Stella and Annabelle

Annabelle and the business card

Annabelle held the cardboard rectangle in her hand, rereading the bold text for the hundredth time.

Stella Mackey

Catering and Party Planning

Phone: 04XXXXXXXX

Instagram @stellacateringpp

To say the least Annabelle was pretty intimidated by the busy lady with the toddler who had thrust the card into her hand after telling her she was hot. But Annabelle found herself smiling when she thought about the bizarre encounter. She realized she had been very flirty with her. Maybe she would have liked to chat to the woman and her little boy if she hadn't rushed off. But was that what she was always like? Annabelle wasn't sure she could cope with someone as full on as Stella appeared to be. And obviously she had a kid. What did that mean? Annabelle wasn't usually in the business of picking up mums, not that it had come up before. She worried that it could mean she had a husband at home and was looking for an affair, or worse a threesome. She placed the card down on her bedside table and left her bedroom. In the kitchen her mother was making a cup of tea.

"How are you lovely?" Her mother asked, "Want a cuppa?"

"Nah I'm good thanks,"

Annabelle sat on the couch and stared at her phone.

"Any luck with the job search today?"

"Err, not really. I mean Dylan said I can come back to the café if I want in a few weeks as Mara is leaving, but I don't know."

"Ah well that's something then."

Annabelle had just turned 28 and moved back in with her parents. Feeling like a bit of a failure in more ways than one she had needed to go to ground and sort her head out before finding a new job and place to live. Whilst her parents had always been supportive and loving, she could tell that they were keen for her to be on her own two feet again. The truth is she didn't have any idea what she wanted to do now. She half heartedly searched for jobs on her phone while her mum sat on the other couch sipping her tea. Eventually the silence (apparent from the awful sounds of her mother's tea sipping) was enough for Annabelle and she got up and went back to her room.

Annabelle sat on the edge of her bed and picked up the business card from her bedside table again. Maybe there was something here. Clearly Stella had been trying to proposition her in some way but could this also be a job opportunity? Annabelle did have café experience, perhaps she could get a job doing hospitality work. Did she really want to work for a woman that told her to her face she thought she was hot? Deciding she literally had nothing to lose (other than what was left of her dignity) Annabelle typed the number on the card into her phone and sent a text to the number.

Hi, I was wondering if you'd like to meet for coffee?

Rainbow socks x