|
|
Everybody is on edge.
It seems like everything is going wrong in every possible way. Because to let you know fully what I am trying to say here, I will have to tell you a bit background of this story. So, I happened to know this couple, Andrew and Catherine, a few years back when I was working for an international company. They were our partners and attended almost every important meeting of the company. The reason for the two partners came to our company was to expand their business. They were trying to get their second restaurant into operation. After a few days of discussion, they decided to pick me as their manager for the restaurant as well as handling any problem arising with their business. I was, at that time, working on a crucial project related to domestic food consumption and getting a second degree in civil engineering. If you don't already know, I was swarmed with the workload that I barely had time to eat or sleep. I lost ten pounds in two months and I felt weaker than ever. But still, because the love of money, I foolishly got the job they offered.
I took the responsibility of training their front of the house staff and showing them the professional service their employers were expecting the restaurant to have. The difficult part of the job was to convince the staff to take me seriously. Since the majority of the servers was underaged, all they wanted to do was to chill and kill the hours. Frankly speaking, I did not mind their lack of respect, my goal was to finish the job and get the hell out of there. It took me two months to entirely got them into the desired mould and hours of constant vigilance to manage the huge restaurant. They were, eventually, got four stars with a bunch of reviews about excellent customer service. I thought, by that time, that my job was done and I could get the paycheck and said goodbye. One week before my contract was over, Catherine came to my office with her watery eyes and red nose. She was bawling and telling me that she got into a huge argument with Andrew, and that she decided to file a divorce.
That happening did not surprise or bother me. To be honest, besides working as Catherine's consultant, I also happened to befriended with her and we got along very well. This surprised me. I have been a lone wolf all my life and suddenly I stumbled upon of meeting her. When the first time we met and talked, we immediately clicked. I already knew that this friendship was there to keep and I made my precious time for her. We went out a couple of times and I enjoyed every outing. It would be lying to say if I was not impressed of her duration of Andrew's bad temper. If I were her, I would ditch him long before it would be too late. Catherine told me that Andrew and she would be just fine like other couples when it was not about business talk. I did not comment on anything she said about her marriage, but I did not get bored or anything. Personally, I did not like Andrew as a 'boss'. He was demanding and required precision in every little thing. A few conversations into the friendship of Catherine and me, she told me that Andrew used to be a leader of a group of 'bad people'. I assumed it was the truth without questioning anything, because it seemed to be true to me. But that was not important, nothing was.
I did not think much about what Catherine told me, though I sympathized with her deeply. It was simply that I did not know what to say to ease the pain she was feeling, you know? I was not good with words nor people. Conversations drained my energy. It was depressing and I was miserable enough... Andrew's day always started with arguments or moody expression on his face. Every single day I saw him walked into the restaurant, I felt as though someone was hanging a bunch of heavy clouds in the middle of the store. Good vibes were gone the moment he talked to us. What a pain in the neck, his temper. Time flied and he would just stay the same. Nothing ever changed. Everyone was tired and scared. We knew nothing else better. It was too much, even to Catherine.
So many times, I wanted to end the contract. I wanted to run away. I sought for an escape. I wanted to leave here. But no matter how hard I tried, Catherine was always standing at the end of the dead-end alley. |
|
Tác giả