After Dusk

Chapter One

"El, take this to table 15 for me!" an older woman, whose name I couldn't recall, called out to me over the bustle and loud noises from the kitchen. As I quickly walked over to the serving station, I was mentally rolling my eyes at the nickname that everyone working in this overpriced restaurant continued to call me. All thanks to my uncle who also works here. I grab the two plates, which had been decorated beautifully with small portions of different food on them, off the table and quickly walked toward the double swinging doors that entered out to the dining room. I stopped only for a few seconds to look at a piece of paper taped to the wall next to the doors that had the dining room drawn out with all the table's and their numbers assigned to them. My eyes quickly found table 15 on the page and quickly left the kitchen before my nervous wreck of a brain completely forgot.

10... 11... 12.. I counted quietly in my head as I passed by the different tables dressed up beautifully with a white silk tablecloth and a single fancy candle holder centerpiece.

15! I exclaimed in my head to myself as if it was a direct order to my feet to stop moving. I turned to the table with a shy smile and greeted the elderly couple that occupied the table, "Good evening, I have a ... " I looked down at the plates and completely drew a blank as to what I had in my hands.

Oh god, I was so worried about where the right table was I completely forgot to look at the ticket to see what they had ordered.

"Ugh... I have," I began to repeat nervously as if the words would magically appear into my mouth. As the elderly couple began to look at me as if I had completely lost my mind, I felt a strong hand on my shoulder.

"Miss El here has a delicious dish of Pasta with Lamb Ragù along with Island Duck with Mulberry Mustard, which was an excellent choice sir."

I look to my side to see my uncle and saving grace, Leo.

"Ah, Leo! It's so good to see you again! We didn't think you were working tonight." the older woman said with a wide smile on her face. It didn't matter how young or old the person was that Leo was talking to, they always ended up smitten with him. And I can't blame them. Leo could be a model if he really wanted too. He had a tall, lean body with broad shoulders and his hair was a sandy blonde color that seemed to fall into place effortlessly without him even trying. I've witnessed people get lost in his blue eyes and blemishless face before they even knew it, women typically never stood a chance not to blush or stare too long at Leo. He honestly looked like he should be slow walking on the beach with a surfboard instead of fast walking with a food tray in his hand. I always felt bad for the women that were overly flirty with him, for they never knew he was gay with an awesome boyfriend.

Leo smiled just as brightly to her as he replied, "Well I couldn't get my lovely niece here a job unless I agreed to train her myself, so here I am."

"Well, how kind of you!" the lady said with such amazement that you would have thought Leo had just said something like he saved a whole orphanage from a fire. The older woman looked at me with a matter of fact expression on her face, "You should be very grateful, El was it?"

"Elena actually," I stated with a tight smile. Leo gave me the nickname El when I was a baby, he was only 10 when I was born and decided the second that my mom put me in his arms that he would call me El and only El from now on. And he did just that. I almost don't blame a 10 year old Leo for trying to change my name. My mom, being the unique soul that she is, thought it would be different to name me with two first names than with just one since she couldn't make up her mind which name to pick for me. So my name is actually Elena Estelle, which put together means bright star. I prefer to just go by Elena but my mom always uses my full name and I only like when Leo calls me El. I never knew why it bothered me when other people used my nickname my uncle gave me but it always did. It was just something special that Leo and I shared together.

"and I am very grateful for Leo. I dunno what I would do without him." I said as placed their plates down in front of them.

It was so true. I really don't know what I would do without Leo. He was more of a big brother to me than an uncle growing up. When I called Leo and his boyfriend, Matt, a month ago desperate to leave the East coast, they didn't hesitate to open up their doors to me. Leo even talked his boss into hiring me. Which for someone that has never waitress before landing a job in Seattle's finest restaurant, La Petals, I was completely shocked. I was a little scared to leave everything I ever knew behind, but I needed something new... something different... something that didn't remind me of him. So Seattle Washington it was. My fresh start.

"How old are you my dear?" The older man asked, speaking for the first time since I arrived at the table.

"I'm 23 sir." I answered softly.

He nodded his head slowly, "Ahh, to be 23 again." he stated as he looked at his wife as if he was reminiscing about the old days.

"Well enjoy your dinner," Leo comment quickly guiding me away from the table. Once we were safely back into the kitchen, Leo released a loud sign. "Thank god, I really did not want to stand there and have to hear about his whole life story," Leo exclaimed as he placed one of his hands on his hip and ran his other hand through his hair, "And what happened to ya out there? Cat got your tongue or somethin'?" he asked laughing at me as he placed a hand on the top of my head and ruffled my chocolate colored hair.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I said as I removed his hand and tried to quickly fix my hair. "I was just so focused on making sure I went to the right table this time that I forgot to see what was on the ticket." I said honestly in defeat looking toward the floor. Before I could get too down about my mistake, Leo playfully pushed my shoulder snapping me out of my thoughts.

"First of all, don't worry about it." Leo said with a smile. "You're going to make mistakes, just learn from them. Everyone has to start somewhere, even I wasn't very good when I first started to wait tables. Plus, this is just something for right now until you find something you like."

"Yeah, you're right." I said with a soft smile. Leo always knew what to say to get me out of a funk.

"So," Leo started as he leads the way to the break room, "have you talked to your mom recently?" I felt the familiar pain of missing my mom dearly in the center of my chest as I took a seat at one of the small cheap tables in the back. For a restaurant, which the cheapest dish on the menu to be 160 dollars, you would think the staff would have a pretty better break room than what we did. "Yeah, I talked to her yesterday. She and dad are getting settled into their new house."

"So they ended up moving from Florida?" He asked bringing a styrofoam cup to his mouth, "Where did they move to again?"

"South Carolina."

"Mhm, Maggie always did love it there. I'm just shocked it took her so long to move there." Leo stated chewing on a piece of ice. My mom really did love it there. Every free summer we got, she would drag everyone she could to take a family trip to South Carolina. I don't know what it was, but she always said she would move there and grow old. I'm happy she is finally getting to live her dream out since she had to grow up so fast since my parents had me at such a young age.

Leo was quiet while I was lost in my thoughts. "Have you talked to your mom what happened that night?" He finally asked quietly, gauging my reaction as he waited for a response. So many emotions flooded to me that I wish I could just forget. I know Leo didn't mean any harm by asking, I just want to forget all about those years and all about him altogether. A ping of guilt chimed in as the memory of me telling my wonderful parents that I was moving across the country without an explanation so suddenly.

"No, I haven't." I shamefully admitted while rubbing my hands on my black pants. The matching black button up top suddenly feeling too tight.

Leo placed the styrofoam cup down on the table and leaned back in his chair. I could tell that so many questions and statements ran through his mind but thankfully he chooses to leave them there. "Well, maybe one day." he finally just says with a soft caring smile on his lips. I just respond back with a matching smile.

"Well," Leo stands up showing how tall he really was, "Let's get our asses back to work. Three more hours and we are free from all the fancy buttholes here." A giggle escaped as I followed suit and stood up.

I think I can finally be happy here. I don't know why, but I can just feel it in my bones.