Magnificent Megan

I was just finishing up my typical 6am to 2pm shift at the local McDonalds that I’ve worked at for over a year, when one of the managers introduced all of us to four new-hires. They looked to be typical 17 and 18 year olds just looking for a part time job, but one person in particular caught my eye. She had shoulder length reddish blonde hair, a very cute face covered in freckles, and the prettiest brown eyes anyone has ever seen. She looked to be about 5 feet 6 inches tall and she had the most timid look on her face. I said a very quick “hi” to the group and left to go home.

The next day I came in at 6 in the morning, same as always, and saw that girl sitting in the break room waiting for 6 o’clock and the start of her first day on the job. Since we still had 10 minutes to kill, I tried to get to know her a little bit. I found out that her name was Megan and she had moved here the week before. She used to live about an hour north of here with her foster parents, but decided to move in with her aunt. She was 16 years old, just a year younger than I was. Megan told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend right before she left because neither one of them wanted to do a long distance relationship. Even though she had seemed kind of mopey and aloof at first, when she was talking to me she pepped up and was all bubbly and happy, well, as bubbly as anyone can be at the ungodly hour of 6 in the morning…

It was my job to train her on grill, basically, making the food. She told me that she worked at a McDonalds back at her old house, but she never worked mornings and didn’t know breakfast. I tried to train her “hands on” as much as possible, and by that I mean I would literally hold her hands and guide her through putting the eggs and sausage on the sandwiches, showing her the quickest way to wrap them, etc. Megan was very receptive and didn’t try to push me away or anything. I was disappointed when I got sent on break because I couldn’t be close to her anymore. I got my food and sat down in the break room, thinking about how much I’m falling for this new girl, Megan. After I was finished eating my food, I put my head down on the table to try and take a little nap. About a minute later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up, and sure enough, it’s Megan.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked.

“No, not at all,” I replied.

“You’re a really good trainer,” she said as she sat down across from me, “Why haven’t they made you a manager?”

“Well, I’m moving away to college in 2 months, and they don’t wanna spend the time and money to train me if I’m just going to leave,” I told her, realizing that if I tried to get into a relationship with Megan, I would have to do the same thing her and her ex did, break up because of the distance. And it’s not like I was moving an hour away either, I was moving to the other side of the country, a 2 hour plane ride from where I live now.

“Awww,” she moaned, “And I was kinda starting to like you too.”

“Yeah,” I said, not sure of what else to say, “But look on the bright side, at the very least I still have two months left here.”

“You’re right, it’s just…”

“Mike, I need you back now! You’re going in drive-thru!” my manager yelled from the office, cutting Megan off.

“Well, I gotta get back,” I said to Megan rather despondently, “I’ll see you back out here in a few.”

Working drive-thru at my particular McDonalds is more challenging because we don’t have just one drive-thru speaker, we have two! And until about 10 in the morning, there’s only one person taking orders, and since I’m the only person who can take orders for both lanes, and work the cash register at the same time while still keeping everything moving, I’m stuck there on 90% of my shifts. After about 25 minutes of working, Megan came back and she was put back on grill making food. During our down time, we would chat with each other, make jokes about each other, and just enjoy each other’s company and have fun. Our shifts were over at the same time, so we just sat down and talked with each other for a little bit.

“I think I’m gonna like working here, especially with you,” Megan said to me with a sparkle in her pretty brown eyes, “I just wish you didn’t have to leave so soon.”

“Yeah, at first I was looking forward to getting out of here and going off to college, but after today, I don’t know. You’re a really fun person and I love being around you,” I told Megan as I reached out to hold her hand. “I don’t want to leave now that I’ve met you.”

She didn’t say anything. She just took my hand, stood up, and gave me a great big hug. We then said goodbye to each other and went home. The next couple weeks went by the same way. We’d both come into work, joke around for 8 hours, hug each other, and go home. Then one day we both got stuck working the closing shift. Before we closed the dining room and handed everything over to the midnight crew (we have a 24-hour drive-thru), the two of us were in charge of making sure everything in the kitchen was stocked up.