Chapter 21: Awkward Encounter

"It takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations."

Jaimie-mae was sending her third voicemail now. She couldn't tell if this was payback for not replying to him for two weeks but it had only been two days and she was already upset.

It was totally unfair, but she wanted Fabian to call her back, or text her, or even send her a meme. She wanted something to atleast know he was alive and well.

Two days was drastically different from two weeks and Jaimie-mae felt kind of bad for being so selfish but convinced herself that she needed to hear his voice to make sure he was alright, it definetely wasn't for her own benefit.

After school she went home, relaxed for an hour, then changed into her Garden Corner uniform and walked to work.

It was slowly getting colder and Jaimie-mae began to regret not bringing an extra jacket to slip on over her small sweatshirt which she threw on over her uniform.

When she walked into work, she sighed quietly at the warmness of the restaraunt and her mouth watered at the smell of the bread they were baking in the back. She always liked that they made their own bread, because then it was warm and soft and buttery when the customers got them.

"Hey Jaimie-mae," Ryan, one of the waiters greeted.

"Hi Ryan," Jaimie-mae said as she walked past him to put her backpack down.

"Im glad you came in tonight. It's kinda busy for a Monday evening."

"Yeah."

"Lets get to work."

Jaimie-mae, Ryan and one other waitress whom she hadn't made friends with yet, were busy with taking and delivering orders. People kept filing in and filing out. They didn't get much time to sit down and rest their feet.

About two and a half hours later, Ryan called out to Jaimie-mae as he picked up a large tray of drinks.

"Can you get to that new table in the big corner please. I already gave them menus but i can't get their orders my hands are full."

"Yeah no problem," Jaimie-mae said as she steadied a sliding cup on his tray.

"Thanks, your the best."

Jaimie-mae immediately made her way over to the corner table not looking up at the table until she pulled out her notepad.

"Hi, welcome to the Garden Corner," she said as she tried to find an empty page to write down the orders. Once she found it, she looked up at the group "i'm Jaimie-mae and i'll be-"

Jaimie-mae's smile fell when she saw who was sitting there with a group of four guys and two girls, one of which was attached to his face.

One of the guys shoved the couple. "Yo guys. You're making the cute waitress uncomfortable with your PDA." When they didn't respond he threw a punch into the guy's side. "Bro, Fabian. Don't make me seperate you two."

Fabian pulled away but groaned when the girl with the platinum blond hair tried pulling him back in for another kiss. He shooed her away. "Stop. Im hungry and i want to order my food without you trying to attack me."

Fabian finally looked up and his eyes immediately met with the blue eyes of Jaimie-mae.

She immediately averted her gaze to her notepad and tried to get the image of Fabian with his hair ruffled imperfectly and his face slightly flushed. He still looked ruggedly handsome, but just twenty five percent less than he did a few days ago when he had said he had liked her.

It didn't seem that way much anymore.

The guy who seperated the couple spoke up first, obviously unaware of the awkward air surrounding their table. "Okay cutie. I think i'll have the steak fries and the bacon cheese burger."

Jaimie-mae silently wrote down his order then looked up at him. "Do you want anything to drink?" She asked quietly.

"Oh yeah. Um, let me get a... cola please."

"Okay, no problem." She quickly wrote it down then took the rest of the boys orders.

Once she got to the girls they looked at her curiously and she began to feel uncomfortable.

"What would you like," Jaimie-mae asked the girl who had previously been kissing Fabian. She tried to avoid looking at him out of the corner of her eye at the same time.

"I'd like you to stop flirting with my man."

Jaimie-mae almost fell backwards at the girls comment. "Ex-excuse me?"

Jaimie-mae didn't think she was flirting, was she? She had hardly looked at him since she got to their table.

The girl on the other side of her interrupted. "Hi," she gave a small smile and Jaimie-mae visibly relaxed. "Can i have a pink lemonade please and i'll have a ceaser salad and fries."

"Okay. No problem," Jaimie-mae said offering the nice girl a tiny smile.

She took a deep breath and turned her head to Fabian. "And you?"

Fabian had been staring intently at her the whole time but now he had his head behind the menu and his voice came out muffled and rough. Still somewhat attractive. "I'll have the... chili and garlic bread please."

Jaimie-mae nodded and returned her gaze to the girl beside Fabian. She offered another smile, but the girl just glared at her again. Jaimie-mae cleared her throat awkwardly. "What can i get you?"

"I want the vegetable lasagna and the chefs salad, dressing on the side."

"Okay. Anything for drink?"

"Water with four ice cubes."

Everyone at the table groaned and Jaimie-mae nodded at them and then scurried away to the back. She didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry.

She placed the order down for the cooks to prepare and then slumped against the wall to try to get her rushing emotions under control. She could feel the disappointment and anger and irritation all flood through her body all at once and it coursed through her blood. Now was not the time to be upset, she had a shift to work. But she couldn't help it.

Not even four days ago, Fabian had comforted her and told her that he liked her. And now here he was lip locking with a girl who had a really bad attitude in the restaurant she worked at.

