Talia

Today was an exhausting day at school. As Talia took off her satchel and placed it on her bed, she immediately dozed off.

She was woken up by the phone ringing and she answered it groggily. “Hello?”

“Talia, you are unbelievable you know!”

And by that, she knew it was her best friend Mia.

“You haven’t forgotten about tonight, right?” said Mia.

“Oh shit!” she muttered. Talia had totally forgotten that today was the day they had signed up to be waitpersons for a function.

“You better be getting dressed Talia, I’m fetching you in thirty minutes.” Then she hung up. Talia realized she had slept for four hours and it was now seven-thirty at night.

She quickly sprung up from the bed and took a short shower. Talia got dressed in the uniform that had been given to them for the function.

She tied up her black hair and looked in the mirror to see her bluish-green eyes staring back at her. She put on a bit of makeup and was ready to go.

She heard Mia honking outside and quickly ran out to her. “Talia!” she squealed. “Aren’t you excited? We’re going to be serving rich people tonight!”

Talia laughed in response.

When they arrived she saw the place was huge, across the door was written ‘Empress.’

“Whoa,” she muttered, and Mia also had the same facial expression of amazement.

“You can say that again, Talia.”

They snapped out of it and quickly went inside. The place was massive, with chandeliers, red carpeting, tables, and a dance floor.

They reported to a lady in her mid-forties. She was elegant and started assigning them things to do to prepare for the guests.

After they were done, they were told to stand to the side so the guests could enter.

After twenty minutes the place was jam-packed with tons of people. They all looked flamboyant.

It was tiring and exhausting to run around as these people had never-ending demands.

“Talia,” she heard her boss call her, “here.” She shoved a tray into her hands. “Go to that table and place this glass in front of a man named Axel.”

She took the tray and got to the table with about sixteen people. They looked the richest of all the guests by far. She scanned the table until she saw Axel’s name.

Everyone was in a deep conversation as she placed the glass next to Axel. When she was about to leave, a lady let out a shriek, which drew everyone’s attention.

“Seriously? Couldn’t you have just bought the whole damn bottle!?”

Talia had never blushed so much in her life, she decided to apologize immediately. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” she stuttered. Before she could say anything else she ran to get a bottle of chardonnay.

She came back with it hoping they wouldn’t realize.

When she came back and saw that the woman wasn’t in her seat, she read her tag and saw that her name was Sophie. She was relieved as she could place the bottle on the table and leave.

Talia did that and when she was about to leave, she heard a voice boom and got a bit of a fright.

“Where the fuck do you think you are going?”

A hand had gripped her wrist and pulled her in.

“Um....I.. need...to go...serve the other tables, sir,” she stuttered.

“But did I dismiss you?” His eyes were blazing, and his voice was low yet commanding.

At that moment she saw his date approaching, relief flooding her. The date arrived and the man let Talia go. Immediately, she left.

But as she was leaving she could feel his eyes boring into her back.