Making a decision

It was a locker room, a women’s locker room. Danny sat down heavily, padded bottom making its presence felt. How could things spin out so much?

Rachel had taken him under her wing and led him there. She was caring, gave him a drink of water, and assured him everything would be okay. Afterwards, she dropped a small plate of chips and chicken nuggets beside him.

It was obvious in retrospect, part of Danny’s dizziness was just hunger. He hadn’t eaten while preparing for the party, and not much actual food was at the party itself. The plan was to finally eat at Hooters but of course that had worked out for everyone in Danny’s group except for Danny. Heck, he’d been the one who had made sure every single person in the group had got their food. Everyone except himself.

Danny exhaled. Of course the real reason he was feeling this way was being mentally blindsided by something he couldn’t hope to predict. The memory of surprising Steve seemed so distant now, and then Steve had suggested they come here. It was easy to blame him, heck, it was accurate as well. He’d literally pushed this forward at every opportunity. But somehow, this was beyond a joke. The absurdness of the situation had been pushed so hard it became real. There was now a legit offer of employment for him to become a Hooters waitress and a credible way to make it happen. Somehow the world had taken their joke and just took it straight.

Danny munched on the chips and chicken nuggets, sipping on water. Energy ebbed back, and his stomach felt better.

Ultimately, Linda was pressuring him into this role. Take that away and he could walk out of here and not look back (well, maybe by the end of the shift), but that would burn things with her and by extension Trish. He didn’t want to damage things by Trish, but he didn’t want to be held hostage by her partner. He really did want to do right by Trish but…

His thoughts were interrupted by Rachel entering.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh Rachel, thanks.” Danny took another bite to restore himself, “I am feeling a bit better, thank you so much.”

“It’s nothing. I checked on your tables and they’re doing okay. One or two drink orders, but mostly they’re enjoying their food.”

A pang of guilt, these were tables Danny was meant to be serving. “What about the old man?”

“Um, which old man?”

“He was at a table by himself. He ordered drinks and food. Table by the side?”

“I’ll look into that. No unclaimed orders so I assume his food hasn’t come out yet.”

Danny let out a breath and sunk his head into his hands, “I’m sorry, I should be out there doing this.”

“It’s okay, it’s easy to get overwhelmed on your first day. You’re doing really well.”

“Yeah,” Danny sighed, “That’s kinda the problem.”

Rachel was concerned. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s…. complicated.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Do you have the time?”

“Sure,” Rachel sat down beside Danny, “I’ve all the time in the world.” Danny was certain Rachel was lying through her teeth with all the work out there. The gesture both comforted him and made him feel he owed it to her to be as open with her as possible. “What’s up?” she asked.

“My employment here was kinda messy, the documents are only coming together now, and I’m finally being asked about working here, but I wasn’t meant to be and am kinda thrown into it, and I’m not even sure if I should be here and…”

Danny voice had been going faster and faster. Suddenly out of breath, he stopped and took a few breaths to calm down.

“Okay… So what you’re saying is… you’re not sure about working here.” Danny nodded. “Just feeling overwhelmed?” Danny nodded again. “Look, if you want my advice: Give it a week, and then decide.”

Danny blinked, such a simple answer? “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“How so?”

“I’m just not sure I’m the right sort of person to be working here,” Danny hedged.

“That’s not for you to decide.”

“What?”

“Look, it’s the people who employ you who decide whether you’re the right sort of person to be working here. You just go along with it and accept the paycheck.”

“But what if they find out… I’m not what they want?”

“Then you leave and find another job.” **** suddenly put an arm around Danny’s shoulders, pulling him into her. The gesture of comfort was surprisingly intimate to Danny and his bowed head now had a view right down her cleavage. The arousal mixed messily with the more poignant feelings he was having.

“You don’t need to worry about what other people think. I know imposter syndrome is a thing, but ultimately it’s about what you want out of this. So ask yourself, will working here get you what you want?”

“..It’ll get money, which I kinda do need right now.”

“And so what’s the problem?”

“It’s… a lot of stuff, I guess I just never thought I’d be working here in a million years and a million issues with it are popping up in my head, and just… it’s messy….”

Rachel looked Danny in the eyes. Danny was so unfamiliar with a woman’s face being this close to his for completely platonic reasons, but that look of concern and support in her eyes really touched him.

“Then it’s like I said, give it a week. If it doesn’t work out for you, quit. You’ll need time to really get a feel for the job and know if it's for you. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. The main thing is to give it a chance. You owe it to yourself, and I know you’ve got the strength to at least find out.”

“I… I think I understand.”

Rachel nodded.

Danny felt like moving his head forward and giving her a kiss right now, to say thank you. Her face seemed earnest though, full of genuine support and concern rather than any lustful desire. He bowed his head. He didn’t want to betray her heartfelt gesture.

“Um… what about Tim?”

“Oh, you’ll learn to manage him in time once you get a sense of what he wants. He’s actually concerned about you.”

Danny’s head shot up. “Really?”

Rachel chuckled “Oh, don’t expect him to show it in any conventional way. He’s got ‘tough love’ down like it’s a religion. But yeah, the better you get at the job, the less you’ll have to worry about him… if staying with the job is what you wanna do.”

Danny nodded, “Thank you for your time… Can you… I need to think about this…”

“Of course,” Rachel stood up and walked to the door. “And by the way, however this goes…. It’s been nice meeting you Danielle.”

“It’s been nice meeting you too Rachel.”

Rachel smiled, and turned to leave through the door..

===

Rachel looked around. She had finished clearing Danielle's family table, and managed to find the elderly man and give him his order. The man had tried to talk her ear off, and she’d used the politest excuse she could to cut him off. She felt a bit bad about doing so, but having to take on three extra tables at short notice left her with very little time for anything else, even if it would likely result in lower tips.

She made her way to the group table and asked if everyone was okay. A decent guy dressed up as Batman looked up and asked where Danielle was.

“Sorry, she’s just on break at the moment,” the guy was clearly concerned about her, so Rachel tried to be as assuring as possible.

“Oh,” he said, disappointed, and looked down at some sheets of paper in front of him beside his empty plate.

Tim happened to pass by. Rachel and Tim exchanged looks confirming that Danielle wasn’t up yet and continued on. Both of them were well familiar with waitresses coming and going, but somehow it just seemed a shame if Danielle’s first shift ended like this.

She returned her attention to the Batman “Need me to give her a message?”

“I dunno, just that…I hope she’s okay?”

Rachel smiled, clearly a supportive boyfriend worried about her. “I’ll let her know”

Before leaving, Rachel noted the table had mostly empty plates at this stage. Another task thrown onto her but she had dealt with worse. She moved behind the Batman to make a start.

Steve felt the arm reach past him to get the plate and leaned to the side to allow it. The movement brought the waitress’s face to the side of his head, and in that moment he heard a low but very distinctive voice. It wasn’t the nice waitress, it was Danny.

“Listen buster, you may have thought you played the most epic prank ever on me, but rest assured, I will be paying it back. Big time!” Danny’s hand grabbed the pen, and in the open signature space on the paper form scribbled a line of ink, then slammed the pen back down on the table. “Welcome to Hooters.”

The hand drew back, taking his plate and a few others with it. Steven turned, but only saw Danny walking away.

Long hair swaying back and forth as the form sashayed away, white sleeveless shirt, orange shorts, tanned stockings and white shoes.

Danny looked like every other Hooters waitress there.