Jigsaw (NaNoWriMo13)

Six

It's funny. Just when you think everything is going perfect, there's always something or someone that comes along and bursts your little blissful bubble. I enjoyed a whole, amazing week with Evan, just us working in the café together and I finally felt a swell of happiness within me. That balloon bursts however, the moment I step through the door on Monday morning.

She is leaning against the counter, hair flowing down her back in perfect waves that I can never achieve. Evan is the other side, laughing at something she is saying. I freeze, feeling my stomach turn over at the sight of her. The remnants of last week come flooding back as I see her. The hate, the petty remarks. I suddenly want to be anywhere but in this claustrophobic little café.

Evans head snaps up and I swear I can hear the ding of a thousand light bulbs as he smiles at me. Just like that, I feel any tension leave me, and I even manage a small smile. Tanya is giving me a sour look as I help Evan to prepare for the day. I try to pretend that I can't feel her glare burning lasers into my back as Evan and I chat nonsense while we heat up the coffee machine and prepare the till.

It's been so nice. So peaceful without Tanya. I finally thought that I could relax and become myself, but as Tanya sneers at me, I know that it has all gone back to square one. She took a disliking to me from the moment I stepped through that door, and she is not going to cease in her endless tirade of hatred against me. As the day wears on, it is clear that she is doubly out to get me.

On my way to the bathroom, she trips, causing me to stumble into the wall.

She barges my shoulder so that the empty tray that I am carrying tumbles to the ground causing a loud clatter that makes Evan and several customers startle quite violently.

She puts extra strong espresso shots in my tea, causing me to spit them out in an impressive fountain that elicits smirks from the surrounding patrons, and even Evan looks as if he is struggling to fight a smile.

By the end of the day, I am frazzled and extremely frustrated. I am holding on to my patience with a severely fraying thread and it is taking all my willpower not to scream in her face. But I console myself by thinking that Tanya is being petty and immature. I can be the bigger person and just ignore her.

It doesn’t stop me from wanting to shove her in to the rubbish bin as she walks past though. Partway through the day, I am sorting through the new order in the back room when I feel a lurking presence behind me. I straighten up, expecting to see Evan. But when I turn around, it is not Evan who stands behind me, but Tanya, and she seems intent on making me miserable. Her face looks oddly sinister in the dim light given off by the single, flickering bulb that hangs stiffly above us. She slowly steps forwards, saying nothing as she closes the door behind her and kicks a box in front of it.

I swallow; I am trapped.

“Been enjoying yourself while I've been gone?” Tanya sneers, moving closer to me.

Despite being roughly the same height, Tanya seems to tower over me as she looms uncomfortably close, eyes eerily dark as she advances on me, a look of hatred plastered all over her face.

“Been cosying up to Evan have you? Thinking that you've got even a slight chance with him? Look at you,” Tanya looks me up and down. “Why would he ever want someone like you.”

I swallow a lump in my throat and throw Tanya the meanest look I can muster. “Oh please save it, Tanya. I don't have time for your crap, so if you've got nothing constructive to say, then save it because I'm not interested.”

Tanya reels back as if I physically slapped her. If I was hoping that my words would make an impact then I was wrong. In fact, they seemed to make her grow as she straightened herself up and snorted, her voice dripping with derision as she spoke to me.