What If... Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to work for Hooters?

In 2011, at the age of 21, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University with a degree in international relations and economics. Famous for her career in the House of Representatives; out of college her political aspirations had had to take a backseat as she took a bartending job to support her family. But so often in these stories, where graduates go home to support their families, they never quite get back to achieving their dreams. What would have happened if the same had happened to AOC as had happened to one version of Emilia Clarke in 2012? What if AOC ended up stuck working at a Hooters?

Alexandria paused at the door, adjusting her outfit. While it was humiliating she had to work here, she still strove for the best, even if it meant adjusting her push-up bra and hauling her orange booty shorts off to show off her pert cheeks just right. Besides, now she'd been promoted to shift supervisor, she was expected to police the rest of the girls' dress code, and it'd be hypocritical of her to do that while not looking her best herself.

Even if, as she caught her sad dark eyes in the reflection of the front door, it meant she was being a hypocrite to her own feminist values.

She held the door open with a smile for a departing customer, before heading into the breastaurant. She headed past the greeter's station and the bar, giving a friendly greeting to the bartender Libby as she went, heading into the staff area in the back. Alexandria slung her purse into her locker, grabbing her time card and punching it. As she stood at the machine, her manager Tony slunk up to her.

Tony was a middle-aged Italian-American guy, with thick black curls that were turning grey, a permanently sleazy expression on his face, and a cigarette forever hanging out of his mouth. As a concession to modern health codes he rarely ventured out of the back office. "There's my girl." He called everyone his girl. "Another day, another dollar, right, Lexie?"

Alexandria **** a fake smile. She hated this guy, and hated being called Lexie, but she needed money for her family's legal and health bills, and he was her boss, so... "Right!" she fake-giggled. "Anything I need to be aware of, Tony?"

The big man shrugged. "Oh, you know, the usual. Libby's on bar, there's the floor girls and their sections, the cook's in a mood again..."

"When isn't he?" Alexandria groaned. "Well, that sounds fine. You in the rest of the day, or...?" She hoped that he'd be out, Tony seemed to think she liked him (probably because she acted like she did) but it'd just be a much more tolerable workday without him.

"Oh, uh, there was another thing..." Tony tapped at his forehead. Years of drinking had blasted his memory and he struggled to recall it.

Gritting her teeth, Alexandria egged him on, "Yes?"