*SEVEN YEARS LATER*
Amy finally raced to the confectionery and dashed in.
She stopped and looked around, panting heavily. Everyone was eating and happily talking about one thing or the other.
She was grateful to see that everything was in order, and that nobody noticed her coming in... Not until she met the stern eyes of the manager. She was at the counter, arms folded, her fat round glasses rest on her lumpy nose, glaring at Amy as she shook her head in disappointment and anger.
She had been waiting for Amy for only God knows how long. She looked like she wanted to explode, but if she was going to do anything, she wasn't going to do it in front of the customers.
With her index finger, she gestured to Amy to come over to the counter.
"In my office," the manager whispered fiercely to Amy when she got closer.
"You realize that we open this restaurant by 8:00 am, right?" She asked when she joined Amy in her office and had her seat.
"Yes ma'am. I'm so sorry ma'am,"
"That means you realize that you are over an hour late, right?" She growled, glaring at Amy.
"Yes, I know, ma'am. I swear I didn't mean to come back late. I had to take my son to school myself, because his teacher threatened not to allow him into the school premises if he didn't come with his school fees. I had to go with him to beg the principal-"
"If you want this job, Amy... If you need this job, you need to know that lateness is not an option. We open this restaurant by 8, and I don't want you to be her anything later than eight. I'm sincerely tired of this excuses you bring about your son. You're not the only person with a child in this morning restaurant. Besides, no one asked you to get pregnant without getting married in the first place. I didn't beg you to be a single mum, do you can't use your problems to run down my business!", she snarled at me in rage.
Amy dared not say anything else in defence. She only looked down on her dust-trodden shoes, allowing the beads of sweat on her head to drop on the mopped ground. She held back the stinging tears of pain choking her throat.
"If you know you don't want to work anymore, or you can't find a way to balance family and work, please quit. I don't want to give Anscienso any excuse to leave this job and get angry and resign. He's the only baker who decided to work for me in the small shop of mine, despite his brilliant culinary skills. If I lose him, it'll take ages before I get another baker as good as him to work for me. Do I make myself clear?" She asked.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry I'm late," she said as she looked down at his shoes, avoiding her angry manager's stern eyes.
"Good. Now quit being sorry and get into that Kitchen and go help Asciensio, before he gets anymore angry than he is right now.... Go! What are you still looking at?!!" She yelled at Amy who scurried out of the office and found his way into the kitchen.
She saw Ascensio busy facing the oven, while Christine her co-worker was over at the counter, sweating profusely, making tea in a large cup to distribute into thirteen different cups.
"Finally," Christine muttered to herself when she saw that Amy had arrived.
Amy ran straight to where Asciensio was and stood beside him.
"Good morning, Asciensio," she greeted, but got no response. She didn't expect to get one either, so she went on talking.
"I want to apologize for coming late. I know you're angry. I'm sorry. I promise it'll never happen again. I won't bore you with the details, as you can already guess that it's concerning my son, but I promise I'll try to get here earlier," she assured.
For the first five seconds, she begot no response from Asciensio.
"First of all," he finally said, "This will be the last time I'll tell you ever to run in my kitchen. Do I make myself clear?" He asked, his eyes still on what he was frying.
"Yes, sir," Amy replied, putting that at the back of her head.
"Secondly, I want to assure you that this will never happen again. If you come late to work again, it's either I wait for yo to arrive and then we start cooking when you arrive, which means that we'll have to starve the customers for your sake. Or I resign. One of the two will occur," he said as he took the cupcakes out of the oven and placed them on the counter.
"It won't happen again, Asciensio. I promise," Amy assured.
"Good. Now see that pile of papers over there?" He pointed to a small dump of papers lying on a table
"Those are the unattended order for the day. Start arranging the orders and begin serving them. I'm surr there are fresh customers before who need their orders taken. Go serve those ones, and take nee orders, before I cut you in half," he threatened and Amy ran over to where the papers were.
"No running Goddammit!!! What the hell did I just say now?!!" He yelled as he grimaced at Amy.
Amy stopped running and stood where he was.
"I'm sorry, Asciensio," she said as she took a deep breath and started taking her steps more consciously.
Christine who had been silent all the while couldn't help but stifle a laugh.
Asciensio immediately turned her attention to her.
"Will it take you the whole damn day to make some tea? Finish up with that and make some dough for the doughnuts, will you?!" He ordered and Christine got herself together at once, doubling her speed with making the tea.
She was soon done and Amy arranged them in a tray and went out to serve them. She kept getting "about time" glares from the customers as she served them, including the manager Mrs. Josephine who was watching from the counter. Amy apologized to every single guest for serving them late.
All the while, she was hoping the principal wouldn't throw her son out while she was away.
"Amy! What are you thinking about? Can't you see that customer that walked in just now? Go keep those empty trays and serve immediately!!" Her annoying tone jolted Amy back into reality, and she ran back into the kitchen immediately.