Getting hot at the coffee shop

4

I woke up bright and early the next morning so that I could make myself presentable for work. After showering, I wiped the steam from the mirror and looked at myself. My wet hair hung down in a stringy mess and since I had time to kill, I threw on an old t-shirt and let it hang loose to dry.

I aimlessly wandered around my tiny apartment looking around at the clutter. I would one day have to clean it up; today was not that day. Navigating to my kitchen, I sat at the built in counter and picked up a stack of opened envelopes. Bills.

“Everyone wants to grow up to be an adult but nobody knows the cost of being one” I muttered to myself.

Several of them were past due including my rent. Lucky for me the apartment manager was a middle aged man who claimed to have a daughter just my age and I reminded him of her. He often showed me a little more grace with my late payments than he did the others. I wondered if his daughter paid her bills on time. She was probably more responsible than I was.

Feeling the wetness seeping through the t-shirt, I decided to go ahead and get my clothes out. I had carefully went through my closet the night before, finding a skirt that was short, but not too short. If I would be getting tips I wanted to make the most of it. I hated that I would be selling my looks but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. Besides, why have a good body if you’re not going to use it.

Heading back into the bathroom I begrudgingly pulled out the blow dryer and dried my hair. Now it just looked like a big floofy mess. This wasn’t going to work. Now I had to straighten it.

While waiting for the hot iron the heat up, I decided to go ahead and get dressed. Thankfully my clothes weren’t wrinkled this time; not that I would’ve ironed them anyway. I left that kind of business to the older generation. My generation was all about the dryer method and I was thankful.

After dressing, I looked through my shoes. Definitely not heels today. Especially after that smart ass comment Leo made about how I would break my neck. Just the thought of him made me frown. I took a deep breath. I didn’t know him and maybe he was just having a bad day. I’m sure today would be different since we would be working alongside each other. Or at least I hoped so. Anyway, Christopher was nice so at least there was that.

I found a pair of suitable flats and went back to the bathroom. Straightening my hair was not my favorite thing to do. Pulling the wand down and holding my hair, I usually found a way to burn my fingers. This morning that would not happen. Looking over at the clock, I noticed time had slipped away from me and I only had forty five minutes to get to work. Speeding up was a huge mistake and I knew I had messed up the minute I did it. I burned the top of my forehead. An angry red mark stared back at me from the mirror.

“Great, just great” I complained to myself. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Leo saw me trip, now he would see the burn mark and think I was a complete klutz. Given my history, I think I may be , so he wouldn’t exactly be wrong.

Unplugging it, I tossed the hot iron into the sink and glared at it. Now I had to throw some makeup on and hope I could manage to cover it up. I tried concealer and foundation and bronzer but nothing seemed to make it less noticeable. It was moments like this I wish I had opted for bangs. Well, there was no use in worrying about it now. Throwing on some lipgloss I ran into the living room and scanned it to see if I was forgetting anything.

“Keys!” I shouted and grabbed them off the counter.

Running out the door, I hopped in my car and sped off hoping like hell I wouldn’t be late on my very first day.