One More Chance

Chapter 10

For some reason when I type I always type in size 12 Arial. I’m so weird!

Chapter 10

I was rolling cookie dough with a silent Haze next to me when Rita walked into the kitchen.

“You’re wanted out there,” she said with a winked. I followed her into the café and saw Josh waiting there, with a playboy smirk and wink. I was wearing my waitress uniform, with a scrappy apron wrapped around me. My hair was in a pony and I didn’t have any makeup on.

Josh stretched his hand and motioned outside.

“Just for a sec,” he said.

I grabbed his hand and he led me outside, just by the entrance to the café.

“So, I was wondering,” he said. “You wanna go out tonight?”

I was surprised by his question, because we only went out last night.

“Sure, why not?” I replied, which earned me a grin.

“Great! I’ll pick you up at 7,” expectantly, he kissed my cheek and ran off. I felt guilty.

When I went back into the café, Rita was on the phone and she gestured towards the cafe, wanting me to mind it for a while. The middle aged woman, who barely spoke to anybody walked in. I scanned my brain for her name. I was pretty sure Rita had told me before. Stella!

I walked up to where she was sitting and smiled at her. “Your usual, right?” I asked her. She grunted in reply. The first time I had served her, I had been slightly offended, but after I learned that she treated everyone like that, I had grown used to it.

I made her a tea and decided to give her a cookie for free. Who knows, it might cheer her up?

I gave her the orders, and a spasm of curiosity controlled my mood.

“Hey, Rita!” I called. “Why’s old Stella always like that?”

After spending all those weeks with Rita, I had come to a conclusion that the woman loved story telling more than anything. As soon as I asked her for Stella’s story, she sat down on the battered leather chair and leaned in.

“I remember it so well,” she said, her eyes glistening with excitement. “We were best friends, as close as sisters. No I take that back now…closer than sisters! Even after I met Harry and got married,” she took a small pause, as if she was remembering her late husband, “We were still close. Even after I had Haze. Then the summer of 1987, these American tourists came. A young man, called Chris, he met Stella and they were meant for each other! We were so happy! I had my beautiful Harry and of course Haze, and she had Chris. At the end of the summer, Chris decided to stay. Then around October…”

By now, Rita had tears at the edges of her eyes. It was hard to believe that Rita and Stella were best friends, when they hardly ever spoke to each other.

“Around the end of October, she came to me. She was so scared. We were brought up as strict Catholics, and she had ended up pregnant with Chris’s baby. She hadn’t told Chris yet…and the girl was so scared. Our parents were strict people, and we knew that they wouldn’t let Stella have the baby unless she got married to Chris,”

“…She didn’t have any doubts that Chris wouldn’t propose to her. They were so much in love, but Stella was always the spontaneous one out of both of us. I was the quiet girl, who had fallen in love and settled down at 22, but she wasn’t ready to have a baby or get married at 24, you see,” I nodded along, deeply engaged in the story.

“…Chris did end up proposing to her, and she realized that she didn’t mind if she was ready or not, just as long as she was together with him. She didn’t tell anyone else about the baby, just me. We were getting all the wedding stuff planned and she was happy!” I could already predict something bad was going to happen.