Our Story

They first met on what was meant to be an ordinary evening shift at Stony Plain Road, McDonald’s. Our protagonist, Claudia, had recently been promoted to Second Assistant Manager (for context, a rank above Josiah). As a result, she was required to transfer from a proper establishment to what one would call a “fixer-upper”. This was Claudia’s second day at this location and was enjoying a peaceful, smooth-running shift (obviously, because she was the one running it) when, like a bat out of hell, a strange man in a manager uniform comes barging through the doors and zooms past her. Claudia immediately follows him and he explains that his name is “Josiah” and he is supposed to be “running the shift today”, making a show of looking at the shift schedule. Our protagonist clarifies that this is impossible because she is running the shift, his name is clearly not on the schedule, and anyway, he’s already an hour late. He starts to argue back at her and our heroine, whose initial sense of alarm is now morphing into one of irritation, realizes what exactly is standing before her: the beginning of a f*cking headache. Sure enough, this was only the first of many unpleasant interactions to follow between the two, characterized by frequent eye-rolls, glares, and passive-aggressive condescension. Their disagreements were fuelled partly by her passion for excellence and his determination to deliver the opposite. More fundamentally, however, they really stemmed from only one major difference in opinion: who is in charge. Their hostility became so severe that Claudia would deliberately make their schedules so that they wouldn’t ever work together and, multiple times, encouraged her boss to fire him (alas! it slithers away!). Therefore, it was nothing short of a miracle when a year later, they started to form a bit of a friendship, mostly because he wore her down. Somewhere along the way, they began to date. During this time, he became a lawyer and she a nurse. Then, a week after their sixth-year anniversary, he put a ring on her finger. As she looks back on their relationship while typing this, Claudia surmises that a lot has changed between them since that fateful closing shift at McDonald’s; yet, one thing has not: he’s still her favourite headache.

(but now, ever after…<3)