Nowhere Girl ~ John Lennon/The Beatles

Chapter Twelve: Smoke Break

When Albert pulled the car up outside home Robin let out a short sigh of relief, both because she was finally free of work, and because she could just about see John's figure stood down the end of his garden.

"Think yourself lucky you weren't in the kitchen," Albert pointed out jokingly as he saw how tired she looked, making Robin let out a short, bitter laugh.

"Tell that to someone who didn't have to put up with table seven, nothing I could do was right," She explained, sighing again. "Kay said they were regulars as well,"

"Yeah, sorry kid, bit like throwing you in at the deep end really," Albert laughed. "Speaking of Kay, were the other wait staff nice to you?"

"I think they quite enjoyed having someone new they could make deal with the difficult customers," Robin joked dryly, and even though Albert laughed he looked at her with raised eyebrows, as if telling her to be serious. "No, everyone was fine. I know you had them be nice to me cause I'm new but they were all pretty good,"

In truth, Robin didn't really want to tell her uncle just how much she'd enjoyed working at his restaurant as a waitress. She felt exhausted sure, but it was worth it considering how fulfilled she felt. It was like how she felt after her first day of college, except better because she'd already taken herself out of her comfort zone so much the last few weeks it didn't feel as nerve-wracking and because she'd never had a job before she had nothing to compare it to. It felt like another step to building a proper life in Liverpool, an idea she'd been so against when she first moved in, but maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

It had also been nice meeting people that weren't just John and Stuart's friends and that weren't necessarily teenagers. Kay, who Albert had asked to show Robin the ropes, was in her mid-twenties and had been working at the restaurant since she was younger than Robin. She was cool but not in the way that was overly intimidating, and with a trendy pixie cut that made her resemble Audrey Hepburn she instantly made Robin feel at ease while working. She introduced her round the other waitresses that were working that night too, one of them being a quietly polite woman called Ana who'd just gotten married, and Susie, who was a bit older than all of them and even though Robin had hardly interacted with her she'd gotten the vibe that she thought she was superior to the younger girls. Even with Susie making her feel a little uncomfortable, and part of her did fear that they were all just pretending to be nice to her, it had been a good day's work, and Robin felt like she'd actually done something important, something other than immerse herself in her art.

"I think you were a really good asset tonight though, if you could work another couple of shifts this week I'll pay you on Friday and get you put on the rota properly," he suggested. "Obviously I know your college stuff still comes first, so maybe three nights a week if that's alright?

"Yeah, cool, cheers," she nodded gratefully, trying to stay stoic despite the thought of a proper job exciting her a little.

With that, the two of them got out the car, Robin carrying her college portfolio as usual whilst Albert hugged a brown paper bag full of restaurant leftovers to his chest. He locked the car up and went towards the path up to the house, but Robin didn't follow him. She was instead looking at John as he stood down the garden.

He looked like he was alone, holding his guitar, and for once he was wearing his glasses. As handsome as she thought he looked in his oversized frames she worried that he'd for once be able to see her watching him so she quickly looked away down to the floor. He'd been disappointed that she wasn't going to get the bus with him home from college that day, but he'd hidden it well behind sarcastic remarks about her being a working woman that had made her roll her eyes.

In his defence though after their deep talk the day before they hadn't had much chance to hang out properly. Robin felt as though their friendship had been fixed, no longer compelled by awkward anger to ignore each other, but there'd been no time at college to feel as though they were back to normal. At lunch they had been surrounded by the rest of the group and Robin had been talking to Stuart all about their coursework, and in lettering class neither Robin or John could talk, not as John had over a weeks worth of work to catch up on. Even if they couldn't talk properly, they both silently and unknowingly enjoyed the presence of the other, forgetting how nice it was to be cramped on the school desk together, their elbows occasionally bumping into each other, perhaps not always by accident.