Lisa
I pull up at the restaurant and look to the back seat, ready to say something to Ella only to see that she's fast asleep. She's so cute that I can't help but smile. Should I just leave her as she is or should I lay her out flat on the backseat? Maybe I should wake her up? Does she normally take a nap or will it keep her up all night?
Ah hell, she doesn't look too comfortable. I'll try moving her and if she wakes up, she wakes up then, if not I'll let her sleep. Carefully, I open the doors and climb in the back. I've gotten her unbuckled without any stirring so, as gently as I can, I lift her out of her seat. As I lay her down, she makes a funny face but doesn't wake up, only smacking her lips lightly.
Remembering the blanket in the car boot, I lay it over her. Now that she's all cosy, I get back in the front and mess around on my phone to waste time.
Twenty minutes later and there is movement in the backseat. Thank God because I am starving. At the first little whine, I jump out of my seat and into the back.
"It's okay, Ella. Lili's here." I say in a soothing voice, while pulling her into a hug. She clings onto me. "You're okay. Just a little confused after a little nap."
"Mummy, home?" her sleepy little voice asks.
"Not yet, she's still at work." I say, while wiping the sleep from her face. "I don't know about you, but I'm really, really, really, really hungry." I say in a funny voice getting a tiny chuckle off her. I lift her up so I can put my ear to her belly, then blow a raspberry. "Oh, it sounds like you're hungry too."
She laughs profusely at that. "That was you."
"No, that was your belly, listen." I say, repeating the process.
"Nooo."
"Should we go get something to eat?" I ask, while getting a nod in response.
Inside the restaurant there is a lady waiting to seat us. "Do you want to tell the lady that we need a table?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, say 'table for two, please.' Can you say that?"
She nods, the lady politely greets us so I give Ella a nudge to tell the lady.
"Two, please." She cheers.
The lady smiles and leads us to a table. I give Ella a high five for her good work as we follow behind. Once we're seated, another woman comes over to give us our menu and she takes our drink orders. She returns shortly after with our drinks and a child's activity sheet with crayons for Ella.
"Tank you." Ella says without prompting. Jennie's been raising her right, my niece and nephews definitely wouldn't have thought to use their manners when they were young. Heck they still wouldn't use any manners unless I tell them to, and they're teenagers.
"Have you both had a good day?" the waitress asks. Getting her notepad ready.
"We've been to the park haven't we, Ella?"
"Yeah, we played on slide."
"Well, it's a lovely day to visit the park. We've had a lot of nice days recently."
"True, it's nice when I have a day off but not when I'm in my work uniform." I chuckle.
"Where do you work?"
"I'm a firefighter."
"Wow. It's bad enough popping in the kitchen here, I don't envy you having to wear the full gear." She seems to pause and looks me up and down. Wait, did she just check me out? "Bet you look great in your uniform." She says biting her lip.
Well dammmnnnn. Looks like I've still got it, I was starting to wonder with Jennie firmly keeping me in the friend zone, thought that I'd lost my touch. Turns out it's just Jennie that I seem to be having trouble with.
After writing down our order like nothing had happened, she says. "I'll go put your order in now." With a cheeky smile over her shoulder as she walks away to see if I'm watching her. Yes, I'll admit it, I did watch her walk off. She is a pretty girl, probably in her early twenties, so not such a big age gap. Normally I would be interested but I find myself thinking more of Jennie.
"How can I get your mummy to look at me like that, Ella?" I ask the little girl. She looks at me quizzically, not understanding what I'm asking. "Never mind. What puzzle are we working on, Ella baby?" I ask moving to see the child's colouring sheet in front of her.
