaron rubbed his head, trying to recall some time when he knew that he had intentionally lied. His eyes then shot wide, “Ah! I think I can remember this one time when I called my mother about the expenses to the funeral, which most of it was paid off by her life insurance. However, there were a few little of out pocket cost that I voluntarily paid for since my mother is currently taking care of my new baby brother."
"You know? Charles?” he asked, wanting to make sure that Carrie knew what he was talking about.
Carrie pondered for a moment, “Yeah, I think you mentioned him a few times to me.”
“Ok, good,” Aaron chuckled. “Anyways, one of those costs was over the flowers to adorn the top of her coffin and around the ceremony. I think they are called ‘sprays’ if I am not mistaken?”
“I think you got it,” she nodded, gesturing for him to continue.
Wiping off his forehead, Aaron sighed. “Thanks. So as I was saying, my mother still wanted me to use the insurance money to pay for it since she didn’t want the money to come out of my bank. However, I told her it would be fine for me to do so since I wanted her to use the rest of it to take care of the new baby Charles.”
“And?” Carrie asked, wanting Aaron to continue.
“We went back-and-forth on the issue,” Aaron replied, waving his hand out as he used his other one to set the drink down. “We wanted to prove our points to each other while I tried to make the argument that ‘it’s what she would have wanted’ so to speak. Yet, my stubborn mother still insisted on using the inertance money to pay for the flowers anyways.”
“I assume you didn’t use the money, right?” Carrie crossed her arms, wearing an amused expression upon her face.
“No,” Aaron firmly stated. “Not a single cent of it. Instead, after I got the money from her, bought the flowers and lied to her about how I purchased them.”
“And what about the money she gave you?”
“I set it aside,” Aaron sighed, not proud of what he did. “I figured that I would return the money to her in disguise as a Christmas gift this year, though now I am doubtful about that working out since it could raise a fuss over where I got that amount of money.”
“I see. So, do you know for sure that she isn’t going to take it well?” Carrie asked.
“Yeah, and that is my fault really,” Aaron admitted, raising an arm to his chest. “I should have just bought the stupid flowers with the money and avoided the drama, honestly.”
“Well, you could just keep the money, since you spent some after all, and then apologize to your mother about the drama,” she advised, trying to help out Aaron.
He pondered upon that idea for just a moment, and it didn’t take long for him to agree with with it as well. “Yeah, you’re right. I think I do need to do that since it would give me an opportunity to try and talk to her again about it and make amends. And it could give me a chance to solve another issue I am having right now.”
“You see, problemed solved!” Carrie cheered, happy to assist her fellow employee. “And what is this other issue that you have?”
“Oh!” he grinned, perking himself up as he set both of this shoes down on the floor. “It’s nothing really. I have this… erm… pet that got into my apartment the other night and now I am needing it out by tomorrow.”
“Aw, that sucks!” Carrie titled her head towards the side as she extended her lower lip. “What type of pet is it?”
“It’s a uh... a cat,” he said with subtlety and a straight face, trying to not reveal the identity of Luna.
“A cat!” she exclaimed with slight disbelief. “Well, gosh! How did it get into your home?”
Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno! I found it my pantry the other night and now the apartment owners want it gone!”
“Oh, that is so terrible,” Carrie said with sympathy. “I own three cats as well and I would hate to lose one of them.”
Oh no, Aaron said to himself. Please don’t tell she is going to offer-
A crisp smack came from her lips. “Shoot! I wish I could help you too since I know you always wanted to keep a pet, right?”
Oh, thank goodness. Aaron rubbed the back of his head and smiled, “Yeah, but please don’t worry about it at all. In fact, I will be taking care of it as soon as I get home.”
“Ok,” she smiled back, raising herself off the seat and preparing herself to go back to work. “But please keep me up to date with how things turn out!”
“No problem, ma’am,” Aaron replied, making sure that he knew to at least tell her something after he dealt with the owner of the apartment.
As the store manager walked away and was out of sight, Aaron laid himself back down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. With a couple of thoughts returning to him, Aaron knew that it was going to become inevitable for him to call his mother about the flowers and Luna’s situation. Unavoidable, Aaron groaned at that thought and wished it wasn’t so.
Nobody likes to deal with more drama than they can handle, but Aaron now believed he brought it upon himself. It’s my fault, he thought. I feel so stupid for the way I acted to you mother, but now I know a little bit better. I will make it up to you some way or another...
He looked at his watch and saw his break time was almost up.
After I slave myself through another four hours.