Take Me Back To Paddington (SERIES)

Chapter 8 - The Last Customer

It had been 2 days since I last had my night in my previous universe. Did I miss it? No. It wasn't like I had anything left, or anyone to come back to. I still had my dad though but I got this thought about him lingering inside my head that he actually wished I was the one who died instead of his wife.

He didn't have to say it, he never said anything that possessed hatred towards me despite of having a loud mouth. My father wouldn't even hesitate to hurt me, his words flew like a free river along the stream, ignoring the big rocks that were on its way since it was aware of its own mighty force. No rocks could stop it from flowing, and so did his speech. Yet never in my life I ever heard him saying how much he hated me, and I didn't need to be told about it either. I just knew it by the heart. The way he treated me as the only child he had, said it all.

I kept the tap running. The water offered freshness with sufficient coldness I needed to have my hands cleaned. I left my cooking station earlier to go to the loo and also for a minute break, at least, since today had been busy. It was Friday and most Londoners were just more relaxed, didn't really rush to come home since they could rest on weekends. But not for me, not for Natalie. Those two chill out days were just waiting to kill us, squeezing our energy until nothing was left for us at the end of the day.

"Chae?" I heard Natalie's voice coming from her station.

"Yeah?"

"Everything's alright back there? You are taking so long"

Leaving the sink, I put myself back to the front.

"I'm sorry, I got carried away"

"By water?" Her eyebrows raised, having a smirk on her face that made me wonder what she actually had in mind.

"What?! I-" I chuckled, failed to say what I intended to towards her teasing. "I was just washing my hands"

"Who knows? You have been acting weird since yesterday," She walked closer to me, crossing her arms. That gesture sent anxiousness in an instant, making me think of the possibility of her doubting that I wasn't the Chae in this place.

But that was impossible. Nobody else knew about this soul travelling thing, I guessed? Because it was too ridiculous to trust in the first place. Even I used to doubt its truth.

"What do you mean?" I laughed a little, hoping that it had enough walls to cover my nervousness.

"I don't know, you are just...different"

Shaking my head, I tried harder to brush the suspicion away from her mind.

"It's just in your head, Nat" The grin on my lips remained, giving not only confidence to myself that I got everything covered, but also reminding me that I could smile, again.

Only in this universe, I can start to be happy again.

"That's it," She sounded like she had surrendered from this secret digging session best friends usually so professional in doing. But she was just taking a pause, approaching me in a different way instead. "You better tell me, Chae Richards"

My right arm was grasped and pulled as her face turned serious.

"Wh-what?" I swallowed my throat, eyes looking into hers that were already so close. "Tell you what?"

"You finally have had sex, right?!"

If only we weren't on the ground, my eyeballs could have been sucked from their sockets just like being on a flying airplane with a hole on its fuselage. That was how her question affected me, hitting with a massive surprise since her doubt on me was unforeseen, at all.