The usual routine

"By the way, I heard David discussing something about yesterday's sales with the head chef and the cashier. They were in the store room and Ivan was also present though he didn't say a word." Tom, one of Sasha's close buddies at the restaurant shared his concerns with her on call.

It was a Saturday night and both were at their respective homes. Each had a routine of informing one another about any concerns regarding both their jobs, gossip and any available inside deals.

"He is still upto that regular stuff...." Sasha jeered in reference to David and both couldn't help but laugh on the phone.

"Hmmmm, no wonder he has been working in the restaurant for over a decade and hasn't even got to a managerial position ...Hahahha it surely hurts him that we youngsters know better than him." Tom who had a shared hatred for David with Sasha commented in a sarcastic way.

"He is a man competing with youngsters." Sasha replied and they went on to share more gossip.

Tom worked as a food runner in the restaurant while Sasha was the head receptionist and she controlled the entire front of house operations including sales, bookings and at times carrying out new recruit interviews.

"Hey it's late now, See you tomorrow, let me know anything and also tell Robert to inform me of his stock so I can know what to sale." Sasha reminded Tom and hanged up the call and went on to text Ivan, her boyfriend whom she had been dating for about a year.

Sasha had been working at the restaurant for nearly two years and Ivan four years.

They had exchanged contacts during a brief hangout on the balcony and fell in love with each other pretty fast. He was a store keeper and routinely kept in touch with Sasha as both had shared duties regarding stock management and ordering of new stock.

Sasha only sent him a good night text and likewise he did the same, when it was morning, she rose up early to start her day off with a slight shopping since she had been preparing for her second job interview which she was eyeing so much.

The interview was scheduled for Monday during her break time (12:00hrs-14:00hrs). With this job, she was to earn twice her current salary if all things moved well and she was selected for the role of guest relations manager.

After dressing up and packing her lunch box, she went straight to the main road and waited for a taxi. Her plan was to first move to a boutique and pick out a nice suit that she hopped would impress her interviewers at the next interview.

Sagar Restaurant, which was located on kampala road boasted of an entire floor and was among the top 10 restaurants in Uganda with numerous reviews on trip advisor. This is where Sasha worked and she had to report to duty by 9:30am everyday except for Thursdays when she was off.

Upon arriving in town, the taxi parked off opposite kooki towers and Sasha got out handing the conductor a 2000ugx blueish note, the fair for the trip from Gayaza to the town centre.

She crossed the two roads and then proceeded to enter the boutique were she had initially intended to pick her choice of suit. It was still 8:35am so she had ample time to make a few selections before rushing to work.

"Hey Sasha... Your welcome" the boutique attendants greeted her and began to show her the new collection they had promised to bring in for the festive season... It was already three weeks away from Christmas and a month away to 2022.

Sasha took a look at about 5 designs and opted for the double breasted black blazer that perfectly matched her choice of shoes, Chunky Penny Loafers.

"I will take this." Sasha told the boutique attendants and proceeded to the cashier. The suit was at 450,000 UGX and the shoes were at 300,000ugx. Since Sasha was a regular person at the boutique, she was allowed to deposit half of the money.

"I will pass by evening time or morning time tomorrow and clear up the rest." she assured the attendants and left the boutique in a hurry to walk to the restaurant as it was only minutes away from the time limit for staff reporting.

The distance was roughly 100metres and before even getting half way to the restaurant, Robert gave her call concerning his personal stock which was up for sale.

"Hey, am already inside and have checked everything. I have 6 portions available for sale today so we are good to go."

"okay, will text you up once I get any order." Sasha replied to him, looking forward to having some side cash by the end of the day.

Upon arriving at work, Sasha checked in and signed in the attendance book before continuing towards the reception desk where her stock book stayed everyday.

It had number of Take away sales, front of house pastry sales including entire stock in the display and in the storage room.

She began counting her stock and reconciled all the previous day sales and marked no loss.

After that, Sasha went into the changing room and changed into her uniform. When staff briefing was done, everyone went to their respective stations to take care of their areas and make a misa en place.

Soon it was 10:00 am and everyone was having breakfast. Official opening hours of the restaurant where at 11:00am and That's when Take away orders would begin to flow in, a route which provided side income to Sasha, Tom and Robert through extra partioning of the raw foods at the back of the house.

When the restaurant had officially opened, the very first order came in through the landline, but since the client trusted only in Sasha on understanding his order, the man, a mid aged Indian man of origin, who had a sharp voice and entertained no mistake with his orders requested Sasha to attend to him.

"Sir, maybe you can leave me with your order I will pass it on to her once she has come." David, the restaurant supervisor insisted trying to divert the man's attention to him and create a new friendship with him.

But the man, always of full of some weird humor teased him

Oh, you want me to marry you? " he asked David loudly, which made the cashier to burst into some kind of silent laughter. The land line had a higher volume speaker and anyone near it would be able to listen to the call.