She told herself that she shouldn't be getting so worked up about this. He had only told her that he liked her. Not cared for her, or really really liked her. He said that she was 'not so bad'. That wasn't much. She had just taken it a little further.

As she thought over things, she realized she wasn't really that mad. She could somewhat understand Fabian. She was still in high school. Only a measly seventeen years old. Obviously he had wanted someone more mature and maybe even more... experienced.

It was probably obvious that she hadn't had a boyfriend before. Or probably never fully kissed a boy before. Sure, she had gotten a peck on the cheek from Timmy in third grade but she'd never really kissed someone.

The girl he was kissing also probably didn't come with as many problems as she did. She most likely wasn't emotionally unstable like she was. She probably wasn't scared of certain noises. She was probably significantly better. And somehow, she wasn't really bothered by that. Maybe disappointed, but she wasn't about to break down and cry. Not today she wouldn't.

"Jaimie-mae. What are you doing? There are drinks out there collecting dust."

She snapped her head up to Ryan. "Sorry, I've got it."

She immediately rushed over and grabbed the glasses of wine and dropped them off at a couples table then she went back and grabbed the tray with the drinks Fabian and his friends had ordered.

When she got over to the table she smiled and started placing them down. "Sprite, Cola, Pink lemonade, water, chocolate milkshake, hot cocoa and water with four ice cubes."

All of them except the platinum blond girl thanked her but she didn't mind too much and she walked away and continued going around to other tables.

Once the far corner tables food was ready, Jaimie-mae snatched it up and made her way over.

She placed down all of the food then looked up at them. "Can i get you guys anything else."

"Yeah, you can actually," a brown skinned boy with curly hair said.

Jaimie-mae smiled at him in reply.

"Your number."

Jaimie-mae just laughed it off while the nice girl groaned and she noticed Fabian clench his jaw. The other boys just chuckled and punched him.

"Can i get you guys something that is not my number?"

"No thanks," the nice girl said.

"Alright." Just as Jaimie-mae was walking away someone called her back.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to keep the smile on her face when she noticed it was the platinum blond calling her.

"You didn't put my dressing on the side."

"Oh my gosh Flora, just eat the damn salad. What's the difference?" the brown skinned boy asked.

"Shut up Malakai. I asked for my dressing on the side. Does it look like the dressing is on the side?"

Fabian sighed. "Flora. It'll taste fine."

She pouted at him and grabbed his arm. "But babe, i like to choose how much dressing i put on my salad. Tell the girl to take it back," she whined.

Jaimie-mae started to feel her patience wearing thin. If that Flora girl kept up her act that thin string keeping her patience together would snap.

"I told you not to call me babe and you can tell her yourself," he grumbled as he sank back in his seat and folded his arms.

When Jaimie-mae realized she would be standing there longer she got Flora's attention. "It's no problem, i can just take it back and get you a new one."

"Oh my god, she's so sweet. If i were her i would have had Flora kicked out already," the other girl whispered to the boy beside her. Flora glared at her as soon as she heard her name.

Jaimie-mae reached over to grab the plate of salad while Flora was distracted so she wouldn't have to argue with her. Just as she picked it up Flora turned and knocked the plate and all the salad tumbled out and onto her, Fabian and the nice girls laps.

"Oh my- im so sorry. I-i didn't-"

Flora screeched and stood up, knocking the table forward a little. "My dress! I just bought this for our date today!"

"Date?" Fabian said as he narrowed his eyes at her. "I told you we were going out with friends. Maybe you should just leave."

Flora huffed and then looked at the girl beside her. "Diana, can you believe these guys?"

"Yeah why?"

Flora rolled her eyes. She was obviously upset that no one was helping her.

"Look Flora, i think you should go. I don't even know why Fabian invited you," one of the other boys said.

Flora rolled her eyes at him and Jaimie-mae suddenly felt like dumping another plate of salad on her. But then she thought against it because it would be a complete waste of lettuce.

"Im telling you, he's gone soft," Malakai said.

"Nah, i haven't man," Fabian denied.

"Guys, can someone please grab me something to clean my dress," Flora said loudly.

Jaimie-mae felt her blood boiling now. How could Fabian hang out with this girl? She was so obnoxious.

"Guys!"

"Can you lower your voice please, you're bothering the other customers," Jaimie-mae said as politely as possible.

Flora shot her the nastiest glare and Jaimie-mae couldn't take it anymore.

"Maybe if you acted a little less... impulsive, these guys would be standing up for you. So suck it up and leave," Jaimie-mae growled. She tried to keep the bad language out of it because she didn't want to be fired. She wasn't much of a curser anyway.

Everyone at the table but Flora were looking at her, clearly amused.

"What crawled up your ass?" Flora asked with a pert glare.

Jaimie-mae could have screamed. If anything Flora should be asking herself that question. "Listen, i've been told that i'm a pretty nice person. So if i'm being mean to you, you need to ask yourself why?"

The boys chuckled and Diana praised her with a silent smile.

Jaimie-mae threw down three cloths onto the the table. "Use those to clean yourselves up. I need to go to the other tables," she mumbled.