Run, Girl (If You Can)

Keeley's friends left only a couple of weeks after graduation to get settled and find jobs so she found herself with way too much free time on her hands. Classes didn't start until the last week of August so she had almost three months to kill.

Watching (at least for her) reruns of TV shows she used to like and reading got old after a while. She was itching to get out and do something so she tried to find a job.

Unfortunately, there weren't many part-time jobs available that worked with her schedule. She had already signed up for her classes and they went from 8 AM-3PM most days with a few breaks in between so she was only able to work evenings.

Her best bet seemed to be food service. She sighed. She had worked for a hamburger chain for a good chunk of college in Boston and hated it.

The manager was terrible, she had to spend hours on her feet, and customers could be incredibly rude and demanding. If you want five star service, don't go to a place that sells $1 burgers!

Aaron used to give her a hard time, telling her she needed a better job but nowhere else was hiring that would match her hourly wage.

She got a 25 cent raise every six months or so and after working there for three years was making $9.50 an hour. No other jobs that worked around her class schedule paid that well so she dealt with it until graduation.

He offered more than once to simply pay for her living expenses so she wouldn't have to suffer the degradation of wearing a chain restaurant uniform but her pride wouldn't allow that.

Looking back, she should have taken advantage of his money when she had the chance. She would suffer because of it later on so she may as well have milked it for all it was worth.

Unfortunately, she never lost her thrifty mindset no matter how long she was with him.

She wore nice clothes and had the proper manners after much practice but every time she swiped his credit card on a big purchase, she secretly cringed.

Keeley only used it at all because he insisted that she would shame him by not dressing like everyone else in their social circle. She went to expensive shops with other socialites and ate at nice restaurants with them out of necessity but she never forgot her roots.

She wasn't above working in a fast food restaurant, as much as she might not like the food service industry. She wasn't like Aaron.

Thinking of Aaron…he should still be in the city now since Harvard didn't start until the beginning of September. He was probably shadowing his father at the company again before heading down to Massachusetts. It was what he did before.

Ugh, why was she even thinking about him at all? He wasn't a part of her life anymore. How long would it take to get him permanently out of her head?

Keeley had lived for a combined total of thirty-two years and he had been present for nearly half of that time. He haunted so many of her memories.

She guessed it would take making new memories that didn't revolve around him to forget all the old ones.

In the end, she accepted a job at a different burger chain than the one she used to work at. At least she knew the ropes already. It wouldn't be too difficult to adjust.

Too bad she wasn't able to put previous fast food experience on her resume and still had to go through all the training for what she already knew. They didn't trust her on her own for several weeks but once they did Keeley got into a rhythm.

"Welcome to Burger Barn! May I interest you in a side of our new black peppercorn fries today?" she greeted in her false, cheery customer service voice.

"No thanks," the customer said while perusing the menu. "Can I have a number five combo with a strawberry milkshake instead of a soda?"

Keeley entered the information into the register.

"Yes, is there anything else I can get for you today?"

"No, that'll be all."

"Your total is $7.32. Here's your receipt! Thank you for coming in and have a great day!"

That was a standard interaction with a casual, non-grumpy customer. Right now she was working a full-time day shift with the agreement that as soon as school started she would only work from 4-8 PM Tuesday-Friday and 11 AM-7 PM on Saturdays.

The rushes usually hit 12-2 PM and then again from 5-7 PM. Throughout the rest of the day, they only got a handful of customers so they were able to spend that time cleaning.

Keeley's coworkers consisted of Matt Turlock, a gangly nineteen year old boy who was trying to become a musician and spent all his free time busking in Central Park, Amy Carlin, a 45-year-old single mother of two whose husband recently left her and hadn't worked in years, and Patrick Arquette, an art student at a nearby community college who was probably in his late twenties.

All of them were managed by a burly man in his thirties with multiple piercings named Jack Jackson III.

Apparently multiple generations of his family had a terrible sense of humor and decided to continue punishing their children by passing the name on. The crazy thing was that he had a four-year-old son also named Jack. The tradition was going strong. Little Jack wanted to name his eventual son Jack Jackson the fifth.

Everyone on her shift got along fairly well, which was an improvement over her last fast food job.

Unfortunately, she might not overlap with all the same people once school started so that could change quickly.

Keeley worked cashier during the dinner rush and frequently hollered back to Matt, who was on the grill, and Amy, who was dealing with fries and other sides.

By the time her shift ended at seven she was dead beat and ready to go take a bubble bath and turn in early.

On her way to the subway station, she stopped dead in her tracks at a familiar sight. Aaron, dressed in a suit and tie, was conversing with his equally well-dressed father on their way out of one of the nicer restaurants in the area.

Even though he looked much younger here and wore his hair slightly differently, this was how she remembered him best because he was always working.

The Burger Barn she worked at wasn't far from the financial district but come on! Manhattan is huge; how could they just run into each other like that?!

She covered her face with her hand and ran down the stairs to the terminal at top speed before he could see her.

The odds of this happening again were small, right? They probably wouldn't go to that restaurant again around the time her shift ended in the few weeks before Aaron went off to school.