So we start at 2:00 PM on Saturday, there's going to be a camera crew and such filming at the restaurant. The restaurant's had a lot of good press lately, and they're taking it a bit further by having some online videos and such of the staff and food. There's a local news celebrity and sports hero officiating, this I know only because staff is quick to explain to me, not having a TV makes me a bit out of touch.
For dinner we've arranged a long table in the main dining room and the owner has outdone himself with dinner for staff and a few bottles of wine. This doesn't bode well, good spirits in the end will sour...
And G has taken issue with the owner's decision to have a girl doing the serving in the video, he feels that after 10 years it's his right, his due, and he has a fight with the manager, harsh words are exchanged, it wasn't her decision, and G in retaliation tears upon all of the waitresses and other staff.
It's ridiculous, and to add to it G has broken down and is crying. I'm not so good with crying women, let alone men, and there's still 2 hours to go before the shift starts. It's going to be a long night.
***
It was a long night, midnight departure from the restaurant, G having got a little drunk before the shift got a lot drunk during it, turned in partial orders for full tables, screaming in the kitchen, all entirely foreseeable, nonetheless long. And G comes over to my place after work to get a few things off his chest. He's stoned, apologetic for the way the night has gone, the way he's fought with the other staff members, holds his drink in his hand and stares into space....
I try to keep the conversation going but he's strangely quiet, he explains that it was him who should have been in the video, and I brush it aside and change the topic. I don't want him crying again. And he's quiet and apologizes for fucking up so many orders, pauses, then says: "It's the customers...they lie, you know...".
I know. Long pause, G staring into space, I make light conversation, he answers questions 10, 20 minutes after I ask them, entirely out of the blue and at random, your mind races to think back to the question he's answering...he's stoned, he's fucked himself up good. And he asks if he can spend the night, crash on the sofa, and of course I can't let him drive home and so I agree....
It's 1:30, 1:45 in the morning and I've tentatively agreed to join the other staff for a drink to celebrate one of the waitresses birthdays. G doesn't want to go, wants to sit and chill staring into space and pacing and so I excuse myself and go. It's a local pub, just up the street, and bearing in mind where I live all the "local" pubs are very, very scary. This one is no exception. The staff ask about G, he's pissed them off no end, many were going to quit tonight but the manager talked them out of it. The girls and their boyfriends, it's my first social outing with the staff, they're all much, much younger and already mostly drunk, I pay for my drink at the bar and join them. They rant about work, order too many shots and drinks, and finally the birthday girl passes out and falls upon her head on the floor.
I remember why I don't hang out with staff.
The bill has arrived, it's 3:00 AM and there's a panic to pay and get out of there, I end up kicking in a hundred dollars for the drink I paid for at the bar, and being the only sober one there end up driving everyone to the hospital.
I so remember why I don't hang out with staff.
8:00 AM before finally I'm home, having discharged the birthday girl into the custody of her boyfriend, he's curiously indifferent to her possible concussion and instead regaled us with metal tunes on the electric guitar; I drop the manageress and her boyfriend off at their home, drive myself home, G is up playing Pac-Man on the TV. He's still fucked up, the first thing he says when I walk in: "54" - he's answering me the question of the oldest woman he's "dated". I have to think awhile to remember the question, I asked it before I left.....
And then - "Can I crash here tonight?....". He's so fucked up. It's been a long night and it's time for bed, I leave him staring into space.