Shout out to Tuffin and our lovely Guest for reviewing! You rock my socks off!
Also, what happens to Clary in this chapter has happened to me. Well, most of it anyway.
Is this new/old formatting easier to read?
The week passed quickly and before Clary knew it, it was Saturday and she was at work.
"Hi, welcome to Taki's! My name's Clary how can—"
"Water for the table please." Clary was cut off by the customer waving her hand dismissively at her. They were a family of five, a Mom, Dad and three kids; one about 6 years old, and two twins about 16 years old.
"Of course," she said politely.
She walked off and grabbed a cold bottle of water and five glasses with ice. She set them on a tray and walked back.
"Here you go, anything else I can get for you?" Clary asked.
The table completely ignored her, faces either in menus or on phones and she nodded, knowing her cue to move along. She took about five steps before a whistle stopped her.
"Hey! Waitress! Hey you!"
Clary closed her eyes and thought only of the money. She turned around with a smile on her face.
"Yes?" she asked walking back.
"I don't want ice. Take it back," the lady instructed her.
Clary nodded and took the glass away, she went back over to the bar and threw the ice in the sink and the glass on the dish tray to be cleaned. She grabbed a new glass and brought it over for the lady.
"There you go, is there anything else I can do for you?" Clary asked politely.
The lady didn't even acknowledge her. Clary counted to fifty in her head before anyone even realised she was still there. The man next to the lady gave her an annoyed look and waved his hand at her, sending her away. Clary resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was half tempted to get down on all fours and pee on their shoes like the dog they were treating her as.
Clary managed to make it to the front and seat a customer before the family waved her down.
"Excuse me! You didn't take our order! Are you always this rude to your customers?!" The lady cried indignantly.
Clary wanted to scream at them but kept her cool.
"I'm so sorry Ma'am. I asked if you needed anything and your partner waved me away. I assumed you weren't ready yet," Clary apologised.
"You should have waited for confirmation from me!" the lady glared at her like she had personally offended her.
"I am so sorry Ma'am it won't happen again. What would you like to order?" Clary asked.
"Don't push me to decide! I am still browsing! God, do all of you service people have to be so pushy?" she lady asked disgustedly.
Clary's nose twitched as she fought to control her temper.
"I am sorry. I will return in three minutes to see if you would like to order," Clary said politely but slowly so the lady would understand her.
She huffed and stuck her face back in the menu. Clary growled under her breath and shook all murderous thoughts from her mind as she went to the front to seat a boy.
She was surprised to find out the boy was Jace. His golden hair was curling around the collar of his leather jacket and there was a motorcycle helmet under his arm. She was surprised to find out he rode; she figured he was a Corvette or a Mustang kinda guy.
"What are you doing here?" his voice held a note of incredulity to it as he looked her up and down.
Clary tugged at the hem of her uniform, it was a mid length plain, black, pleated skirt with a white button up top. She was annoyed at the familiarity in his voice. He had been avoiding and flat out ignoring her the entire week. He only spoke to her if he had to and had come late to every class to avoid any locker conversations.
Great, just what she needed with the family from hell here as well.
"Welcome to Taki's! My name is Clary and I'll be your waitress for the day. If you come with me I'll seat you and take your drink order," she gave him her usual speech with a bright and bubbly voice, betraying none of her emotions.
"I know who you are," he said lowly as he followed her to a table by a window.
She turned to him, ignoring his comment, and gave him a bright smile, giving him a drink menu and a food menu. He sat and quickly perused the drinks menu deciding on a Salted Caramel Chiller.
"I'll be right back to with your drink and to take your order," she told him and turned curtly away from him.
She headed back to the family from hell and she gave them a warm smile.
"So, what can I get for you lovely folks today?" she asked brightly.
The lady looked at her horrified and turned to her partner.
"She's uneducated… That's why she's such a terrible waitress, she doesn't know how to behave," she said quietly, but not quietly enough.
Clary's smile faltered.
"What's gluten free? I'm trying a new diet," the lady asked her slowly.
Clary gritted her teeth at the ladies tone.
"All of our burgers and sandwiches can be made with gluten free bread at and additional cost of $2, aside from that, the rice dishes are all gluten free, the soup, the salads. All the grilled items can be made gluten free with no extra costs," Clary answered.
