Unclaimed Pizza
I started my shift expecting a dead day; it was a Tuesday, and the college town where I worked was often fairly sleepy by 7 pm. After bullshitting with Jeffrey, my friendly-yet-vacant coworker, I retreated to the back office of the pizza parlor, packed full of old receipts and pizza boxes. I could see Jeffrey milling about the kitchen, preparing one of the few pizzas requested that evening. On the monitor showing the front of the restaurant, I saw our delivery driver preparing to leave for the customer’s house. It was nearly closing time when we finally got another call. Jeffrey grumbled about it being late, but answered. I noticed he looked mildly confused. Our delivery driver was still out, so Jeffrey told this to the customer on the other side of the phone and promised it wouldn’t be too long of a wait. “All good?” I asked after he hung up. “Yeah…” Jeffrey looked troubled, an unusual sight. Normally there wasn’t much that bothered him. He couldn’t remember his problems long eno