The Way It Never Was Read Online Free PDF Page B

Proper giggles.’
    However, while Hilarious Sam may be unnaturally perky about life, she’s still serious about her job. Her bosses know it too, giving her not only all the responsibility to prepare all the food orders but to do all the baking for that day. She arrives at six in the morning before everyone else to bake the ‘muffin of the day’ then leaves at four in the afternoon. It’s a long day, but we’re not talking about mixing tuna and mayo are we? As required of a trendy café menu, Sam bakes ricotta, grills aubergines, marinades sun blush tomatoes, pickles courgettes and prepares fresh fruit salad, amongst other things. All of this she does in a space no bigger than a large closet, with no windows and the nearest access to light being the back door that leads out to the alleyway. With working quarters like these, I wouldn’t be quite so chipper, but still she laughs. It’s just a shame there aren’t more customers to eat her lovely food.
    Liv then gets up. ‘Don’t go anywhere. I want to hear what happened with the job,’ she says, before plodding towards the counter. I make a gesture at whipping out my book to read, but I then spy her speaking to Paolo who has his back to me, only for him to then look straight at me in the mirror behind the counter. Okay, it’s official. I’ve become the world’s most paranoid person. Oh wait a minute, it turns out I have every reason to be.
    ‘Have you lost your job?’ Paulo shouts, prompting the three other customers to fall silent. A baby burps. I slowly get up and walk a little nearer, as the thought of conducting a conversation about my life crisis from across the café is not exactly thrilling.
    ‘Yes I did.’ I feel annoyed and glare at Liv walking past. ‘Thanks mate.’
    Liv looks sheepishly at me. ‘Sorry, he was asking me about why you were here at this time of day. I had to tell him. Can I apologise by way of a sandwich on the house,’ she pleads, handing me over a large mozzarella and avocado focaccia, cut into squares with a pretty salad garnish on the side – beautiful food that will no doubt otherwise be going to waste.
    Moving around jars on the counter, Paolo shakes his head. ‘Ah no job. I win the bet. You see, I was talking to my wife,’ he points to the idle Paula who breaks off from wiping her son’s nose to look me up and down. ‘She said you are a very pretty girl but you always look very, what is the word... pathetic.’ All eyes are now on me, probably deliberating exactly how pathetic I am. ‘I said to her, “I wonder why Kate is the way she is, has she no life? I never see her with a man and she always wears bad suits”.’ Then as though he’s been holding in his breath the whole time, he quickly bangs his hand on the counter. ‘We think you make bad, bad decisions Kate. You are how do they say it? Yes, you are lost. Not even there six months.’
    ‘Paolo, with due respect, I was there 11 months and twenty-eight days,’ I interrupt, feeling compelled to correct a random timeline he’s just invented for dramatic purposes.
    Paolo just shakes his head. ‘You split hairs. It doesn’t matter. You were there not even a year. That is terrible!’ he declares. ‘Take Liv and myself. We have worked together for what feels like eternity and although I dislike her intensely a lot of the time, we hang on in there as we have to. I don’t think you try very hard. You probably just hide behind a fern and then they forget you work there.’
    Before I have the chance to tell him that if only it were that simple, that you could just blend into the background without prompting an email, he throws his tea towel over his shoulder and walks out into the kitchen.
    ‘It was a Yucca actually,’ I say loudly after him, in part to myself. Just two days ago, answering back didn’t feature in my repertoire, but then that was before I impulsively walked out of my job. ‘I used to hide behind a Yucca if you really want to know.’
    Liv, who