icfreeman

I looked across the crowded room and there he was.  A tall man in his late twenties, early thirties with khaki shorts and a dark green polo shirt.  His brownish-red hair was cut short and he had thin-framed glasses that his chocolate eyes peered out of.  He was with two of his buddies, and they were laughing at some joke that one had just told.  As he scanned the room, our eyes met and instantly I knew he was the one.

If that's the type of story that interests you, then my story isn't for you.  My story isn't about love at first sight.  No.  My story is more like loathe at first sight.  Like when Elphaba and Galinda first met in the story Wicked.  But just as in Wicked, our loathing of one another grew into respect before finally changing into "love."

My story begins in my senior year of college.  Normally, I wait tables, but soon after the new year, a manager was fired, leaving the store short on management.  I was asked to help out.  While working a management shift on day, my boss, Mark, came to me and says that they are transferring a manager from the Homewood location to come help us out.

I groaned.  I didn't mean to.  After all, I worked in the Homewood store for more than two years, but after my boss was transferred to another store, they brought in a new management team, and the store has gone downhill ever since.  In fact, Homewood managers are lazy, and if rumors are true, then this manager is going to do nothing but sit in the office most of his shifts.  I was close...

I came into work eager to get started.  I already had my set of manager keys, borrowed from the administrative assistant.  I was scheduled to work the alley, the server part of the kitchen where food is picked up, drinks are fixed and, by the looks of the kitchen at this time, messed are bound to happen. 

Servers can be such pigs!  Soup spilled on the counter from ladling it out of the pot, lettuce on the floor from cooks and servers making salads and tea mixed with sugar from where servers had sweetened the tea, which has now dried on the counter, causing me to scrub to get it clean.  As I was scrubbing, Mark cam around the corner with the new manager.

"Eric, I want you to meet Ivie.  She's a hard working girl who will be helping you out in the alley tonight," he said.

"Nice to meet you," said Eric.

"Nice to meet you," I said.

Not bad, I guess, but then I had only endured about thirty seconds of him.  At least he wasn't sitting in the office.

Mark soon left, leaving me and Eric to fend for ourselves.  Even though it was a weeknight, we were busy.  Cooks kept running out of meat, causing me to run to the cooler to retrieve whatever was needed.  Then there were the servers who needed coupons taken off of checks and change for a twenty.  Looking up and down the alley, a tornado must have come through when I wasn't looking.  I knew I had just swept the floor less than five minutes ago, but now there are croutons, that damn lettuce, rolls, fries... Geesh.

After catching a breather, I went to look for the new manager.  After all he can get change too.  I'm not the only one around here with that kind of authority.  Two guesses to where this Homewood transferred manager was.  Yes, that's right, the office.  Sitting at the computer doing who knows what when there are tables to talk to, servers to assist and cooks to look after.

Throughout the night, I kept running to retrieve pieces of meat for the cooks, and every time I passed by the office, my blood pressure jumped.  I guess the rumors are true.  All Homewood managers know how to do is sit on their butts doing nothing much. 

By the end of the night, not only was I exhausted, but I was also pissed off.  I hated working with this new manager.  I'm doing all of the work, while he just lazes around.  Thus started the attitude Eric and I would have for each other for months.