Chapter 24: The Creepy waiter
1878 Words
The newly opened Milano fast food restaurant was a beehive of activities that Saturday mid-morning. It had attracted a mixed group of people, young and old, male and female, couples, business partners, families and friends the likes of Audrey Miller and her comrades, those who were single seated all alone in their corners laughing at memes on their phones or following celebrity gossip. Another male was seated alone by the pool his feet dangling in the water struggling to finish a glass of freshly blended mango juice. He looked like a man who life was not taking so well, too much vicissitudes. His problems had finally managed to get him on his knees. Which was the case with almost everyone else, including the pretty girls in bikinis who were taking repeated selfies they were just good at hiding it with perfect smiles and nice clothes, expensive rides and beautiful edited pictures on social media. In the middle of that s**t storm of mixed emotions you could see a new inextricable thread in the very fabric of this story, Sean the creepy waiter. Looking at Audrey's table as though it was promised heaven he couldn't get to.
I bet he felt like Moses on mount Sinai receiving the ten commandments and being shown a land he was not going to step foot in.
"Sean" a random attendant snapped her fingers in his face.
"Yes!"
"You were frozen for a moment there...they are hot. I bet it's the one in trousers you want. I can do you a solid if you're chicken scared to ask her out"
"I've been deep in that hole before it didn't work well" he went past her leaving her as confused as you and me right now.
What did he mean by deep in that hole before? Get your head out of the gutter, the hole is not symbolic here. Yeah, some might relate the hole to...okay now perhaps am the pervert. But clearly there was a history between Sean and Tina that was worth uncovering. Exactly what Ivy and Audrey were trying to do.
"Can we just change the topic, he is not that handsome"
"You hate whim with passion" Ivy said supporting her elbows on the table, "the very moment you saw him you hated him, it can be a crush. Don't worry my cuz and I are willing to let you have this one we will get the next"
"Me? A crush on a waiter?" She asked mockingly before bursting into laughter. Audrey was looking at her disappointed, as though she had just met the other side of her. The side that was hidden in humor and compassion that was now making her think it was all fake. They say, you know a person's character with how they handle those who can't give them anything in return, with how they treat those they consider inferior to them in all walks of life. For Audrey, call her an overthinking fat nice hearted girl but for her, that's the exact way she would have treated her if she were a waitress.
"Or maybe it is not a crush we're talking about here. It's history" she said politely, they all froze when Sean walked back with their orders maintaining that smile despite Tina's obvious show of disregard to his profession and him as a person.
"There you go. Anything else?"
"Chips and chicken for each of us and juice, pineapple..." Tina looked at Ivy.
"I'll take pineapple"
"Mango, thank you" Audrey finished off.
"You're welcome. You have nice hair" he threw a complement while scribbling down, Sean was playing his cards right because clearly Tina's stomach was churning her, why come there if she knew he was there? Or she just didn't know.
"Thank you. All because of this one" she side-hugged Tina.
"Ooh, what a good friend?"
Well that came out mockingly.
"You girls have fun am here for you. Sorry, you're stuck with me" he said and waved at them as he left, Tina exhaled sharply looking away, the girls had their eyes on her.
"What? You guys look like you're about to eat me"
"As I was saying" Teased Audrey eating a couple of spoons of her ice cream, she was surely starving after going that long without snacks, "there is history between you and our pretty Waiter"
"Boom!"
And that was Ivy showing her agreement with Audrey's assessment of the situation at hand.
"You're not seriously ganging up against me?"
"Tell the truth"
"And let the damn bitter truth set you free" screamed Ivy spreading her hands, she seemed so happy you'd have thought the two were her friends since childhood. It was both worrying and motivating to her distant cousin.
"I'm not talking about my s****l life with you"
"Bs" Audrey said before she took a long annoying sip of her ice cream.
"It wasn't BS when you refused to tell us who popped your cherry"
"I thought we're not talking about that anymore?"
"Ivy is my witness"
"You guys are putting me in a very tight spot here”
"Okay let's not talk about personal stuff like ever again or at least when we're in this space"
"Or we organize a girl’s night" Ivy suggested, "you look like you've never had one before"
"Speak for her" the cheered-up version of Tina was slowly coming back to the table, "who's hosting"
"Of course, you!"
