Jim Woke Up

Table of Contents

Chapter 3 - Sem (current)

Chapter 3 - Sem

“Order’s up!” The fry chef on the other side of the counter yelled out over the hustle and bustle of the food court. Lunch was a hectic event in this place - it always had been. With nearly a thousand functioning employees cycling through a handful of restaurants, it was inevitable. The farther away one worked from the hall, the less likely one was to get to finish their meal. This was simply workplace dynamics at its finest.

Fortunately, Sem wasn’t worried about it, for once.

Okay, perhaps he was a little stressed. Nothing was ever foolproof. But he had recently figured out a way to buy himself a few extra minutes on the lunch shift. Even with the possibility of a delayed lunch arriving from the short order cook, he still had ample time to eat and enjoy his meal.

That was assuming that everything worked.

Sem was the type who never left much up to chance. He didn’t care much for risk-taking. He was the one who had set six separate alarms on the morning of his graduation in order to ensure that he wouldn’t miss the event. He did this despite the fact that he would naturally worry himself awake before the first alarm would ever ring. He then would spend more time deleting each individual alarm so that they didn’t somehow get delayed and end up going off during his graduation. The anxiety that his deletion of them didn’t properly function would eventually lead to him just leaving his phone behind entirely. Risk-taker, he was not.

Even anxiety eventually gives way to frustration and Sem couldn’t take another day of shoving his food down his gullet without tasting it first. It was high time that he did something about the situation. He was determined that this would be the fix for which he had been looking.

At last, Sem reached the register clerk and was able to place his order. Normally, he would order one of the ready-made food items that were stored in the refrigerator section near the counter.

But today, he decided he had the time, so he ordered a fresh grilled burger from the stand with a side of fries. He even felt daring enough to request that they be chili-cheese fries, which would mean that the fries would have to be heated once more for the cheese to melt on top.

“That’ll be just a moment, thanks for your order.”

Sem swiped his payment and then stepped away towards the waiting area. He smiled to himself. This was surely living the good life.

April 3rd, 2022