Alice's Mundane Adventures 2 The Regulars
After Chris and Margie had their fill of making fun of her, Alice got to work. There weren’t currently any customers in her section that needed anything so Alice took to giving her tables a quick spray and a wipe. It made everything a little brighter when the tables were clean. This was how she discovered that she was going to be serving a large group. A little silver reserved sign held her at gun point as she wiped over the three 4-seater tables that had been pushed together. When she was done she backed away slowly, as if that sign could actually hurt her. Once she was at a safe distance she turned and did a half-jog, that she could easily transition into a walk if a customer saw her, back to the host stand at the main entrance.
“Please say it’s leftover from last night,” she whispered to the screen with her fingers crossed. She tapped her tag on the plate just below the screen to log in and then checked the reservation log. Scrolling down through today until… “Oh no.” It was a group of 12 under the name McAllister.
“Sorry,” Margie said and Alice squeaked as she jumped. “Oh my, that was adorable!”
“Don’t” Alice warned even though she knew she was as threatening as a sopping wet kitten. She could see Margie’s face turning red as she held her breath, clearly trying not to laugh. “You can’t think I’m cute when you’ve done this to me.”
“Camille will be able to support,” Margie reassured. “They’ve booked an off peak time so it shouldn’t be too busy.” Alice glared at her, despite how ineffectual she knew it was. “You can have your break before they get here.”
“I’ll deal with it,” Alice relented with a sigh.
“Thanks!” Margie gave a grin that showed off the gap between her front teeth. “Camille wouldn't cope with this party on her own and Jasper… well he’s banned from serving anyone under the age of 18 at the minute.”
“Oh nothing serious, he’s just got to do his challenge 25 refresher training, so I can’t really give him this party.” Margie shrugged. “You are effectively my only server. I can’t even pull Chris out of the kitchen for double duty because they’ve had a sick call.”
“That must be making him happy.” Which Alice knew was more than accurate because Chris hated working front of house. He had trained to be a chef and was gunning for the head chef position if he could get it.
As the clock ticked by Alice found herself watching that reserved table out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t serve any groups larger than three before she went for her break and when she came back out her favourite regulars were sitting in her section. Gillian and Terry always made her feel like they were going to throw adoption papers at her at any given moment. They were an old married couple that she really wanted to be like when she was old.
Today, they were unfortunately not joined by the real man of the family - their adorable three year old grandson Devin. Alice always missed him when they came without him.
“Where’s my best friend?” Alice asked when she walked up behind Gillian’s wheelchair.
Both of them laughed. “He’s at pre-school today,” Gillian explained turning her head to Alice but not her body, which wasn't surprising given she had her spine fused a few years ago. “Probably winning over the hearts of all the staff there with his handsome smile.”
“He’s already done that well enough here!”
“He’ll be popular with the ladies when he grows up,” Terry agreed.
“Or the fellas,” Alice countered to laughter once more before she pulled out her notepad. “Have you ordered already or can I get anything started for you?” Terry ran a hand over his receding hair that most men his age must be incredibly jealous of.
“We ordered already my dear,” he said. “But whilst you’re here I do have a question for you - have you found yourself a nice, respectable lady yet?”
Gillian smacked her husband with her menu. “You can’t ask people that!”
“She doesn’t mind, do you Alice my dear?” As the old folks started to bicker Alice heard someone open the door and half turned to look towards it. In walked Teddy, the very butch that Chris and Margie had been making fun of her for. She held open the door as her family filed in, all eleven of them. Meaning this was her party of 12. Alice felt her face get hot and knew that her freckles would be all the more obvious.
“You could say I’m working on it.” Alice smiled at Terry in a way that she hoped didn’t show that she was panicking.