The fact that it was Audrey who suggested that meant that Ivy was also off that list of hosting leaving the mantle to Tina. It was always going to be her because Audrey hated her own home and it wouldn't have served the real purposes of a girl’s night which was an escape from the lack of comfort she experienced at home.
"Okay, I'll think about it"
"Please do. Just the three of us or there's a big group?"
"For now, just us and a few girls in the music club"
"I play guitar, can I join?"
"It will be a pleasure to have you, I play almost every instrument"
Audrey's phone buzzed, she took a sneak peek at it and looked at the girls.
"Just a minute let me pick this"
"Must be MK" Tina threw the jab, she knew how much confusing it was for Audrey to talk about Mason especially when they were not alone. But still she couldn't blame Tina because she didn't bring a distant cousin at a hangout that was supposed to be for the two of them. In addition, they were not going to speak about what was really wrong with both of her parents, that meant postponing the emotional pain and discomfort which was going to build it up to levels she couldn't help her...she really wanted to help her, the lines were getting blurred every time she got to know her.
"Who's MK?"
"Mason Klein, you'll know him when you see him at school on Monday. But don't you touch him because he is hers"
"Don't listen to her" warned Audrey briskly walking away from the girls.
When Sean saw Audrey headed to the washrooms he took a hasty look at Tina and Ivy and noticed they were not looking. It was time to set his plan in motion, so he waited. Watched her talk on phone all smiles, walking around, chuckling and laughing lightly. She was not as hot as Tina, not even close yet perfect for what he was up to, a piece on his big chase board.
"Okay, see you then and I might or might not bring a plus one...bye. Don't worry about that it's under control" Audrey said and hang up.
"I wish I was that plus one"
"Sorry Sean but you can't, what's up?" She looked around just to be sure it was indeed a lady’s washroom. Sean's presence kind of made her worry about her surroundings.
"Sorry not the place, but can we walk just for a minute"
Now that had Audrey hesitating. She wasn’t too old to be abducted, just too naive. What gave her the confidence though was the presence of her friends who were surely going to start looking for her in the event that she took too long.
"Harmless I promise it's just a talk"
"Okay. Don't make me regret trusting you but you should know am only doing this for Tina, you two seem to have a history"
"No"
Bad liar, he didn't know she had her eyes on every nonverbal cue, the pupil enlarging, fidgeting with his fingers and avoiding eye contact among others that were more psychic, you know that weird feeling that someone's lying but you can't tell them that because you also don't know the whole truth.
"Okay then, she has crush on you"
"Me? Pff, she is too high class to be with a waiter"
"Believe in yourself Sean. You two will look good together"
"How about us too?"
Tired of beating around the bush, Sean saw it best to go straight to the point and the bad luck of deceit chose Audrey again. If you've connected the dots already you'd know, once again she was just a mere means to an end. But on the bright side, this had nothing to do with the fact that she was fat and what boys like Sean would call ugly with a terrible sense of fashion, this one was just revenge and she was going to be collateral, no hard feelings. Except...
"Big No, am taken"
"By who?"
"You don't want to know. Seriously, among the three of us you just saw me? Everyone wants a hot blonde dude what's up with you?"
She also marveled at the confidence and openness, the fact that she could withstand such a weird conversation with a creepy waiter she had just met that morning was amazing.
"Well am not everyone, besides in the bunch you're the only one who looks nice, at heart"
"You barely know me"
"Audrey"
"That's my name, there's more to what meets the eye"
"I take it positively and not the other way around"
"Sorry Sean but No. You look like a nice guy you'll find someone"
"Is it because I got to Werner school?"
"No, it has nothing to do with who you are, what you do or where you go to school. It's about me, look at me. We're from two different worlds esthetically"
"That's what you've said but imma give you time. Bye!"
He quickly disappeared and went back to his activities, Audrey was still frozen wondering what had just happened, had someone just hit on her? Did she wake up looking different but feeling the same way as the previous night? But why did he run?
"There you're, you got me worried!"
There it was, the reason he ran. He saw Tina coming before she did, not that she was looking out.
"Sorry I took so long, are you ready to talk about Sean?"
"How about some other time? Like today at the party if we get bored?"
"So, there is history?"
"I can neither accept or deny"
"Don't lawyer me"
The arrival of Sean would change their lives and surely complicate things between them in the coming days. Till then, they had a party to attend.
- Writer
