1
Nobody is watching you, nobody is watching you...
Amanda chanted to herself as she walked across the open space in the park where a group of guys younger than her were preparing to play a game of soccer. Students probably, she thought. She hoped she wouldn't get knocked in the head with one of their balls and picked up her pace. Her anxiety was unusually high this morning.
Normally, she would have walked across the park early in the morning while no one was around. But today they were doing inventory so she was only expected to be in at 1 PM. The extra anxiety was also because she was finally going to ask for a raise at the coffee shop where she had worked for almost eight months now.
She needed the money and had found out two weeks earlier that their manager paid her co-worker, Mark, a lot more than he paid her. Mark had worked there for six months longer than she had, but they had the same job description and did the same things. It didn't make any sense to be paid less than him. After her initial anger, she came up with a plan. She hoped with her whole heart that it was some kind of accounting mistake and simply asking for a raise would clear everything up.
"What the hell? That's—," Mark had said weeks ago when he saw Amanda's pay check over her shoulder, "oh, sorry, I'm so sorry."
"What? What do you mean?" She responded. Mark paused, wondering if he should say anything. He slowly pulled his folded up check from his apron and gave it to her. She looked up at him, shocked at the number she saw.
"This is what you get every month?" She gaped in disbelief.
"You should definitely talk to him," Mark looked at her guiltily.
"Yeah."
Amanda had been preparing exactly what she would say all weekend. She didn't like conflict and definitely didn't want to make it seem like Mark had told this big secret so she decided to just ask for a raise and somewhere in the discussion, maybe her current pay would come up. Mark was a good coworker and friend. It felt weird to bring him into this even though he had assured her that he was ready to back her up. She smiled at the thought of him and her fighting their boss together.
She tucked a stray strand of her coily hair behind her ear, took a deep breath and adjusted the strap of her bag. What's the worst that could happen? Mr. Bates could fire you, her conscience replied. Maybe he doesn't want an employee who's so needy. That was a ridiculous thought. She would get it over and done with and everything would be okay. Then she would start saving for a laptop with the extra money.
Café Gray was already open so Mark was probably inside. The chairs were still up on the tables and at the bar. Amanda went into the store room and grabbed her apron and work shirt. She carried them into the ladies staff bathroom and changed into her uniform. When she came out, Mark was dropping the bar stools gently onto the floor.
"Good afternoon you," he smiled at her warmly. He paused and walked over to where Amanda was standing.
"Hi Mark. How are you?" She gave him a high five.
Mark smelt like coffee beans already, a lovely smell. It clung to their aprons and to her hair, especially on full work days. But that was honestly a bonus. A cafe was the ideal place for her to work. She loved the smell, the coziness of the café, the way some people were regulars and others were complete strangers. She liked that every day fekt new. She started arranging chairs around the few tables in the cafe.
"I'm always great, you know me. How was your weekend?" Mark returned to the bar and finished up there before helping set up the rest of the seating in the cafe.
"Oh, you know," she began, "it was super quiet. I went to my parents'. My mum and I baked and delivered a bunch of cakes..."
From Sunday to Thursday, Mark was her closest friend. Amanda took Fridays off while Mark took Mondays off. She knew there were other employees who worked on those days but they were barely acquainted. It was Mark who taught her how to make americanos, chai lattes and tea mixes. He became her friend quickly and soon, they found themselves in a pleasant rhythm. They continued their chatting while they finished setting up the cafe and went to the small storeroom to take inventory. They divided the storage space in two and tackled the work, laughing and conversing as they went.
On a regular work day, the employees would be busy taking orders, manning the cash register, cleaning tables and making coffee all day, but the last Wednesday of every month was inventory day. Once a month, they took stock and filled in a bunch of forms. Technically, on those Wednesdays, the cafe was only open for two hours, so they didn’t take many customers. They opened the doors at 4 PM and closed them at 6 PM.
Amanda enjoyed inventory day. It was a lot of counting and sorting but it was also therapeutic. She usually found that time went by quickly and before she knew it, it was time to lock up and go home. It also helped that Mark kept her busy with silly questions and random information about movies he'd seen.
At the end of the day, Mr. Bates was supposed to sign off on the forms and make sure their inventory check matched up with the previous month’s. They also usually had a short meeting about things happening in the café, products their customers particularly liked and if there were any complaints made against either of them, this meeting is where the complaints were discussed.
