★彡ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ | ᴘᴀᴜʟ ᴍᴄᴄᴀʀᴛɴᴇʏ彡★ ✅

★彡[ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 12]彡★

★彡[ᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴇᴇᴋ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ]彡★

Mollie was at her friend Louise's house, so Abby had taken on a few extra hours at the cafe. Arthur had been annoyed that she could stay longer (since Abby was not his favourite waitress, and definitely not the prettiest of her and Daphne), and Daph had been quite happy about it. Whilst she always took over from Abby after 3pm, she was grateful that she could stay that day.

But it was creeping closer to 6pm, which was the time that Abby had arranged with Louise's mother that she would pick Mollie up. It wasn't a particularly long walk to the house, but if Abby didn't leave soon then she would be running late.

Arthur was being a dick, and didn't want to let her leave... but he simply had to.

And she told him this.

He laughed in her face.

"You wanted to stay, you can stay!" Abby felt like crying. She was beyond stressed.

She didn't need this in her life, but she did need this job. As soon as she saw another one being advertised then she would apply for it, but she had seen none for months. She was stuck. Abby was sure that Arthur would have no problems firing her if she just left of her own accord... so she stayed.

She worked right up until 6pm, checking the clock every few minutes and sweating buckets.

As soon as the clock read 6pm, Abby took her apron off and went to get her stuff. Arthur was angrily cleaning the griddle, but didn't stop her from leaving.

At the time she was supposed to be collecting her sister, she was only just leaving.

Abby felt like a failure.

Luckily, she knew a shortcut through a local park. It cut about five minutes off of her route, which wasn't a lot but would make all the difference to Abby at that point.

She didn't want Louise's mum thinking that she was taking advantage of her hospitality in taking care of her little sister.

With her head down, Abby concentrated on walking through the park as quickly as possible. She focused on the chalky yellow path under her feet. She was practically running.

The watch on her wrist, when she looked at it read 6:12pm.

It seemed like it was taking her forever to get out of the park.

Abby was so intently focused on getting to her destination that she didn't hear the person approaching her, and was extremely surprised when she fell to the floor with a loud THUD.

Angrily, she looked up at the person who had knocked her over. She was just about to give them a piece of her mind -

But she saw it was Paul, and he was sweating too. He was huffing and puffing, and his hair was windswept.

"I am so sorry about that!" He reached a hand out to help her up. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. Abby brushed herself down before making to leave, but Paul caught her by the shoulders. "Hey," Paul said, "what's the rush?"

"What's the rush?" Abby echoed, desperate to get to Mollie. "You were the one who was running!"

This was true; whilst Abby had been walking very quickly, she now realised that Paul had actually been running... and in what could only be described as a suit - despite the fact that his jacket didn't have a collar.

She was incredibly flustered, and this feeling only increased as she looked again at her watch and saw that it was almost 6:20pm.

"Oh!" Abby exclaimed, "I'm late to pick up my sister. I have to go, Paul, I -"