A Few Short Moments

“Behind you!” I said as I moved my tray of stacked glasses towards the sink.

As if he didn’t hear me, he stepped back and the tray of glasses skimmed his apron, almost tipping the whole thing over.

I took a long exhale saying, “That wouldn’t have been good for my first day.”

“Sorry about that.”

I shook my head as if it was no big deal. But on the inside, I was trembling. My shaky hands soon made their way to the sink to carefully place the glasses down for the washer to get to.

“I’m Patrick, by the way.”

He had a smug grin across his face. Not quite arrogant, but not welcoming either. It’s as if his face read, “Alright, new girl, we’re about to be in for something, aren’t we?”

I quickly replied, “Nice to meet you. I’m Eva.”

The next day, I had the luncheon shift. I made sure to get there early. It was only my second day on the job, and there was the potential for a new job opening in the future. I had to put my best foot forward.

When I walked up to the door, I saw Patrick coming towards it from the other direction. He must have the same schedule as me.

“After you,” he says as pulling the door open.

“Thanks.”

We start heading back towards our own sections; mine waiting tables, him in the kitchen helping the chef.

There are only a few minutes within our shifts that we interact.

But for those short moments, I can tell his ego is far too high for my liking. It’s not necessarily what he says, but the way he says it. Actually, the content of what he says is often very nice; “Do you need help with that?” or “Oh, it’s no problem at all.”

This makes it seem as if I was complaining about nothing, but if you’d have heard the words leave his mouth, you’d understand. It felt self-congratulatory.

And yet, I still liked looking at that smug smile. That annoying obnoxious smile.

Things continued like that for a while. He would say something to me and I would just roll my eyes in response. But when he wasn’t looking, I’d catch a glimpse of him; when he wasn’t looking all smug. Those small glances allowed me not to plug my ears when his lips moved.

That is, until one day, he came up to me after our luncheon shift.

Out of nowhere, he said, “So why don’t you like me?”

“What do you mean?”

“You clearly don’t like me,” he replied, “why is that?”

I was caught off-guard, I really didn’t know how to respond, “Why do you think I don’t like you?”

“Do you think your eye rolls are really that subtle?”

Now I really didn’t know how to respond. I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out.

As I exhaled, he said, “Okay, look I get it. I can come across as off-putting to some people.”

I nodded and he continued, “Almost everyone’s first impression of me is that I'm egotistical. Sorry about that. It’s just that I’m actually shy and so I try to compensate for it and it comes across as overconfidence. And it especially happens with people who I like. So, that would be you. Sorry.”

I told him I appreciated his honesty.

“So…” I continued, “you like me, huh?”

He blushed and chuckled a bit.

“Then why don’t we go out for drinks after our luncheon shift tomorrow?”

“Deal.”

From there, everything seemed to fit into place because of how well we got along. Once my perspective of him changed, we immediately connected.

So much so, that as we were working for the same job position opening, we were surprisingly not competitive. See, I was a waiter and him a hopeful chef, but we were both trying to fill the position opening on a new boat. There was an apprentice spot where you would wait tables and occasionally work next to the chef.

Our restaurant would be catering the food on the ship, and all the guests were going to be high-end clientele. This could be a big opportunity for either of us.

Although we weren’t exactly competitive, we worked as hard as we could. And that hard work paid off.

They opened up a position for both of us to take the apprenticeship.

This was partly because our boss knew we were together, so they wouldn’t have to secure two separate rooms for us, but either way, he said he wouldn’t have been able to choose between us.

And so, we both took the job and packed our bags to take on the boat…together.