Finally Unbroken (a 1D fanfic)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

*Jessie's POV*

"COME ON JESS, WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE AGAIN."

I groaned and turned over in my cosy bed, and looked at the clock which hung on the wall. I had hardly slept at all, because I couldn't stop thinking about Niall, who didn't seem as pompous as I always thought he would be. Thanks to that idiot, I had woken up late.

11:37.

CRAP.

We had 23 minutes before Max and I had to be at work at De Peppinos and we were late so frequently we both knew that if we were late again, we would get fired... I scrambled out of bed and changed into the black skirt and long sleeved blouse we had to wear for work, and glanced in the mirror. My shoulder-length brown hair was naturally curly, but looked slightly wild as I didn't have time to have a shower, but there was nothing I could do about it. I quickly applied eyeliner and mascara, before running a red lip-stain across my lips.

"JESSIE, I SWEAR IF YOU'RE NOT DOWN HERE IN THE NEXT 30 SECONDS, I'M LEAVING YOU BEHIND" Max yelled up the stairs.

I grabbed my black pumps from my wardrobe and tried to put them on as I hurried down towards the front door. Max was waiting there impatiently, eyes fixed on his watch. When he noticed me next to him, he grabbed a piece of toast from the sideboard and thrust it in my mouth before pushing my towards the door, with his car keys in hand.

We both sprinted down the road until we reached his car and got inside. The clock of the dashboard read 11:49. I breathed a sigh of relief, amazed that I had managed to get ready in 12 minutes. It had to have broken my record. As soon as Max started to drive towards De Peppinos, I took the toast he had given me out of my mouth and threw it onto the backseat.

"Max, I'm not hungry. But thanks for the toast."

"You have to eat it Jess. I promised I'd look after and that's what I intend to do." There was a moment where neither of us talked, before he looked at me with concern in his eyes.

"Jess, you'd tell me if you were getting bad again.. Wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would, but I'm not. I'm okay. I promise." Max was like a big brother, and his care for me was unthinkable and unbelievable. I didn't know someone could care so much until I met Max, and he'd been the rock in my life ever since.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As soon as we went inside, the kitchens were swarming. The head chef, Mateo Peppino, seemed more stressed than I'd ever seen him before and all the intern chefs were clearly frightened that they were going to make a mistake. Mateo noticed us just us we entered the kitchen, and enveloped us both in a huge, sweaty hug.

"AH! Look it's my two favourite employees! where would I be without the two of you?!" He said in his strong Italian accent, before shooing us out of the kitchens and into the main restaurant. The one thing I loved about working at De Peppino's was that it was a family business, everyone that worked there was part of the his family, whether you were actually related or not. Mateo and his wife, Moira, ran the little homely place - Mateo did most of the cooking, and Moira managed it.

Both Max and I reported to Moira, who also seemed slightly more stressed than usual..

"Ah. Finally. Right, it's all hands on deck. The restaurant is closed to the public. We've got special guests coming, so best behaviour. I need you two wipe down the tables. Go. Now."

Moira was a bossy Italian lady in her her mid-sixties, and if you didn't know her you'd be pretty intimidated, but underneath she was one of the sweetest people around. I started to wipe down a few of the table, trying to work out which special guest has got everyone so stressed out. The restaurant was quite well known for having top-quality, authentic food so we'd had quite a few celebrities dining with us - Dame Judi Dench, Benedict Cumberbatch, Demi Lovato - but Moira and Mateo had never been stressed about them coming. All the waiters gathered in the staffs lounge, a small room with a couple of sofa's which was available to sit in when the restaurant wasn't busy, all trying to work out who it could possibly be. Max jokingly suggested Her Royal Highness, The Queen, but we all knew that she couldn't take the risk of dining in central London.

Suddenly, Moira bustled in and stopped looking at us all sat down.

"Get up, you lazy people!! We need be ready for our guests. I need 3 main waiters. Jessie. Max. Ray. You will be principle waiters, the rest of you will make sure everything runs smoothly. Now, go. Move."

Max, Ray and I exchanged glances, all of us knowing that if we messed up tonight, we'd be in big trouble. Ray was an attractive guy, and only worked as a waiter to try and help him pay his way through drama school. He was Max's best guy friend and he frequently spent the night at our flat, so the 3 of us were incredibly close.

"Apparently they'll be here in a couple of minutes, so we need to go to the servery. Jessie, if it's a guy, you have to flirt with him as much as possible so that we get a bigger tip. Don't be afraid to flash them your boobs." Ray winked at me, while I groaned at Max's comment - trust him to bring up boobs.

We made our way through the servery and into the kitchens, where we were met by Mateo.

"They called ahead and ordered. The food will be on the table when they arrive, so I need you to start taking it out.." We each grabbed a tray of food and made our way to the table where the food would be served. Max and Ray started to organise the food and trays on the table, leaving me to go and get the final tray from the kitchen.

"Remember to smile. I think you'll like these guests!" Mateo winked at me, flashing me his signature smile. He didn't seem as stressed as he was when we first arrived, which meant that the previous tension in the kitchens had died down. The tray was heavier than the others and I had to carefully balance it on my arms as I tried to open the doors between the kitchens and the restaurant.

I was focusing so much on making sure that I didn't drop the food that I failed to notice the blonde boy backing up into me, knocking me and the food to the ground.

I looked at the body sprawled over mine, covered in tomato pasta.

And then I realised who it was, and inwardly groaned.

"Do you get pleasure from knocking me to the ground?"