The Waitress

 Friday night had been a long time coming. Vanessa was curled up on the sofa at Tug Ghyll, a lukewarm mug of tea in one hand, the other raised to her lips. For the past fifteen minutes she had been biting at the hard patch of skin around the nail bed of her thumb, staring at; and then through, a scrap of paper pinned to the fridge.

Upon it was written 'Friday; Re-UNI-on' in bold lettering, stuck fast beneath a giant Mallorca fridge magnet. It had been a little over a month since she had received an email from an old Uni friend inviting her to a hotel in Hotten for food and drinks and a catchup with the rest of their former classmates. She had been looking forward to it, especially since Rhona had been up for going along with her. But as of that morning Rhona had let her down at the last minute. A sickness bug had been making its way through all of the village kids, and unfortunately Leo had now caught it.
"I'm sorry, I'm going to have to give the reunion a miss" Rhona had called to say at breakfast time. Vanessa was disappointed, and had tried to beg her best friend to leave the poorly child with her husband Marlon, but to no avail, Leo wanted his Mum.
As she sat staring into space on the sofa, she huffed and sighed.
"For God's sake, V, if you want to go to the reunion, just go. Don't just sit there huffing all night" Tracy exclaimed.
"What, by myself? I don't think so" Vanessa scoffed, although the idea had popped into her head once or twice already.
"Why? What's wrong with going alone? You're a successful, sexy vet" Tracy encouraged.
"Yeah, a pathetic single one. Everyone else is going to be there with their partners. It was bad enough going with Rhona",
"Not everyone. I bet at least half of them are divorced, or on the brink of getting one".
Vanessa sighed again.
"You have a point. But I don't know, I haven't seen most of them since graduation twenty years ago. I won't know what to say and you know how I get with small talk"
"Just wing it. If someone says something you don't want to answer with the truth; just make it up"
"What, lie?" Vanessa raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
"Yeah. Tell them you had a rich husband who died in a skiing accident in the alps"
"Husband?"

"Wife, then. Whatever. But there's nothing wrong with telling the truth"
"That I'm a single mother who came out as a lesbian in my forties?"
"Yeah, people respect that these days. Like, girl power"
Vanessa shrugged off the strained feeling that came over her when she thought about her sex life. She'd been on the odd date since her coming out, but she'd never felt a spark or connection with anyone and she assumed that at this rate she'd become an old spinster before her time.
"You know what, you're going. You're doing my head in feeling sorry for yourself. And, it's my house and I don't want you here tonight. So you're gonna have to go somewhere else, might as well be to the reunion"
"What?" Vanessa pulled herself upright on the cushion, almost spilling her tea down her pyjama top.
"You heard me. You're officially homeless for the night. Pack your overnight bag and go check into that hotel you have booked".
"I can't, it's all in Rhona's name".
"Well, get her to call ahead and explain. Maybe you'll strike it lucky with one of the divorcees and get to take her back with you" Tracy giggled.
Vanessa climbed to her feet.
"I can't stand you" She groaned, but a smile soon spread across her face.

Upstairs in the privacy of the bathroom, she stripped herself free of her pyjamas as the bath ran and heated up behind her. Her pale, freckled skin reflected back at her in the mirror as she attempted to admire her body. She was in quite good shape for a forty-something year old who didn't work out. Her tummy had a small pouch that folded when she sat, but she quite liked the 'Mum look' she had going on. It made her feel more grown up and collected than when she had been a young girl with a flat stomach. Her breasts were still perky enough to go braless from time to time, and she had always had great legs, no matter how short she was overall. When she looked at herself in a mirror, she smiled much more than she frowned and so she took one last good look at herself before the glass fogged up and she disappeared behind the steam of a nice hot bath.

