Life Through a Lense

Chapter Seventeen

"Please, I'm begging you," Mitchell pleaded.  "Just for a couple days."

"I can't work for that asshole," I repeated for the fifth time. 

According to Mitchell, the transition wasn't going as smoothly as he'd hoped. Half the staff had quit before Jack even took over. Three more people quit on the first day. And I couldn't say I blamed them. Mitchell couldn't be there because he was already back in Nepal. 

"They need...moral support," he said. "I'll pay you a thousand dollars." 

My ears perked up at the thought. I'd like to think that I wasn't a sell-out, but apparently, I was. After overhearing how much medical school costs and thinking about how Ivy wanted to go into neurology, I couldn't afford not to be a sell-out. 

"Do you really have that type of money to throw around?" I asked. 

"I met a man on the plane over here and when I told him what I was doing, he just wrote me a check for fifty grand. I can afford it," he said. 

Mitchell could talk a homeless person out of his jacket, so this didn't surprise me. 

"Fine, but just for two days," I gave in. 

***

"I'm sooo glad you're back," Michelle commented. 

"I told you, I'm not back," I reminded her. "Just for a couple days." 

Fuck, I knew this was going to happen. 

"You're perpetuating my abandonment issues," she said. 

"I've met your parents, you don't have abandonment issues," I told her. 

"You're the one giving me abandonment issues," she reasoned. 

I rolled my eyes as far back into my head as I physically could. Michelle was going to give me shit, I should have known. I had no idea she was going to be this dramatic. 

"Dana, you're back!" Gunner called from the kitchen, giving me an enthusiastic wave.

I cringed as Michelle gave me a mock-sweet smile. How many times was I going to have this conversation today? 

The door swung open, bringing a familiar face. 

"Ladies and gentleman!" Jack announced, strolling in like he owned the place (well,  I guess he did now). 

My teeth clenched and an acidic reaction in my stomach threatened to make me hurl right then and there, but I managed to swallow my reaction. His 'posse' or 'crew' of five Russian looking guys all dressed the same followed in after him. I did recognize one of them from Jack and I's first encounter. A flash of heat shot through my bloodstream when I made eye contact with Jack. Not embarrassment, but fury. 

"We've got a new uniform for the ladies," he announced, pointing to two boxes a couple of the guys were wearing.

Uniforms? We didn't wear uniforms. As long as we weren't showing anything illegal to show, Mitchell never really cared. We did sell T-Shirts and other clothes with the restaurant name on it so I wore that I lot, but the environment was never really a 'uniform' environment. 

"I'd like you to wear these starting today," he said, pulling a skimpy tank top out of a box. They might as well have said Hooters on them. Not that I have a problem with the girls who work at Hooters, but you can't go from allowing girls to wear whatever they want to forcing them to  wear knock-off Hooters tank tops overnight. 

Michelle glanced at me. I wasn't sure if she was looking to see how I would react or if she was trying to communicate with me. Either way, I could tell she was pissed as well.