Madeleine

Paris: chapter 1

Tuesday, May 5th
Dear Diary,
I don't know how to put this, but I feel as if Paris is quite overrated. No family, no nothing. Sure my job is pretty great, but nothing else really has that spark. I miss Niece. I know that it isn't that far away, but god, those two cities are so different. Nothing feels the same anymore, I'm twenty two going on twenty three in a couple weeks, I really have to start sorting my life out. The only good thing about it right now is my job. Sure, it's a lot of work that I have to take on, but it's definitely for the better. But honestly, sometimes I even question moving to Paris in the first place. It was all because my job, nothing else. I can barely pay my rent, but my pay check is coming in soon, so there's not much to complain about I guess. I miss my parents and Aurélie, badly.

Then then I closed my diary and sighed. I rested her head on her hands which were at a 90 degree angle. Then slowly sipped her coffee and plucked a raspberry and ate it off her French tart. The café I was in was extremely lively, it never went silent. I looked out of the window and viewed some shops and a few bakeries. Then slowly checked my watch as I wondered what time it possibly could've been.

10:30? ok, I need to be at work in a half an hour, that leaves me time to finish off... Madeleine thought to herself.

A waitress with short brown hair no younger than fifty, quickly walked up to me and smiled.

"Hello" she said sounding quite cheery.

"Hi" I said sounding less excited.

"That gentleman over there paid for your tart and coffee" she said whilst pointing her finger to him in an almost, polite manner. He smiled at me from ear to ear whilst sipping his coffee. He was wearing a black flat hat and gestured it to her almost like he was saying hello, he was no older than twenty five.

He then checked his watch, sighed, then grabbed his briefcase and hurried out.

My heart almost sunk, it was an extremely strange feeling, because I had never met somebody before where they only met her for a minute, and be upset if they left.

"What a kind man" I said whilst smiling, I couldn't fight the gittery feeling inside.

"I agree" the waitress said delighted in almost a tone where she had wished that had happened to her.

"That man comes here everyday, in fact, his father is the owner of this café, I don't know his son very well, but he came here ever since he was a little boy, he was a cute kid" she said thinking back to those memories.

"He seems nice" I said looking out the window, thinking about that man with mystery.

I checked my watch and realised it was 10:45.

Shoot, I gotta go.

"Thank you very much, have a lovely day" I said politely.

"Goodbye!" The waitress said sounding happy.

Madeleine ran out of the café and hopped on her bike. She threw her satchel around her shoulder and began to pedal. Luckily, where she worked was only about ten minutes away by bike.

I pedalled through a lush green forest-like pathway. Although this was a longer route to work, I preferred it because it reminded me of someplace in Niece. There weren't many forests, but I lived in a house where my backyard was a forest. On the weekends, I would adventure in there with my older sister Aurélie.

Before I knew it, I was really close to my work.

Just around the corner, and I'm here.

I checked my watch and I was just on time.

I opened the door and the chimes rang, just like they did when anybody opened it. I looked around to see if anybody was there.

All of a sudden, Astor (my boss) came out of a room talking to a client.

"Events and scenery! Nothing else!" Astor yelled trying not to sound rude but did anyway.

Astor was a very opinionated man that was very in style and you would never see him on his rough days looking like a mess. He wore a flat cap and a blouse with these really shiny, black leather shoes. He was 'so' opinionated that I was surprised that he even hired me.

"Nothing else?" The lady asked still sounding hopeful after Astor yelled at her.

"Your poodles can go kiss my ass!" Astor said sounding even angrier.

I thought that was a very rude, but a funny comment, I couldn't help but giggle.

"Excuse me?! My twin poodles are having their fifth birthday party! They NEED photos!" She said sounding a little more harsh than she did before.

"Right, I've had enough, out of my store... NOW!" Astor yelled with rage.

"Forget this, I'll find a client that can actually take good photos of my poodles! You would be crap at this anyway!" She said then stormed out of the store.

"Maybe that's why were don't get many customers" I spoke with a small bit of jokeness in my tone.

"All our customers are rude anyways, Paris is quite a rude city" Astor said in his usual snobbish tone.

He didn't know a lot about Paris, since he had comuted from a small town about fourty minutes away.

"Hmmm... I think not. Paris is a very polite city. Your shop is just on the rougher, that's probably why" I said with a smerk and casually filed some papers.

Astor rolled his eyes, flicked his hands up in the air and swang around his hips like the drama queen he usually was.

"Forget this" Astor said. That was certainly the cherry on top to one of Astor's daily 'drama queen' fits.

The rest of the day was pretty slow 'as usual'. But that eagerness that I could possibly see thay mysterious man, really kept me up on my toes excited for tomorrow's daily breakfast break.