Hanging on the door of her wardrobe was a simple black dress that she had bought especially for tonight. The price tag still hung from a piece of plastic as it awaited the chance to be worn. Still wrapped in her towel, she hooked it down and hugged it against her body. The hem came to the top of her knee, which she felt was a little daring and flirty and fun. There were a couple of pairs of black high heel shoes in the back of the cupboard somewhere that hadn't seen the light of day since a couple of Christmases back, that she planned to pair with the dress, if she could find them.
She switched on her straighteners and combed the tangles out of her hair with her fingers as she waited for them to heat up, then pressed play on her old party playlist on her phone. As she dressed, she sang along to 90s pop songs by the Spice Girls and Peter Andre, and tried her best to recall the weightless feeling of being 18 again.
Back then, she and Rhona had partied hard, and spent most weekends as drunk as possible on a student's allowance. They had both snogged their fair share of boys on those nights out too. Vanessa wondered how different her life may have been if she had found it within herself to accept her sexuality in her school days. Maybe she would have done more than kissing on Saturday nights and would have had a mental list of names of pretty girls she'd hooked up with. She felt a tinge of regret for suppressing her feelings, but reminded herself that everything happens for a reason, and besides she wouldn't have had Johnny if life had played out differently, and she wouldn't change that for the world.
By six o'clock she was ready, and Tracy wolf whistled at her as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Uh, wowzer" She scoffed as she looked her sister up and down.
"It's not too much is it?" Vanessa worried as she squirmed under the attention.
"You look amazing, sis. Everyone's going to be super jealous at how fab you turned out"
"Yeah, they're going to be so jealous of my small double in my sisters guest room"
"They don't even need to know that. If they ask, tell them you live in a three-bedroom house in Emmerdale village, cause it's true. No one needs to know I took you in when you had nowhere else to go",
"Oh, charming" Vanessa groaned, clicking the popper shut on her sparkly black bag.
"I'm just messing. When are you off?"
"Taxis on its way"
Tracy squealed with excitement, and along with hearing it, Vanessa looked up and out of the window as a beep sounded from outside.
"You sure you're alright watching Johnny overnight? I can always come home"
"Don't you dare. Johnny and I are going to be fine. Now get out of here".

The taxi left Vanessa at the entrance of the hotel, twiddling her thumbs for a moment before she put her best foot forward and made her way inside with butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
The lobby was bright and clean, compared to the dark wet pavement outside. Behind the reception desk, sat a young man in a suit and tie. There was an air of snobbery about him, but when he looked up from his computer, he flashed Vanessa a smile and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hi, I'm here to check in. I have a room booked for one night" She announced, returning a smile of her own.
"Of course. And what was the name?"
"Woodfield. Vanessa Woodfield. But the booking is under Rhona Goskirk. My friend made all the arrangements but couldn't make it"
"I see. Do you have the card the booking was made with?"
"Uh, no. No, I don't. Is that a problem?" Vanessa fumbled, the bright lights suddenly seemed too bright and made her squint.
"Unfortunately, I need the details of your friend's card to sign you into the room booked. But we have a few other rooms available tonight so I can select one of those for you instead, if that's something you'd like to do?"
"Okay, yes" Vanessa breathed.
"Alright. We have a suite and two queen rooms available" The receptionist announced as he tapped away at the keyboard.
"I'd love a suite, but it better be a Queen room this time," Vanessa joked. She did a long blink as she imagined the high staked price she was about to be charged and tried not to let it make her come over nauseas.
"Ok, that'll be £235. Breakfast in our Ala carte restaurant is included in the price, you may select anything marked with a blue circle from the menu. You'll be on the fourth floor in room 428, the lift is just around the corner to your right. Check out is at 11am"
Vanessa absorbed all the information as she jammed her card into the machine and waited for it to beep, the sound of daylight robbery.
"Enjoy your stay" The receptionist beamed.
Vanessa threw him a small, strained smile before taking the key card from the table top and made her way towards the elevator.