"Two dollars extra?!" the lady near screeched.
Clary was shocked, no one had ever reacted like that.
"That is outrageous! Why do you charge so much! Gluten free bread is only an extra dollar at the store! You are taking advantage of people, exploiting us because we want to be healthy!" she launched into a tirade.
Clary wanted the Earth to swallow her up as nearly the entire diner turned to look at her and the pterodactyl in front of her.
"I-I'm sorry Ma'am, but I don't make the prices," Clary tried to calm her.
She looked to the children and the father for help but they were all otherwise occupied. This obviously happened a lot.
"You wouldn't know how to, would you," the woman sneered.
Clary wanted to hit her and she had never wanted to strike anyone before.
"Yes Ma'am. I'm an absolute imbecile who has no business working here. You're right," Clary shot back.
The woman stared at her in shock and then gave her a disparaging look.
"I will have the beef salad with no tomato, no noodles—I'm gluten free, and hold the dressing. Don't forget to tell the chef I'm gluten free—that's important. My husband will have the steak sandwich, cooked medium rare, the chips cooked properly. The youngest will have fish and chips, and the twins will have bolognaise and alfredo. They both will have a side of chips each. Thank you that's all we need," she listed and then waved her off again.
Clary was just relieved to have their order finally.
She pushed through the doors to the kitchen and placed the order in the kitchen.
"Order in, and they're assholes, so please make sure everything is right," Clary pleaded.
The chef, Amatis nodded and gave her a sympathetic look.
"I heard one table went ape, sorry that you got stuck with them."
"Ehh, I'll just add a rude tax on their docket or something," Clary laughed.
"If only it was that easy," Amatis laughed ruefully.
"We can dream, right?" Clary called out as she left the kitchen.
"The Salted Caramel is up," Helen Blackthorne called to her, pouring it into a milkshake glass and adding whipped cream and caramel sauce over the top.
"Thanks," Clary said gratefully, grabbing the drink and making her way over to Jace.
"Here's your drink, do you want to order anything yet?" Clary asked him politely.
"Thanks, so that table's kind of a dick table," Jace commented to her.
She gave him a tight smile, she may not like the people but she certainly wasn't going to trash talk them to anyone but her co-workers. They understood what it was like.
"If you're not ready to order that's okay, I'll come back in a couple of minutes," Clary said to him.
She was not going to be all buddy—buddy with Jace if he was barely even going to acknowledge her existence.
"No, no, I'm ready to order. I'll have the coconut pancakes, please and thank you," he said, looking up at her.
"My favourite," she commented, giving him a small smile.
He returned it, but slightly bigger.
"Must be good then," he remarked.
"The best," she corrected.
She slid her notepad and pen away in her apron and walked away to place his order.
She had gotten within earshot of the rude table and could hear the teens snickering over something. She rolled her eyes, boys will be boys. However, when she passed the table she felt a hand sneak up her skirt and squeeze her ass. She yelped and jumped, whirling around to see the boys playing innocent, whistling and facing away from her. The lady looked up from her phone and glared at her.
"What's taking the food so long?" she snapped.
Clary's mouth dropped in indignation as the boys snickered and gave her sneaky looks. She glared at them, her mouth pressed in a tight line.
Jace was the only one who had noticed the altercation and he had an angry frown on his face. He hated it when people invaded other people's personal space and assaulted them like that.
Clary was so angry and frustrated her hands were shaking. Helen looked over at her concerned.
"Do you want to take a break?" she offered.
"No, means those arrogant, self entitled, annoying, perverted little pricks win," Clary muttered.
Helen gave her a pitying smile.
"Well for what it's worth if you punch them out I'll conveniently go to the bathroom so I don't see anything," Helen laughed.
Clary joined her and smiled.
"I like the sound of that," she joked.
Another ten minutes passed and Clary avoided that table like the plague so as not to get groped again. Ding! Clary looked over and groaned. It was that table's order. She picked it up and walked over. She gave the steak sandwich to the man, the fish and chips to the young boy and the beef salad to the lady. She walked back and grabbed the pastas.
"Now who was having the Alfredo?" she asked politely.
The teen on the left gestured so she gave it to him and gave the bolognaise to the other.