It was nearing 7 PM now and Mr. Bates was nowhere to be seen. He normally showed up around 4 PM, the time they usually finished with inventory and stuck around in his office until their meeting. Then it was his turn to lock up the cafe while the two tired employees went home. Mark and Amanda had both changed back into their casual clothes while they waited. Mark called their manager to no avail. It rang until it cut twice and the third time, it went to voicemail. They were about to give up.
Ten minutes later, Amanda got up with a sigh and gave Mark a sad shrug. "Your raise," Mark reminded as she started to walk out the door, "it's almost like he knew."
"I'll just ask him on Monday, come on." Amanda had to get home and feed her cat, Zeus.
"Do you wanna hold on to these?" Mark dangled the keys in front of him. Amanda responded with a shake of her head and gave him a hug as she said goodbye. He locked up the cafe and they went their separate ways.
All the establishments around and near Café Gray had closed up, except one or two places that stayed open until midnight. In the distance, she saw a small eating place still open. She could hear faint music coming from that direction. A lady walked out of the shop and hurried to the park exit.
As she walked across the mostly empty park, she started to wonder where their manager could have gone. He wasn't the best at his job but he definitely wasn't the type to slack off of work completely, at least not without telling Mark or herself. Maybe he was sick. Her thoughts drifted to a bedridden Mr. Bates, and then to hospitals and how she liked how doctors wore crocs everywhere, to her own need to buy a new pair of comfy shoes to walk around the house with.
When she had reached the end of the park where the gate was, the sun was almost completely set but the street lights weren't yet on. Suddenly, she sensed that someone or something was looking at her. She turned her head in the direction she had just come from and squinted hard into the dimness. She thought she saw someone walking to the café but when she blinked, the park was empty as before. She decided not to be brave and turned out of the park and onto the main road.
A stream of cars drove past her steadily as she fished her earphones out of her bag. Amanda's apartment building was a fifteen minute walk away from the coffee shop and this was one of the best parts of her day. She walked down the mostly empty road humming along to Hozier’s voice as her feet hit the pavement. At the end of the road, she took a right and saw her apartment in the distance. She smiled.
Amanda had learned how to tolerate the outside world. She taught herself how to ignore her feelings of discomfort and nervousness while she interacted with people. She didn't know when it started or where it stemmed from, regular conversation just made her feel self-conscious, a feeling she was unable to shake since she was a young teen.
Over the years, she came to understand that this was anxiety and she had to cope. So far, she was doing well. She had bi-monthly sessions with a therapist close to her parent's home, she did breathing exercises and had a journal for her more anxious days. Lately, life had been good. Her home, however, was still the safest place she knew and the closer she got to the eight-story building in which she lived, the more relieved she felt.
Without much thought, Amanda entered the elevator in the lobby, pressed the number 5 and entered the password on her door. She stepped in and was greeted by Zeus meowing at her as he tried to climb up her leg. She smiled at the black and white cat before picking him up and carrying him to the kitchen.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry,” she was referring to the fact that she had come home late. He meowed in response and waited patiently as she poured him some wet food and replaced the water in his little yellow bowl.
With Zeus fed and happy, Amanda took a shower, made herself a quick stir-fry dinner and settled into her bed to watch YouTube videos. She would fall asleep like that, clean and comfortable. As she got sleepier and sleepier, Amand mind wandered again to her boss. Whatever was wrong, she would find out at work the next day. She sunk further into her blankets and yawned.
Brian Bates looked at the time on his watch. It read 03:43 AM. He was sure the park was completely empty by now. He came out from the space under his desk with a dark blue bag held tightly in his hand. His forehead was sweating as he crept to the door of his office. He had no idea how he ended up in the situation he was in but he didn’t have time to think about that right now. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and turned his door handle slowly. The only sound in the café was his own breathing, so he stepped out somewhat confidently into the quiet cafe.
There was so much tension in his body that he had to remind himself to relax his shoulders. I don't deserve to relax, he thought to himself, but he had to see his own plans through. Sure, a part of him felt guilty for what he was about to do, especially when he considered his employees but they were kids. They didn't understand the pressure of a nagging wife or spoiled kids. They would forget all about this silly cafe in a year or two. At least that's what he told himself.
Mr. Bates was nearly at the door to the café when he heard someone scoff in the darkness behind him. Mr. Bates froze. His whole body came to a stop and his heart started to pound hard against his chest. Nobody could have entered the café while he was there; nobody but him and his employee had the keys. Unless…
“Brian,” a voice spoke, “you fucking asshole.”
