The Waitress

Destiny Calls

The phone didn't ring and Melody tried to ignore it and go back to normal - whatever that may be. 

She tried to put it out of her mind and get on with her trip to the UK, with Christmas and with life but how can you when your world  has been thrown into a spin, into limbo, how can you when you always have half an ear on a phone that won't ring, on a woman who seems determined to reject you, yet again?

They sat in Morag's vintage kitchen for two hours after the phone call, eating big bowls of homemade soup that Mels had made the night before, sopping it up with crusty bread brought in by Morag and chasing it with cheesecake made by Diana. The cheesecake made Mels miss home, her boys, the restaurant. The unwatched phone wasn't as unwatched as it should be. It sat like an unspoken truth in the middle of the room, in the middle of the table, heavy and nonignorable in an ignorable way.

It was hard not to glance at it from time to time even as they sat and talked about Christmas and flights and everything but the phone, the woman and the heartbreak.

Tom kicked himself. Should he have lied and said he couldn't find the number?

But he didn't think. Didn't think anyone could let her down like this.

Again.

Maybe he just didn't think at all.

Maybe he'd just been thinking with his penis the whole time he'd been with her, the whole time  she'd been in the country?

She was putting on a brave face but he could see it.

See the hurt growing with the passing moments. He could kick himself as he wondered what he could do. What he should do? He was meant to drive his mum back to her place today. To leave, but he couldn't, he shouldn't. Maybe he should drive her over and come back? Or maybe she needed space from everyone. 

From him. 

Maybe he was being selfish wanting to stay?

The whole room was thinking, wondering, hoping. And Mels was just trying to forget, to keep living.

"Well I don't know about you lot but I have Christmas preparations to make, we haven't had a chance to go get the tree and to decorate it yet!" Morag finally said breaking into the nothing conversations that were happening around the table. She stood up, starting to clear the table of dishes and stack them into the dishwasher. Tom stood too following her lead, getting more dishes and moving to the bench behind her  to help.

Jim yawned then.

"Yes as much as I've loved meeting you all and catching up with my family I think I should be getting back," he said turning to his ex-wife and smiling.

"If you want I can drop you at our youngest's place on the way home – I know she is coming through to yours tomorrow, give Tom a bit more time here with the Taylor girls," he added and Diana's eyes lit up she'd been looking for a solution, she didn't think it would be fair to take Tom away from Melody and she 'd didn't have clothes with her, didn't want to impose.

"Or if you like Johnny and I could drive you home- show him a bit more of this part of the countryside," Morag piped up.

Mels sighed, they were trying to help, she knew that but it felt like other people were trying to protect her, run her life and she didn't need it. She was a big girl, this was a setback and she would live through it. She didn't really expect anything more from the woman, how could she? She'd walked out on her when Mels could barely walk and had not looked back obviously.

"It is okay, I'm okay," she said shaking her head.

"I don't need anyone to fuss over me, I'm disappointed but this is nothing new."

Tom put down the dishes and walked across to the table, sitting down next to Mels again. She turned to face him and he smiled gently taking her hand in his.

"We all know that darling but we want to fuss over you, you are important to all of us, to me Melody Taylor – I meant what I said – I love you and I'm here for you whatever happens," he said, his blue eyes full of love and meaning. Diana sighed sure she'd cry, after the debacle earlier in the year, she had begun to despair that Tom would or could feel like this, would find someone that he loved totally and selflessly. An arm snaked around her and she turned to smile in a watery way at her ex-husband. It was rare for them to touch each other now but this, this was a bit of an occasion. Mels' breath hitched and her own eyes watered. Part of her wanted to hug him and part of her wanted to run. Since her grandfather and father's death, she had faced the world alone, had grown a tough skin and got on with it. But the Blue Wave boys and now Tom had chipped away at that hard exterior and now, now she'd kind of been laid bare. It scared her, scared her more than hearing or not hearing from her mother.

"Very smooth Tomboy!" Morag said coming over to pat him on the back.

"But we all know he's just angling for a couple more days of our cooking right Mels?"

Mels laughed nervously, she knew what her aunt was doing, she was making light of it, getting her to relax, it was what Morag did, it was what she needed now too. Morag knew that – she should, even if the woman who gave birth to her rang, Morag Taylor would always be more of a mother to Melody than that woman ever could or would.

"Well I did promise him one of our world-famous steamed treacle puds," Mel added going along with her aunt.

"Oh well, I'm glad I'm staying then!" Johnny said smiling at Morag and Mels. With no family of his own, he was enjoying being part of the Taylor clan, a clan that was growing by the minute.

"Oh I love treacle pudding," I might have to stay for a bit longer Jim said and Diana laughed – "In case you were wondering where Tom got his sweet tooth from Melody!"

The air lightened and suddenly Mels realised what she had, what was happening. Even if her mother never rang she had a family. Both here and in Australia, yeah she really did have a lot of people that loved her. She smiled at Tom then and put her other hand on his squeezing it.

And people who she loved back she thought looking up into his blue eyes.

And she knew she wasn't going to argue then, knew she didn't want to him to leave, wondered if she would be able to when it came time to go home, to go back to university and her empty house on the Tweed.

This felt so foreign but so right and nice. To be surrounded by family, three days out from Christmas she realised she already had the best present she could ever have – people who cared what happened to her, who loved her, needed her, wanted her.

She had everything she needed in this warm cosy Essex kitchen.

Then the phone, may be aware that no one was watching it anymore, rang and turned her life upside down again.