Evie's Job

6: Evie

Evie ended up stuck in the kitchen, scraping plates and stacking glassware. She didn’t complain, even though she’d been hired as a waitress, rather than a kitchen-hand. It was a casual temp job, and only for one night, but they might need someone again and remember her if she was helpful.

She scraped for a while, not paying much attention to what was happening around her. The kitchen was busy, preparing food for the hotel’s restaurant. She scraped, and finished tidying up, until everything seemed to be done. She went back out to the conference room to check for any last trays. The conference drinks had finished. The lawyers were gone. That seemed to be all she needed to do. She signed out, and left her timesheet with the kitchen manager, and got her jacket and bag.

She was about to leave when one of the bar staff called out to her.

“Oh hey,” the bartender said, from where he was collecting clean glassware. “That woman you were talking to before is looking for you.”

Evie had to stop and think. “What woman?”

“When you were outside before,” the bartender said. “Down in the courtyard?”

Evie stood there for a moment. She didn’t quite understand. “Why’s she looking for me?”

The bartender shrugged. “She didn’t say. She just asked if you were still around and I said I thought you were. Why, don’t you know her?”

“Nope, not really.”

“Oh.” The bartender looked at Evie. “Shit, I thought it was your mother or something. Do you want me to say you’ve gone?”

Evie hesitated, then thought about careers and contacts and networking. “Nah,” she said. “It’s okay. I’ll go talk to her.”

“She’s had a few. I think she might be a bit pissed.”

“Okay.”

“I mean, think she’s still downstairs waiting, but I can throw her out if you like?”

Evie shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said. “Thank you.”

Evie said goodbye, and went down to the bar to look. Everything seemed quiet, as if the bar had already closed. Evie wasn’t surprised. It was a wet Tuesday in winter, and there wouldn’t be many more customers now the conference was over. Evie opened the bar’s door, and looked inside. It was definitely closed. The tills were off, and no staff were around. All the drunk lawyers had gone home.

All except Natalie, her weed-friend from earlier.

Natalie was sitting halfway down the bar, with half a glass of something in her hand, staring at the rows of bottles along the back wall. Evie was a little surprised. She had half-expected Natalie to have given up and left.

Evie stood there for a moment, wondering what Natalie wanted. Maybe more weed, Evie thought, or maybe she was annoyed that Evie had got her high.

Or maybe she wanted to flirt.

Evie had wondered if Natalie was earlier, but hadn’t been completely sure. Natalie was older, old enough Evie wouldn’t have assumed she was, and she’d been very shy about it if she had been. She had been hanging around Evie though, and trying to talk, and that was what made Evie wonder. It had felt like something was going on. Like some kind of shy person’s flirting, all painfully cautious and self-aware.

Flirting that Evie might not have even noticed, except that she flirted that way herself.

She remembered thinking that perhaps Natalie wasn’t used to being with women, and perhaps that made her nervous, so she was hiding her interest because of that. She’d thought it, then wondered why she cared.