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Mayumi was not a waitress. Not even close. She was a warrior, and hopefully someday a battle goddess. And warriors did not wait tables in an inn. And yet, here she was. It was her own fault, really. Mayumi was a proud woman, the pride of her family, but she had recently been on a bit of an independent streak, and when she'd set out to join a mage guild she'd decided she wanted to make it on her own. She'd left all her family money behind. Well, she'd taken just a little seed money, but she wanted to save that for as long as possible, until she really started making money from her jobs. So when she'd stayed here she'd gratefully taken the offer of cheap accommodations, knowing full well that she'd be expected to do something in return. She just hadn't expected that something to be playing waitress. It was beneath her dignity. But she'd already taken the reduced rent, so it was time for her to pay up. At least she had a lot of practice pretending to be happy and, well, civil...
It wasn't too bad at first. Smile at the customer. Write down their order, give it to the kitchen. Bring the food out when it was done. Keep the drinks flowing. She'd even picked up the trick of asking customers if they were sure that's all they wanted. Based on the amount of unfinished extra add-ons and barely touched desserts, she had a feeling she was dragging more money out of the patrons than they would usually spend here. The cafe was probably having a good day. There were definitely some benefits to having attractive waitresses, she thought. Although maybe she should tone it down a bit. If she did too well she may very well get stuck with this job again.
But of course, that was in the beginning of the day. Then the annoyances began to add up. It started with the woman who refused to accept that the chef knew how to cook a steam. First it was under-cooked. And then overcooked. And then the new one provided was under-cooked again. Eventually Mayumi got pretty fed up with her. She'd have thrown her out if one of the other waitresses hadn't taken over. That waitress was a lot more cheerful- until the stingy woman left without a tip at all. There'd been some swearing in the back room about that.
Then there was the man that squirted ketchup all over her shirt. It could have been an honest mistake, but she didn't think it was. She could swear she heard him laugh as she walked away. But the real kicker had come toward the end of the day. It was the only one she knew wasn't intentional, but still... One of the other waitresses had come bursting through the door- right as Mayumi had been walking out. The end result was Mayumi laying dazed on, and spaghetti sauce, wine, and broken glass everywhere. There had been an obnoxious amount of apologize and a big clean up. Mayumi had decided it was as good of an excuse as any to end her shift, changing out of the uniform that she was pretty sure was ruined and heading upstairs pry the last few stray shards of glass from her hair and arms and to dwell on the reasons she'd never wait tables again.
Word Count: 570/500
Mayumi was not a waitress. Not even close. She was a warrior, and hopefully someday a battle goddess. And warriors did not wait tables in an inn. And yet, here she was. It was her own fault, really. Mayumi was a proud woman, the pride of her family, but she had recently been on a bit of an independent streak, and when she'd set out to join a mage guild she'd decided she wanted to make it on her own. She'd left all her family money behind. Well, she'd taken just a little seed money, but she wanted to save that for as long as possible, until she really started making money from her jobs. So when she'd stayed here she'd gratefully taken the offer of cheap accommodations, knowing full well that she'd be expected to do something in return. She just hadn't expected that something to be playing waitress. It was beneath her dignity. But she'd already taken the reduced rent, so it was time for her to pay up. At least she had a lot of practice pretending to be happy and, well, civil...
It wasn't too bad at first. Smile at the customer. Write down their order, give it to the kitchen. Bring the food out when it was done. Keep the drinks flowing. She'd even picked up the trick of asking customers if they were sure that's all they wanted. Based on the amount of unfinished extra add-ons and barely touched desserts, she had a feeling she was dragging more money out of the patrons than they would usually spend here. The cafe was probably having a good day. There were definitely some benefits to having attractive waitresses, she thought. Although maybe she should tone it down a bit. If she did too well she may very well get stuck with this job again.
But of course, that was in the beginning of the day. Then the annoyances began to add up. It started with the woman who refused to accept that the chef knew how to cook a steam. First it was under-cooked. And then overcooked. And then the new one provided was under-cooked again. Eventually Mayumi got pretty fed up with her. She'd have thrown her out if one of the other waitresses hadn't taken over. That waitress was a lot more cheerful- until the stingy woman left without a tip at all. There'd been some swearing in the back room about that.
Then there was the man that squirted ketchup all over her shirt. It could have been an honest mistake, but she didn't think it was. She could swear she heard him laugh as she walked away. But the real kicker had come toward the end of the day. It was the only one she knew wasn't intentional, but still... One of the other waitresses had come bursting through the door- right as Mayumi had been walking out. The end result was Mayumi laying dazed on, and spaghetti sauce, wine, and broken glass everywhere. There had been an obnoxious amount of apologize and a big clean up. Mayumi had decided it was as good of an excuse as any to end her shift, changing out of the uniform that she was pretty sure was ruined and heading upstairs pry the last few stray shards of glass from her hair and arms and to dwell on the reasons she'd never wait tables again.
Word Count: 570/500