Along the way, she passed the dining room where the reunion was to be held. A table for 25 had been booked, with a three-course meal to enjoy with her old friends. As she spotted an enormous table across the room, she cursed Rhona for bailing on her. Had she had not just spent a small fortune on the room, she felt she may have turned and ran out of the door as her nerves had well and truly kicked in.
As she turned to walk away, she noticed a waitress appear on the other side of the glass.
The waitress carried a tray of silver cutlery and began laying them neatly upon the tables. Vanessa looked her over in her white and cream uniform, and watched as she turned to another table and smoothed out a crease in the tablecloth. The waitress didn't look up or pay any attention to Vanessa, she just darted around the room doing her job. She had blonde hair with dark roots that had been twisted and pinned into a bun on the top of her head, but two wispy locks hung loose near her ears and floated back and forth as she moved. She had dark, sharp eyebrows and a serious face. She was too far away for Vanessa to make out her eye colour, but she could tell that they glimmered in the light. Another server, a man, whipped out from behind double doors at the opposite end of the room, causing both Vanessa and the waitress to turn and look at him. Though Vanessa's gaze was pulled back to the waitress instantly. With her head turned, in conversation with her coworker, Vanessa took in her side profile. Her nose was long and sloped with a slight turn down in the tip, she had high cheekbones and thin lips with a wide cupid's bow. Her lips glimmered a subtle shade of pink from a lip gloss she was wearing. Vanessa wondered whether it was strawberry or cherry.
Vanessa cocked her head to the side and let her eyes slide down the waitress's body. She was tall and lean, though her cream trousers clung tightly to her hips and bottom. Her polo shirt was baggier, and had been hastily stuffed into her waistband. She didn't seem to be wearing any jewellery other than a pair of small gold hoop earrings, and a black watch that glimmered in the warm yellow light of the room and shone back into Vanessa's eyes.
As she blinked away the little yellow blob that danced around in her vision, the waitress turned her attention away from her coworker and got back to laying the table beside her. Vanessa unintentionally licked her lips as she noticed her long slender fingers as she placed a knife and fork either side of a serving mat. It was at that moment that the waitress glanced up. Vanessa panicked and felt her cheeks fill with heat as she was caught watching from behind the glass. But the waitress offered her a small smile and turned to carry on with her job without a second look. Vanessa swallowed and decided she'd better make a move.

