03 Jun 2021

SCENE 1

INT. CINEMA. NIGHT

Izzy, 20, sweeps up yet another cinema, popcorn, wrappers, and cups littering the floor. She rolls her eyes, thinking to herself: "Why does everyone leave their rubbish, but no one ever leaves a cheeky $50 note".

Working in hospitality truly is grim. She finishes up cleaning, chucks the broom back, and goes to open the door to the foyer.

Suddenly, the door swings open from the other side with such force that mother nature would tremble. Izzy's head is knocked back, and she almost trips over. She grabs her throbing forehead.

IZZY

[Yells an abundance of swear words that I really shouldn't share here... It really hurt okay!]

A laugh is heard and Izzy looks up angrily. Who the heck opens doors with so much force? The answer is NOAH, 23, sporting a mullet, an earring, and a grin that could either stop or start a war. He, like Izzy, wears a cinema uniform. He, unlike Izzy, is trying to hide his uncontrollable laughter.

NOAH*

You really need a swear jar.

IZZY

I'll make sure to grab one on the way home whilst I tend my migraine.

NOAH

I really am sorry. I'm Noah, by the way.

IZZY

[Sarcastically]

Pleasure.

NOAH

And you are?

IZZY

In pain.

NOAH

[Trying to hold back laughter.]

I'll get you an icepack.

Whilst our protagonist stayed bitter with Noah for a few shifts, still copping the lump on her head, slowly but surely, Izzy fell in love.

END SCENE.

Maybe it was the workplace setting being an actual cinema, but I really thought this romance would end up like the movies. I mean, we had a funny meet-cute, a passive-aggressive few shifts together (sexual tension palpable to anyone nearby), and of course a tonne of banter, tantalisingly flirty.

We'd brush past each other in the box office. He'd help me reach the higher snacks in the candy bar. I remember how secretly gutted I'd become if we weren't on a shift together, or if we were, but we were in different areas.

Once, a fire alarm went off at work and hundreds of people were evacuated from their cinemas. It was a false alarm and we all knew it, but safety measures still had to be put in place and firefighters still came. I remember being stoked because I scored a cruisey hour of Noah and I catching up in the box office.

Finally, at a work shindig, we hooked up. Everyone at work cheered (cringe lmao), but they'd all been egging it on for months. It was a perfect movie ending! We got together!! Hurrah!!!

Hahahaha...Yeah nah.

Little did I know, can't-open-a-door-subtly-Noah was in a sticky break-up with his ex. He was not looking for anything serious. Whilst I was copping awkward conversations with him, the whole workplace was grilling me for details and basically planning our wedding. Things were oh-so-sticky.

Noah made it clear that he didn't want anything with me and trust me, rejection stings harder when you have to see them most days. Whilst I used to be keen as a bean to see him at work, I now dreaded running into him. I dreaded brushing past him in the box office and I grabbed a ladder to reach the higher snacks, not wanting his help.

Noah eventually moved back to his hometown and got back with his ex-girlfriend. I was pretty butt-hurt for a bit, but alas, all things really do pass and I got over him.

But don't fret! This isn't just a failed co-worker story. Sure, sometimes things don't go to script, but that's life! Life sometimes isn't like the movies, but things aren't hopeless.

Later down the track, I met a co-worker at another job. Sure, we copped our lives being pretty interconnected, and co-workers gossiping about us. Noah had also drilled it in my head "don’t defecate where you eat" since that was a sticky situation.

But negatives aside, this romance worked out much much better (and I didn't cop a lump on my head).