26 | Working Girl

Monday, January 15, 2018

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Insanity:

Not being able to take a hint...a really obvious hint.

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            My parents had put a rule in place for me when I started school back in August: I was not allowed to have an on-campus job for my first semester. But now that it was the second semester and I seemed to blow through money like nobody's business, I had gotten a job at the Chick-fil-a in the campus food court, and the second Monday of classes marked my first day on the job.

            I had never worked in fast food before. In high school I had worked in a terrible grocery store, and I could probably fill another book entirely with stories about that after-school job. It had gotten to the point that I took off my makeup between school and work so that I wouldn't be hit on by the 50-year-old men coming in for their pack of cigarettes at 10:00 at night.

            Working at a college campus would surely be different, and working in fast food was definitely going to be a change from scanning groceries and reminding old ladies that they couldn't buy gift cards at the self-checkout machines.

            "Hi, I'm Morgan Kuns. I'm supposed to start work today?"

            I watched as the college kid standing behind the counter of the Chick-fil-a looked at me like I was insane. (1)

            "Okay. Um...I'll get Leah. She's the boss."

            I thanked him as he turned around and disappeared behind the wall in front of me, returning thirty seconds later with a redheaded woman who looked to be in her late twenties.

            "Morgan? I'm Leah Jensen, the full-time supervisor here at Chick-fil-a!" She reached over the counter and shook my hand, "Just go right through that door to your left and we'll get you all set up!"

            I followed where she was pointing and walked through a door that stood between the Chick-fil-a and the Taco Bell that was right next to it. Leah was waiting for me on the other side and pointed me down a winding staircase to where the locker rooms were located for me to change into my uniform.

            I changed quickly and walked back up the stairs to the back of the store, which consisted of a giant prep area with people from stores all over the food court. Taco Bell employees were putting together burritos, girls in Papa John's hats were spreading sauce on pizza dough, and someone in a Subway apron was running back to their store with a giant bag of lettuce.

            "This is where you'll be on Monday nights." Leah told me as she came around the corner with two other girls behind her, "The three of you will be doing an incredibly important job to our store's success: you'll filet the raw chicken that we have to fry for the customers' sandwiches."

            I nodded slowly, wishing that my first day on the job hadn't had to involve raw meat, but fighting the urge to throw up anyways.

            "This is where we keep the chicken." Leah told us, opening up a giant thawing cabinet from behind the long counter we were all standing at, "You'll have to figure out how many cases of each kind we need when you come in for your shift, and then you'll filet that much during each shift. It's far easier than it sounds.

            "The pink bags are for nuggets and the green bags are for chicken strips, so you won't have to worrying about those. You'll just have to deal with the filets: spicy in the purple bags, regular in the blue, and grilled in the tan."

            She continued to talk about the different chicken that the store used and it took about half an hour before Leah left to go deal with something else, leaving myself and the two other girls with the raw chicken and the task of fileting it.

            I got out a case of blue bags, which I was pretty sure were just the regular filets, (2) and started dumping them into a big metal tin to filet while the other two girls grabbed their own bags to put in their own tins. We were quiet for a few minutes before I decided to introduce myself.

            "I'm Morgan, by the way. Are you guys new here too?"

            The girls shook their heads.

            "I'm Hannah." The taller girl with curly brown hair said, "I've been here for two semesters, but I've never had to filet before." She curled up her nose at the chicken in front of us, "I definitely wish I didn't have to filet now."

            "Same." The other girl, a shorter blonde, rolled her eyes. "I'm Amy. This is my second semester here, and I've never fileted before either. I guess it's just how my schedule lined up this time around."

            "Nice." I nodded, trying not to think about the fact that I was holding raw chicken in my hands, even if it were divided from me by two layers of plastic gloves. "Where are you guys from?"

            "Texas." Hannah said, "Born and raised!"

            "I'm from Utah." Amy answered, "So I don't have nearly that much state pride."

            I laughed.

            "Yeah, I'm from Virginia, so it's not that exciting either."

            "Hey, that's still cool. There probably aren't a lot of people here from the east coast."

            "There definitely aren't." I confirmed, "So I guess it's fun to be a little unique."

            We continued to get to know each other over the remainder of our four-hour shift, finishing up with the chicken and cleaning ourselves off by getting elbow-deep in the little sink by the counter.

            It didn't seem like it would be a bad Monday shift. (3)

***

            "Hey! Do you want to come over and bake cookies?"

            I walked into the apartment after my shift to hear Madison on speaker phone with Nathan (4) in the kitchen while Ashley pretended not to listen from the couch. It had been three days since their first date, and I was surprised that she had even waited this long to call him.

            Although I supposed it was usually the guy who called the girl asking for a second date. Apparently, the rules didn't apply when he was "The One."

            "I'm actually at my brother's place for dinner right now, so I can't." Nathan's voice could be heard as I sat down next to Ashley to eavesdrop. "Maybe another time."

            "What about after dinner?" Madison persisted, "You can come over after and we can bake cookies and watch a movie or something!"

            Nathan was quiet for a second.

            "Yeah, I just don't think tonight is gonna work. I'm going to get home around like 10:00, and it's a little late to be walking over to your place. I'll be tired..."

            "Well, I can just come to your place!" Madison offered immediately, "It would be no problem for me! Like, no problem at all. I'd be happy to do it."

            Nathan sighed.

            "Alright, I guess that's fine. I'll text you when I get home."

            "Great! See you then!"

            "Yeah."

            The line went dead and Madison happily hopped her way over to the couch, apparently unaware of the fact that the boy had sounded like seeing her was the absolute last thing he wanted to do.

            "Maybe you shouldn't go over tonight." Ashley said nervously, "I think he sounded really tired."

            "Oh, he was just pretending." Madison laughed, "We're going to have a blast! I'm so excited."

            Ashley and I looked at each other. I shrugged, not sure what we could say to convince her that Nathan was definitely not "The One" and that he probably wanted nothing to do with her. They had been on one date, after all—a lot of people went on one date, realized they weren't interested, and then went out with other people instead.

            But apparently Madison couldn't wrap her head around that, because when 10:00 came, she started for the door.

            "Did he text you yet?" Paige, who had gotten home from work an hour earlier, asked as she passed Madison in the apartment entryway.

            "Not yet. I'll just be there waiting for him with the cookie dough when he gets home!"

            Paige nodded uncomfortably.

            "Alright. Tell Bryant I said hi."

            "Will do!"

            The front door opened and closed while Paige joined Ashley and me on the couch, sighing loudly.

            "Did I make a mistake setting them up?"

            I shrugged, leaning back into the couch as I scrolled through Instagram on my phone.

            "I mean, I'm always down for a good show, so I'd say you did fine."

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Theory:

People who aren't used to rejection don't know what it looks like.

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(1) I would just like to say that this is a weird reaction. I'm a supervisor at the job in the present and like...it's really easy to just tell the new people where to find Leah or another supervisor.

(2) Fun fact: I had/have an absolutely atrocious memory, so even though Leah had just told us what color bags corresponded to what type of chicken, I had already forgotten. I only guessed they were regular because they didn't have any sauces or seasoning on them.

(3) The Monday fileting shifts, though gross, quickly became something I looked forward to.

(4) Bryant's roommate, AKA the one she went on a date with earlier that week, AKA "The One."