The Waitress

Moving in slow motion

Three days flew by in the blink of an eye as they do when you're busy.

There were no more Tom sightings at the café or even on the beach.

But it didn't really matter to Melody, who had by now become Mells and already well on her way to being a firm and fast member of the Blue Wave family, no a celebrity sighting was nothing in her real day-to-day life.

She had been working hard, writing non-stop when she arrived home and getting better and faster at her job. She had to - the rest of the week had been building up to this - the main event. Her biggest challenge so far, the ubiquitous Gold Coast Saturday morning rush.

The Coast was busy at this time of year anyway but the weekends lifted it to a whole other level as tourists flew in from around the country and Brisbanites, Brisos, Brisvegans or whatever you wanted to call them. made the short trip south down the M1 for a quick weekend getaway of sun, sand, sea and probably a little sin. A chance for a timeout as they plummeted headlong towards the stress of the end of the year that became frantic and frenetic before that long summer holiday that they had worked so hard for.

It wasn't quite a baptism of fire for Mells, James had timed her entry into Gold Coast Café culture well, the customers had been slowly building throughout the week and while James and Phillipe warned over and over that Saturday was a whole other level - The whole thing ramped up to 11 or maybe 100 Melody hadn't really cared.

She was ready for it.

Ready, able and raring to go.

Or so she thought.

As she faced it, a full-house as soon as the door opened, her confidence faded.

Yeah, maybe not so much.

However, just as on her first day, she stood behind James, nervous anticipation bubbling as her boss and now just five days down the track, firm friend, readied to open.

And there they were.

Her first day on repeat.

Two gangly Brits gambling through the door as soon as it opened.

Her nerves calmed.

She took in the sight and couldn't help but smile.

Tom looked tired.

Tom was tired.

Three full, long days of filming. Slogging through the "jungles" wary of the snakes, spiders, ticks, and leeches that everyone warned him were around every corner and it had taken their toll.

That was the thing with Australians, and he'd worked with his fair share now, you never knew if they were pulling your leg or deadly serious. And out there he wasn't taking any chances. Though he was fairly sure Drop Bears the small koala-like creatures that dropped out of trees and attacked like vampires, were an urban myth. Though you really never could tell in Australia, where it felt like a continuous episode of The Deadly Sixty. Though not to the locals, no the locals didn't seem to be fazed - it was what you used to he supposed.

But it didn't matter now, the weekend was here and he didn't have to work - you didn't always get that on a shoot but here it was. Two days off. Not a lot of plans. Time to do what he wanted to do.

And there were two things on the top of that list - well three if you counted actually sitting down with one of the books he'd dragged halfway across the world with him. Last night he had spent time with all his castmates and tonight they were doing something too but the early part of the day was his, all his.

He'd managed just one run since Tuesday and it was killing him. He needed to run, needed that release of energy, that revitalization, it wasn't a hobby, it was essential. And he'd been well overdue. To that end, he'd been up with the rising sun this morning, much to his security guard Derek's chagrin. The sun was barely up and he was running along the beach, communing with nature. The human population had been sparse at that hour and anyone he saw didn't seem interested in him anyway, they didn't care that the other runner was "Tom Hiddleston - Actor" or worse "movie star". Anyone running at that time was out there enjoying nature's beauty, pounding the wet sand immersed in the natural world in front of the unnatural setting of the Gold Coast glitter strip.