Chapter 6
Hailey made two pizzas and put them in the oven.
She thought that she was getting pretty good at working here and was having fun.
Most of the things from the other restaurant had been taken off her plate, and she was happy for the less stressor, but this work was fun, and she liked being around the others that she worked with.
“Rosie is still working for the police department. Can you pick up her shift tomorrow night?” She told her boss that she could. “You don’t have to say yes every time I ask you to work, you know. I won’t be mad if you were to tell me no.”
“I was just thinking about how much I liked working here. And the pay is great.” She asked her if she’d picked up her envelope of tips. “Yes, that was quite a surprise too. I had no idea that was going to be part of my pay each week.”
“Well, people are happy to come in and get their pies and have them right for a change. The person that you’ve taken over for was forever messing them up.
And the subs were never right either. How hard can it be when we have instructions right there in front of you to make them, I ask you?
” They both laughed. “But seriously, I appreciate you working the extra hours. It’s nice to know that when you’re working, things are done correctly.
” She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
By lunch, she’d made twenty-five subs to go out.
They were a big hit for the teachers at the schools, and when they were delivered, she supposed they left good tips.
There were a few pizzas made, too, but mostly the school had the subs delivered.
She was just cleaning up her area when another order came in from the high school.
“I didn’t know that the kids could order their own lunches from here.” Mabel said so long as they paid for them when they were delivered and didn’t cause us any trouble, they could. “What kind of trouble do we get from them? They seem to be polite when they order.”
“Once we start having trouble with them not picking up or something, the principal cuts them off for a month, and we miss the work.” She said she could see that.
“We’ve not had any trouble this year with them.
They usually try to get a bunch of orders all together before they order. Like the one you have now.”
“I wondered about that.” It was five subs and one small pizza. “I can have it ready by the time they want it, no problem. It’s the delivery that I worry about. There isn’t anyone free in the next ten minutes.”
“I’ll take it over for them. It’s too good for business for us not to deliver.
” When the ticket was finished, Mabel got in her car and took it over.
When she returned, she put the tips in the jar.
“I make well over what you make, so I’ll put the tip in the jar for you making it. It all works out in the end.”
She was glad for the extra money, too. Last night, she’d spent her last few bucks on a dinner dress for when she and Gleason went out to dinner.
He suggested that she might need one for when he had to go out, and she ordered one online.
It was to arrive today sometime, and she couldn’t wait.
Even the shoes that she ordered were pretty enough for her to be seen in public in.
Gleason told her that he needed a date when he went to one of the board meetings that he was required to attend.
He’d been put on the board of several groups that he didn’t want to go to, but he said that with someone that he knew at his side, it might not be so bad.
This Friday, they were going to a dinner where he was to hand out trophies for the best flower arrangements at the women’s club.
Lucky for him, he didn’t have to pick the best one; that was done by the women at the dinner.
He also warned her that she should eat a meal before going, as there was usually not enough food at one of these things to fill anyone up.
She was going to take his advice on that and have herself something to eat well before they left.
Answering the phone when it rang, she was happy to hear Gleason on the other end.
“I need to place an order for lunch for my brothers and me.” She told him to go ahead; she was ready.
“After I’m finished, I wanted to know if you’d like to go to dinner with me tomorrow night.
It’s not a big deal, just some kids drew some pictures, and I’m handing out the awards.
Kinsey was going to go, but his little girl is sick, so he didn’t want to bring anything more home to her. So I said that I’d go for him.”
“That’s great.” After getting off the phone with him, she made the orders for them.
She could almost tell who ordered what as she was getting to know his family well.
The hot ones would go to Gleason and his brother, Ara.
The meatball would be for Kinsey and Wylie, and Raphael would have the chicken parmesan.
Bodi, the biggest eater of all of them, would have the double meat Italian, and he’d be scarfing up what the others didn’t eat of their own.
She was glad that Gleason came to pick them up. “What sort of dress-up is this?”
“Casual. Which means I wear nice jeans and a tie. You can wear that pretty sundress that you had on yesterday. That would be fine. I’m sure that no one is going to care so long as I’m there with my checkbook out.
I never do, and I’m hoping that they get the hint that I’m not funding the school for the kids.
” She laughed with him as she took his money for lunch.
“I’ll be late coming home tonight. I have to get with David on a couple of things that are going on, and then I’m going to drive out to see Kinsey about some investments that we’ve made together. ”
“All right. You do what you have to do.” After she handed him his change, he smiled at her. “I should dump this all in the tip jar.” He did at that, and she smiled at him. “I’ll see you when I see you. Be careful going home later.”
After telling him that she was picking up another shift from Rosie, he left her.
She could tell that he wanted to say something, but he didn’t look like he knew how to say it.
She’d been like that over the last few days.
Telling him that she was in love with him was becoming harder to hide from him.
The man was everything that she wanted in a person to love, and she couldn’t believe her luck in living with him.
“Have you told him yet?” She asked Mabel what she meant. “You two look at each other like you’ve been denied something great and are waiting for someone else to say something to you.” That didn’t make sense, but she’d noticed that about Mabel.
Mabel only worked during the daytime, and she was fun to work with.
When she took her medications. Here lately, she could tell that she’d not been taking them when she was supposed to because she could see the little vials of medication marked for lunchtime still full.
She would remind her sometimes, but when she was in a bad mood, there was no telling her anything.
So she just kept her mouth shut during those days.
She’d tell the owner if he asked when he came in, but that’s as far as she would go.
Hailey didn’t want to lose her job just because the elderly woman didn’t want to bother with her medications.
The rest of the afternoon was spent making mostly subs.
Pizzas were for families, she noticed, to take home and to have together.
While subs were her favorite thing to make, they were mostly for the lunch crowd or a bunch of people getting together for a good time.
She loved working for the Pizza Parlor and was glad that she’d been able to work there about thirty hours a week.
It was good money, and she liked the people who came in to pick up what they ordered.
When the dinner rush started, she was ready to go home.
While she would help out if they needed her to, she mostly went home right at four o’clock.
But she’d make sure that everything was stocked up for the dinner rush and that the floors were cleaned up.
It was just as she was carrying out the trash that she was asked to stay over for another hour.
“I can do that, but I need to get home before six. I have some things that I’ve been working on, and they need to be finished by then.” Mabel said that would be all right, and she worked the sub line. “Good, I can do that. And run orders to the front when they’re done.”
There were others working tonight, more than she had during the day, but deliveries were busier at night, and she knew that most of the crew would be out making those when the shop was busy too.
They had seating in the place, and she loved that people could come in and have their meal, and go home.
Clean up was never that bad, but on occasion it would be, so she’d have to make sure that the tables were cleaned up as well as the soda area.
A lot of high school kids would buy themselves a small pizza just to have access to the pop machine.
Sharon looked at her with a desperate look on her face.
“I have to pee, and Mabel said she’d take over, but I think she went home.
” She told her to go that she had it. “Thanks. She told me that you were closing tonight, but I heard you tell her that you could only work until six. I’ve got you covered if anyone says anything.
” When Sharon came back, they worked well together.