The Waitress

Moving forward in reverse

Melody had never felt so tired. Tired but surprisingly relaxed and satisfied, more satisfied than she'd been in a year at the law firm. She'd earned her drowsiness today, well and truly.

An honest day's work for an honest day's pay as Pop Taylor would have said.

She'd stayed through lunch – which was busier than the morning and left just as Phillipe and his evening crew were arriving. She wondered how Phil and James managed to keep a relationship going with such a punishing schedule. The restaurant/café was open six days – for lunch and breakfast and five days for dinner. Though into the summer season that extended to seven days for both. She knew they took on other chef's through this peak time but the stress on a relationship must be immense – so must the love too she supposed, it was the only way the relationship could have made it this far.

It amazed her.

She always used her work as an excuse for not having a relationship but as she watched them together they seemed to thrive on it, on the balancing act. They looked so in love as they chatted about the day so far, always touching, not far from each other. Sharing in-jokes and secret looks. It was beautiful and intoxicating to watch. She hadn't really been jealous of loving couples before, she'd been working so hard it hadn't really occurred to her that she was really missing out on something. She didn't really have that many close friends and those that were vaguely close were single and driven like her. She didn't remember her mother or grandmother and neither her father nor grandfather had married and her aunt was terminally single. There weren't a lot of couples in her life.

But now she had seen Phil and James, observed what they went through to have their dream and each other – she felt a strange pang like she was missing something, something that she had never realized she was living without. It suddenly felt like it wouldn't be so bad to have another half, someone to come home to.

Well, one day.

Right now, all she wanted was to drive home, throw herself on the bed and sleep in the cool air-conditioning.

Her back ached, her feet, her legs – muscles she didn't know she had were making themselves known in no uncertain terms.

She groaned like an old woman as she reached down to pick up her bag and take her leave.

James laughed.

"Been a while since you were on your feet for eight hours straight?" he asked knowingly as she groaned again – an unofficial acknowledgment of the truth. She was frigging shattered by one day's work and it wasn't even a particularly busy day according to the boys.

"You've worn me out!" she admitted rubbing her aching back and feeling a hell of a lot older than 26 – the legal work made her brain ache but this was constant moving and remembering, smiling and being nice and it was a lot harder than it looked. A lot harder than sitting at a desk looking through files. But when it ended it ended and she got to go home and let go. There were no additional files to read, no background to follow up. It was just home! Yeah, she was looking forward to that. A long bath, an early night............

"You are coming back tomorrow, though right?" James questioned looking just a tad concerned that they'd overworked her. He hoped not, she was fun and keen and had............something. He wasn't sure what, but James sensed she would be an asset to the place. More than that though, he liked her – and so did Phillipe. They had the moment they met – knew they had a kindred spirit, someone that fitted into their unconventional rag-tag café family.

She smiled at him.

"You can't scare me off that quickly boss," she giggled and she saw him visibly relax as though he'd been worried.