With the Enemy

Chapter Three.

We had gone to three different wedding dress shops before she found the right one. I was all ready to kill her mother. As soon as she'd paid for the dress, I ran. Not literally of course. I hated running. I only ever ran for buses.

I was now sat in the cafe in which I worked and seemed to spend most of my time. It wasn't a nice place to be honest but the people here were the best. I spent the least amount of time possible at home as I could. It wasn't really home. It was just where I happened to live.

I wasn't sat out the front with the customers, I wasn't allowed to serve customers anymore thanks to a little incident involving a jug of water and a rather rude old man, I was out the back gossiping with Tara. Technically, she was on shift but the place was pretty much empty apart from a couple of builders on break from the construction site across the road.

At first the boss, Jim, had refused to serve the builders as he felt that the massive department store being built across the road was sure to put us, and all the small businesses along the high street, out of business. But, considering at the moment they were some of our only customers, we didn't have much choice.

Tara suddenly jumped off the worktop she was sat on. "I'm going for a fag." She announced before walking out the back door. I didn't follow her. Even if I wanted to smoke, I couldn't afford it, therefore I didn't.

Barely thirty seconds after she had gone out the door the bell above the front door chimed, indicating new customers.

"Tara." Jim called from store room. "Will you get that? I'm tied up in here."

I assumed he didn't mean literally.

"She's gone for a smoke." I called back.

"Well then, you'll have to get it!" He said, clearly irritated,

"But I'm not allowed to serve customers." I pointed out.

"Danielle!" He growled.

"I'm not even on shift." I complained.

"Just do it!" He shouted.

With a sigh, I jumped from the counter top, grumbling about my minimum wage job where I was forced to work out of hours.

"How can I help?" I said in a sickly sweet voice as I stepped behind the counter.

"Oh, hey Danni, fancy seeing you here."

Now it was my turn to growl. "What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"Funnily enough, I'm in a coffee shop so I was wondering if I could see your selection of televisions." Charlie was stood there grinning at me. One of those cute, lopsided grins that most girls can't resist.

"Ha. Ha." I glared at him. "What do you want then?" I asked.

"I would like cappuccino and a strong, black coffee." He replied casually.

"You want two coffees?" I said, walking over to the coffee machine and starting to pour his drinks into cups. "Take a seat, I'll be right with you." I tried to be polite but being polite wasn't my strong point. "Talk about caffeine fix." I said as I put them on the table in front of him about a minute laughter.

He laughed. "You make me laugh Danni, I-"

"Danielle." I interrupted.

He cleared his throat. "Danni, sit down."

"What?"

"Strong, black coffee? That's you right?" He asked.

I almost let my face slip into a smile. I caught myself just in time and stared at him disapprovingly. "But if you're too busy working..." He started to say.

"No!" I said quickly. "I mean, I'm not actually working, I don't start until later but Tara and Jim were busy so they made me come out here. I'm not actually supposed to customers but ... I'm blabbering aren't I?"

"Just a tad." 

I found myself blushing. What was going on? I didn't blush? This was not happening.

"So anyway, how was dress shopping?" He asked, taking a gulp of coffee.

I glared at him again. "Don't even go there."

He laughed. "It can't have been that bad."

"It was awful," I shook my head. "Three different shops we went in. All of them were full of massive ugly dresses that wouldn't look good on Emma Watson, let alone my friend Laura." I was starting to rant. And once I started, it was pretty difficult to stop. "I was sat there looking like, and I quote her mother, 'a prostitute'. I don't even know why I had to be there? I had no input on these dresses whatsoever. Each one looked as bad the next."

"I take it you don't like weddings?" He said with a bemused expression.

"No I love weddings. I love that one person is signing themselves to an 'eternal bond' in which they won't break because they love each other." I rolled my eyes. "It's a big show and a piece of paper."

At that moment Jim came out the back room and looked around the shop. "Danielle!" He said sternly. "I'm so very sorry sir that she's bothering you."

"I'm not bothering him!" I insisted.

"You're supposed to be working." Jim glared at me.

"Technically I'm not," I pointed out.

"It's fine, Danni and I are friends, she's not bothering me." Charlie said calmly.

"See, I told you," I started to say to Jim. "Wait, we're not friends." I stood up and shook my head. "Sorry, I must be getting back to work." I left my half drunk coffee on the table and started to walk away.

"No, Danni, stop. Danielle." He pleaded, correcting himself at the last possible moment. I turned back to see him holding something out in his hand. I looked closer and saw it was a necklace. A simple chain necklace with two rings hanging on it. I clutched a hand to my chest. It wasn't there.

"You left it at mine." He held it out to me. "It looked like something you'd want back."

I stepped towards him and snatched the necklace out of his hand. I turned on my heel and stormed into the back room and straight out the back door.