A City of Hopes Unrealized by Howard Leonard

Author:Howard Leonard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bartender, Established Couple, Friends to Lovers, Humorous, Interracial, Over 40, Therapist, UST
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2023-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The Week’s End

IT WAS AN extremely long and lonely night for Marley. Out of shame, he turned on his computer before the sun broke through and found one open interview on Friday morning that would get him home before Ben would arrive after his classes. Wanting to have something positive to report sent Marley through the same pruning and pacing routine he’d engaged in the morning before. Like wash, rinse, and repeat, Marley showered and dressed way too early to head downtown, but unlike the day before, he waited to leave until the right moment so he’d arrive at the Sandwich Spot just on time for the open interview.

Unlike at the Cherry Pit, the front door to the Sandwich Spot was propped open and there were two workers preparing for the day’s business. With trepidation, Marley walked in and asked if he was at the right place to interview for a job as a server. Although both the men who were inside setting up were close to his own age, they received Marley as if they’d been waiting for him.

It was foreign for Marley to find himself feeling welcomed, and especially by men who were his peers. They stopped what they were doing, offered Marley coffee, introductions were exchanged, and the three of them sat at a table. Marley declined the coffee and handed each of them a printout of his resume. They only briefly glanced at the paper and commenced asking Marley to describe what he’d learned in his prior work as a server, as well as questions seemingly devised to uncover his work ethic and to discern how he would feel handling the quick lunchtime pace and the diversity of the downtown crowd.

With disbelief, it seemed to Marley that Jacob and Emir wanted to hire him, as they almost immediately began to describe the job, using language that was more “when” than “if.”

Marley was interested. His hours would be Monday through Friday, eleven to five thirty, ending his day only a bit later than he used to show up for work at the Off. This was the perfect schedule. In a reversal to his work at the Off, he was told that the first half of his shift would be extremely busy, as the crowd would form around eleven thirty and last until three thirty, with customers wanting fast service as they were mostly downtown workers intent on getting back to their office. Marley’s job would be to read, engage, and serve them and be as efficient as possible while avoiding making any customer feel rushed. He neither had to seat people nor do any food prep, but when the crowd thinned out, he would stay to help clean the restaurant and get ready for the next day. Tips would be his to keep, as he learned Jacob and Emir were the owners, friends from college who had a shared dream of opening a sandwich shop, and they did all the necessary behind-the-scenes work to keep their restaurant operating at a profit.

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