There will be some disgusting language used in this chapter. Please note I disapprove of it myself. I'd never say these things myself. That's not who I am. Okay, with that out of the way, please enjoy the chapter.
Shaggy had arrived for his shift at the "Vandom Family Dinner." It was a lovely little homey restaurant with excellent service and casual dining. It was pretty popular in this area of Chicago.
He first checked in with the owner/boss of the place, Cynthia Vandom. Cindy was reasonably attractive. She was of medium height and slender, with short dark red curly hair and light blue eyes.
Her husband happened to be Ruby's school's principal. Her eldest daughter, Haley, was a junior in high school. She resembled her mother, except she'd streaked her red hair with golden highlights.
Ruby's other friends' older sisters, Hagit Dawson and Felicia Hanshaw, also worked at the restaurant. The three teenagers were waitresses while Shaggy waited tables and occasionally assisted in preparing the food.
"Evening, Cindy. How are you doing tonight?" Shaggy asked as he finished getting into his uniform.
His pretty and friendly supervisor looked up from her phone. "Oh, hi, Norville. Everything is going smoothly. I wish I could be properly helping tonight. Yet, I've to go over some paperwork in my office tonight. So I'm appointing you as temp supervisor for the night.
You already know the ins and outs of the business. So it shouldn't be too hard to manage for one night, right?" she asked hopefully.
"Nah, everything will be perfectly groovy. Trust me," the young adult replied.
"Okay. I'll see you at closing time! Remember, the dinner rush can get hectic. However, it's nothing you can't handle!" Cindy said as she went to her office.
Shaggy took a few deep breaths before telling the staff he was in charge, at least for tonight. Nobody had a problem with this, so he didn't think anything would go wrong.
The evening started smoothly enough. Most of the regulars had shown up for dinner. However, Haley came to see Shaggy half an hour into their nightly shift. "Excuse me, Norville?"
"Shaggy," he corrected. He didn't mind his boss using his real name. However, he did want his preferred name used by the staff.
Haley shook her head, "I'm sorry, Shaggy," as she played with her braided red and yellow locks.
"Is something the matter?" he asked, to which Haley nodded. She explained that his help was required because a rude woman was screaming at the newest waitress, Delia, even after Haley explained Delia was deaf.
"Okay, I'll go deal with this woman. You go comfort Delia, alright?" the sixteen-year-old nodded.
Shaggy took a deep breath to steady himself and walked over to the woman, still causing a scene. "Excuse me? May I help you with something?"
The bitchy woman gave Shaggy one look of disgust before saying, "Does diner only hire cripples and freaks?" she demanded rudely.
"Excuse me?" Shaggy wasn't one to get angry. Yet tonight was turning into an exception.
"Well, it's unmistakable you must be either poor or homeless! And that bratty teen saying that n-****** work here is deaf? What kind of r-**** place is this?"
Shaggy stated firmly, "Excuse me. We don't tolerate anyone's vulgarity or derogatory behavior. So you can leave and are banned from this restaurant. We value each member of our team equally.
But we do not tolerate people like you. So you can either leave willingly, or we will call the police. So you've two minutes to decide. Is it going to be the easy way or the hard way?" Shaggy stood straight and tall.
The entitled woman scoffed before cussing some more. Haley ended up calling the police. The policeman who appeared was Lionel Flores, Ruby's new friend Arsenio's father.
He was an extremely good family friend of the Vandoms. Plus, one of their best customers. So he quickly hauled the bitchy lady into the back of his cruiser. Shaggy thanked him for his help and handed him a box with two pie slices.
He'd gotten the okay from Cindy to give them to Lionel since he was doing them a favor. Plus, again was a friend. The entire restaurant and staff clapped loudly for both of them for handling that entitled woman so well. Shaggy just felt proud of himself for standing up instead of running. He was looking forward to returning home and telling Crystal all about it.