The elevator shot her up to the fourth floor in seconds, and the doors slipped away to allow her to step out into the corridor. Room 428 was along the right-hand side of the corridor and had a large creamy coloured oak door. Vanessa placed the keycard upon the pad above the handle and waited for it to beep and flicker with green light, before pushing it open. Then she placed the second plastic key into a slot on the wall in the hallway of the room. Lights burst into action and lit up the bedroom, revealing a large double bed with a sky-blue runner and matching cushions. Small wooden tables stood on either side of the bed with a lamp in the centre of both. The rest of the room contained a mirrored wardrobe with sliding doors, a desk with a small flatscreen television on top of it, and a futon sofa. There was also an en suite bathroom with a tub and shower, toilet and bidet and a sink with a large rectangular mirror above it.
Vanessa stepped into the room and placed her bag down upon the bed.
Behind thick, white blackout curtains was a balcony. The weather wasn't nearly nice enough to warrant stepping out onto it, but the view of Hotten beneath the city lights was like something out of a movie. The sun had set hours ago, and the night sky was dark and miserable, so she pulled the curtains shut and ignored the outside world. Her room for the night felt calm and relaxing, almost like a beach hotel. It was convincing enough that she lay down upon the bed and let herself sink into the soft memory foam mattress and imagined that golden sand and blue seas was just down the road.
After a minute or so, she sat up and stretched. She was afraid she would fall asleep if she lay there for much longer, and with less than an hour until the reunion, she decided to unpack her toiletries and touch up her makeup.
Her eyelashes were thick and fanned out perfectly even, they swooped like two black feathers as she blinked. She applied a generous amount of mauve lipstick and finished her look off with a sweeping of clear gloss. When finished, she pursed her lips in the mirror and smiled. She looked great, and as the minutes ticked by her nerves etched away and were replaced with an exciting adrenaline.
At quarter past, she slipped out of her room and walked the length of the corridor to the elevator and made her way to the restaurant. There were still fifteen minutes until the booking time but she didn't want to arrive late and end up stuck sitting beside someone she didn't remember, or like for that matter. It was Leah Rogers who had organised the reunion and Vanessa figured she would have arrived early to check in and make sure everything was in place for the night ahead. When she arrived at the ground floor, she kept an eye out for her. Judging from her Facebook profile picture, Leah now had brunette hair and a button nose. A nose she had not had back in their school days, in fact she had had a hooked nose but it seemed everybody was getting fillers and nips and tucks these days. Vanessa wondered if she should have gotten Botox when her crow's feet had hatched, but it was too late for cosmetic surgery now.
The restaurant had opened a few minutes earlier and already there were people milling about inside, but it seemed nobody from her party had made it yet. Vanessa turned to walk away, but before she could take another step a voice sounded from behind her.
"Can I help you?" A woman asked.
Vanessa faced her and startled slightly as the waitress she had been observing earlier on smiled back at her. Now that they were barely a metre apart Vanessa could see that her eyes were green with a hint of brown at the centre. They were beautiful and captivating, enough so that it took her moment to look away.
Blinking away the stunned look in her own eye, she took a breath to compose herself.
"Um, y-yes" Vanessa stammered, unsure what to say. "I'm with a large group booking," She added.
"Ah, are you Leah?"
"No, I'm Vanessa. Leah was the one who arranged all of this, but I think I might have gotten here before her. I have a room upstairs" She over-explained, reaching back and rubbing her neck as she began to sweat.
The waitress tucked in her chin and bit away the smirk that had started to form on her lips. Though Vanessa didn't know how to read this, she was too busy damning herself for making their exchange so awkward.
"That's no problem," The waitress announced, as she looked down at the paper upon the podium and searched for the booking.
As she did this, Vanessa rocked up onto her toes and back down again in order to get a glimpse of her name badge.
Charity.
"If you'd just like to come with me, I can show you to your table and get you started with a drink" the waitress announced. Vanessa smiled a small smile and followed her inside.
The table had been laid beautifully with small candles flickering inside glass holders, and a vase of white roses stood in the centre of the table. The waitress stepped aside and allowed Vanessa to take a seat, she opted for the chair at the head of the table for now.
"I'll just grab you a drinks menu and then I'll come back and take your order" the waitress said, but Vanessa looked up at her and shook her head.
"No need, I already know what I want" She told her with a smile.
The waitress shifted her weight onto the other foot and pulled out a small electronic device from the pocket of her pinny.
"I love a woman who knows what she wants, makes my life a little easier" The waitress replied, this time her smirk remained on her lips. Vanessa felt her cheeks begin to flush and she momentarily hid her grin behind her hand as she propped her fist to her face, resting her elbow upon the table.
"So, what is it that you want from me?" The waitress asked, looking down at her with those eyes. Vanessa's insides fluttered and she almost allowed herself to answer flirtatiously with 'sex on the beach', but it was much too early in the night to be knocking back cocktails and flirting with waitresses, even if this one seemed to be encouraging it.
"I'll take a G&T, please Charity" She finally answered, dropping the woman's name into conversation.
Charity sucked her teeth and pressed a few buttons on the pad. Vanessa watched her hands, how she held on tightly to the device with one and how the fingers of the other danced across the screen.
"Coming right up, Babe" she replied, dropping the pad back into her pinny. Then she turned and walked away in the direction of the bar, slowly. Vanessa watched after her, looking her up and down once again until she disappeared into the crowd of the restaurant, leaving behind a mental image of her long legs beneath her tight trousers.
"Vanessa? Vanessa Woodfield, is that you?" Vanessa heard, and her attention was dragged away from thoughts of Charity.
Leah had arrived and was heading straight for her. Vanessa had hoped she wouldn't look as flawless as her online photographs but her old friend looked great, more than great actually.
Leah towered over Vanessa in stilettos, and almost folded herself in half as she reached out to hug her.
"Lovely to see you, it's been a while, hasn't it? You don't look any different though, do you? Just lost the pigtails somewhere along the line" Leah teased. Vanessa let out a quiet chuckle as they broke apart. As she sat back down her drink was suddenly in front of her, and Charity was slowly beginning to rise back upright.
Vanessa's eyeline caught a glimpse of Charity's chest, of her cleavage peeping through the gap in her shirt. Vanessa was sure that button hadn't been undone moments ago, she would have noticed.
She ran her tongue over her lips before taking hold of the glass, just for something to do besides fidget with her sleeve.
Charity was now flipping over the empty tray the drink had been carried over on, and she popped it under her arm and nodded towards the glass in Vanessa's hand.
"What have you got there?" Leah asked, taking Vanessa's drink from her and sniffing it without waiting for an answer. Vanessa glanced nervously at the two women beside her, a little stunned by Leah's manic energy and Charity's beauty.
"Oh, is that a G&T? I'll take one of those" Leah replied, answering her own question. Then she coughed gently into her fist and tucked her wavy hair over her shoulder, her bracelets jingling with her every move.
Charity didn't bother with her pad, neither did she smile politely nor otherwise at Leah. She just nodded and walked away. Vanessa found herself wanting to sink into a pile of mush as Charity disappeared into the crowd again, amongst whom were more of their party, finally arriving.

