Diaries Of A Clumsy Waitress

Chapter 2: A Five Dirhams Tip

May 08, 2013

Dear Diary,

I took off my shoes and placed them underneath the small dining table at the back of the shop. My supervisor has given me forty five minutes break from work after I accidentally broke five empty tea glasses in front of my Emirati customers sitting in the outside tables. Dahlia, my Indian supervisor was so hysterical when she found out about what happened. She dragged me forcefully towards the kitchen and scolded me for being so clumsy. The tea glasses are coming from Austria and we only have few of them left. Coffeeshop Company is a franchise from Vienna, Austria which opened in Dubai only a year ago by a Russian businessman who owns at least ten different restaurants and coffeeshops around the UAE. "Did you know that those glasses are sixty five dirhams each?" she glared at me with big black burning eyes. " It will be charged to you from your weekly tips until you paid every glasses you broke."I sighed. Checking my wrist watch, it is just eleven in the evening but my feet feel like I've been working for sixteen hours! I washed my hands and noticed a small slit from the shard of a tea glass I broke a moment ago. Over the passed few weeks, I broke at least one fourth of the shop's tea glasses, tea brewers, mugs and pretty much of anything breakable. If not breaking glasses, I give the wrong coffee to the wrong customer. I often times find myself losing a fight with the barista for ordering a cinnamon latte instead of a coconut one. Or requesting to remove the whipped cream of a hot chocolate when the customer complains she ordered it without the cream. There isn't a day I could consider a disaster-free shift. Every night at work is a disaster. No wonder I never thought of working in coffeeshops because even at home, I replace my lampshade at least three times a month! I don't know why every breakable thing around me breaks easily!

It's been three months since I accepted the job as a waitress Mr. Franco have offered me in his small newly opened Austrian coffee shop. I didn't have a choice. My visa was about to expire so I shook off my hesitations and signed the offer letter. I don't regret it because I have amazing friends at work who make my life feel easier and relieve my homesickness because this is gonna be my first time working in a foreign country. I wonder if my friends back home still remember me. I got new sets of friends now and I happy with them but I still care for my old friends. Sometimes when I feel homesick, I look over the photos in my iPad and relive the moments I had with my friends back home. And then I would dial their phone numbers and cry like I lost my pregnancy. I shook off the thought. I can do this, I have my job now though I belong to the group of workers in the UAE who has the lowest salary.

My phone rang and Markus' name showed on my iPhone.

"Hey!" I answered enthusiastically.

"Hi hun, how are you doing?" Markus shouted. I think his phone is on loudspeaker. He is probably driving home now.

" I'm on break. I'm off at two o'clock."

"Oh honey, I can't pick you up tonight. I'm heading to Cavalli with my office mates for a drink. I'm really sorry..." there's an insincere tone in his voice.

"It's alright, Markus. I can hop into our company bus. Don't worry about it."

"You sure, hun?"

"Yep."

"Okay. Call me when you're home. I miss you!"

"Sure will..." I lowered my voice when my eyes caught Dahlia coming to the back area of the shop. I pressed the end button with disappointment. Markus forgot our dinner date tonight to celebrate our second month of being together. Well, I did expect that to happen cos he is always forgetful of everything about us. A real state broker is a hard job so I understand if he sometimes forget something he promised. Our work timings are entirely different that it's very difficult for us to set a date to go out together. What happens only is just sometimes he picks me up from work, grab a coffee and drive me home. I always work night shifts, he works during the day. I only have one day off during Saturdays and he has Mondays and Fridays so it's kind of hard for the both of us. He asked me to move to his apartment in Marina but I hesitated. Markus is a party goer. He has a lot of friends that I find difficult to blend myself with. It is like they are from the upper class and I am two steps lower than them. His work mates, his football and gym buddies and people I can't recall. Sometimes I sneak into his phone and discover messages from different women he bumps into clubs or somewhere else. I get insecure and jealous because no matter how hard I try, I couldn't see myself fit into their society. I am just a clumsy waitress with a very low self esteem and belief into my own self. So I promised to my self that I will never give him my everything until he could finally see my worth.