"Thanks Dollface," the one on the right said, blowing her a kiss and winking.
Clary couldn't hold back the shudder.
"Where are the boy's chips?" the lady snapped.
"Just up on the shelf, I'm about to go get them," Clary answered.
She grabbed the chips and set them down in front of the boys.
"There we go, that should be everything, is there anything else you need?" Clary asked.
"Where's my dressing?" she snapped.
Clary gave her a confused look.
"You asked us to hold it?" Clary questioned.
"Yes. On the side," the woman said patronisingly, enunciating each word like she was stupid.
Clary gritted her teeth and gave her a tense smile.
"Of course. Anything else?" she checked.
"No, now get my dressing," the woman said impatiently.
Clary nodded and left for the kitchen. She quickly grabbed down a serving boat and poured some dressing in. She made sure that there was enough in there so she didn't have to come back. She returned to the table and gave the dressing to the lady.
"Is that all?"
"My son wants tomato sauce with his fish," the lady instructed.
There was always something. Clary nodded tiredly and went back to get a rammekin of tomato sauce. She brought it back and smiled faintly.
"My other sons want gravy with their chips," the lady ordered, not even looking at her.
"Of course they do," Clary muttered.
The boys just snickered and she she passed, one stuck a foot out and she nearly went sprawling to the floor, her uniform skirt flying up in the process. The boys nearly howled with laughter and Clary wanted to throttle them as her face heated up with embarrassment.
She returned a moment later with their gravy and as she leaned over to put it on the table one of the boys decided to slap her ass this time and Clary spilled the gravy, all over the table.
"You stupid girl!" the woman reached decibel levels higher than Isabelle could and Clary cringed from the pain. "Can you not do a single thing right?! Can no one give good service any more?!"
Clary had had enough.
"Maybe if you didn't have brats for children and had some manners you would get better service," she snapped.
"They have ADHD I can't control them!" she exclaimed.
"No, bad parenting is what it is! Hiding behind ADHD is a joke, and an insult for those with ADHD. Get your damn shit together," Clary lectured.
"Like you can talk you trailer trash, uneducated, stupid girl, have your own children and then you can lecture me," the lady spat.
Clary's fists clenched and her face went as red as her hair.
"I don't need my own children to know that you're doing something wrong when you allow your children to molest service workers," Clary's voice was completely level, which betrayed just how angry she was.
The lady scoffed.
"My children don't do that," she rebuked. "Now clean up your mess."
The two boys were nearly in tears from laughter.
"Yeah, we have ADHD, she can't control us!" they snickered.
Clary glowered down at them. She wouldn't say it but she really hoped they would choke on their pasta. She turned to leave, to get a cloth when she heard a shout.
"Here! You forgot something!"
She turned and froze as a handful of spaghetti and bolognaise sauce splattered on her shirt, face and in her hair.
They all started to laugh and Clary couldn't handle it any more. She just turned and walked straight through to the alley out the back.
Jace was angry, he was mad at the table for disrespecting Clary so blatantly. He stood up and walked over to where they were laughing and enjoying their meals.
"I think it's time you left," he said quietly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"What?" the mother snapped.
The table became silent. He could feel the eyes of everyone in the diner watching him.
"I said it's time to leave. Otherwise you will find out exactly what is on my juvie record and why," he bluffed.
He stared down impassively at them and she was staring at him in horror.
"You have 60 seconds," he said.
"What? You can't!" she tried to bluster.
"Fifty-five… fifty-four… fifty-three," he trailed off, signalling he wasn't kidding.
He found it amazing for 'kids she couldn't control' she had them packed up and gone in seconds. He heard the diner clap and he frowned. They may have not liked the table and wanted them gone but none of them stopped to help so in his mind they were just as bad. He ignored them and walked over to the bar where a girl with short black hair and green eyes was looking at him wide eyed.
"I want to pay their tab," he said.
She nodded silently and rang it all up for him.
He pulled out an American Express credit card and read the total and added a $100 tip.
"Credit please," he said quietly.
Her eyes widened at the tip he was leaving but nodded all the same. He entered his card and the pin waiting patiently.
"Where's Clary?" he asked quietly.
"In the alley out the back," she said equally as quiet.
"May I go back through?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Thank you," he said and left her.