The starters had been ordered and eaten, and the twenty-one guests who had turned up and greeted one another filled their seat neighbours in on the brief goings on in their lives and were pleasantly chatting and laughing away as the first of the dishes were brought to the table. Vanessa had moved away from Leah and had chosen to sit beside Ellie Finch, who she found had never gotten around to putting her degree to good use because she had gotten pregnant with twins a few months after graduation. One of the two girls was expecting her own child at the moment and so Ellie was excited about becoming a grandmother now that she had gotten her head around the idea. This made Vanessa feel better about her own circumstances. She spoke about Johnny and how life was at home, with it being just the two of them.
"So, what happened to the father? If you don't mind me asking. Not that I'm judging, I was a single mother myself for a while before Noel got a grip and stepped up. Can you believe the girls were almost a year old by then?" Ellie babbled, hitting Noel in the arm scolding him for his past behaviour as she spoke.
Vanessa took a big swig from her second G&T before answering. She thought about what Tracy had suggested, about telling a lie when faced with a question she didn't want to answer, but she couldn't bring herself to make up anything believable on the spot, so instead she answered vaguely.
"Things didn't work out between us," She said with a shrug.
"That's a shame. Are you seeing anyone now?" Ellie fished.
Vanessa scraped her bottom teeth over her top lip. Suddenly the restaurant felt overbearingly warm.
"No, I've dated a few women but nothing serious" She let slip. Her heart hammered in her chest.
Ellie almost spat out a mouthful of wine.
"Women? Gosh, I never would have pegged you as one of those gay people" She gasped. Some of the others looked up at this information and glanced around at each other to take in their reactions. Daniel half smiled as he placed down his dry white.
"I'm one of those gay people too" He announced.
"No shit, Dan" Leah guffawed.
Suddenly, everyone was too busy chuckling about Dan's obvious homosexuality to remember what Vanessa had said, and for that she was thankful.
Dan got onto speaking about his partner, Curtis, who was genuinely upset about not being able to make it tonight because he was a doctor and was on call. Apparently, they had a house together in Hotten and two Jack Russell Terriers, and were thinking about having children of their own within the next year.
Vanessa tried to pay attention but Charity had resurfaced and was heading their way with two plates of food, though she didn't look very happy. She looked flustered and annoyed, though as she grew closer, she plastered on a smile that Vanessa saw straight through.
"Hunters Chicken" Charity announced, carefully handing over the plate in her left hand to Daniel.
"Ooh, thank you" He beamed, shimmying in his seat as the plate was placed in front of him.
"And, the grilled salmon" Charity spoke up again.
"That'll be me," Ellie chirped.
Charity reached out across the table to hand the plate over. As she stretched out, her body rested against the back of Vanessa's chair, with her hip just brushing against Vanessa's shoulder. It sent the butterflies in her stomach wild.
"Careful, the plates hot" Charity warned as the food exchanged from herself to Ellie.
Vanessa discreetly threw her head back and stole a glance up at Charity who was hovering above her.
This was the closest they'd been to one another and Vanessa could smell her perfume wafting with her pulse. She smelled expensive in a woody perfume. A polar opposite to her own floral scent. Vanessa felt she wanted to take Charity by the collar and bury her face into her skin and give her a good sniff. She imagined what Charity might say if she got up and did it right there and then.
It was with that thought that she realised she'd been staring for far too long, and it hadn't gone unnoticed. Charity caught Vanessa's eye and raised an eyebrow before sauntering back to the kitchen.
'Shit', Vanessa thought, and she vowed to keep her gaze away from then on.
Another server came to the table with more plates of food, one of which was Vanessa's lasagna, which looked and smelled delicious.
They all tucked in and the hubbub of their voices quietened down as they ate, with just the occasional couple of words between them. The rest of the restaurant seemed to lull into a calmer, less rowdy noise level too, as most of the customers were midway through their meals.