baby steps | ✓

nine

Saturday had rolled down quicker than you could say 'busted', it had been a few days after the 'cheek kiss' and Athena was finally able to say she was past that. She had ignored Alejandro for those days and even though she really wanted to talk to him, she held herself back and continued to ignore him. Of course, Alejandro had no idea what was going on and felt neglected that she would not talk to him as if he had done something terribly wrong for her to ignore him.

He made it his mission to talk to her about it that weekend.

However, Athena had not paid her mind any thought about him and continued on her Saturday, as usual, working her four-hour shift. She had left Drew in the trusting hands of her babysitter and her boyfriend, she plastered on a fake smile as she served the rich and made sure she was on her manager's good side for the whole morning until early lunch as Saturday's was her manager's bad days. She wiped the sweat from her forehead as she eyed the clock which told her that she had two hours until her shift ended.

Groaning slightly, she made her way to an elderly couple holding hands and joking about past memories. Athena's heart had swelled up at the couple who seemed to be falling in love all over again and gave them a genuine smile when she approached them.

"Hello, what may I get you two?" she beamed out, holding her notepad in her hand and gave them another big smile. She waited for the couple to respond, who seemed to be discussing it together. They laughed and chuckled before deciding, the man ordering for the table and then asking his wife who blushed. They seemed to be really in love and Athena admired that, she wanted to have an everlasting love just like that and she wanted to be looked at the way the man looked at his wife.

After receiving their orders she placed it in the kitchen and then realised that she had no more tables to wait over, so she beamed as everyone in her area either had their food or were waiting for their meals. She took this time to sit down in the employee area behind the kitchen and sat on one of the couches sipping water she got from the tap. She enjoyed the little time she had before she had to serve again and closed her eyes in hopes of a small little rest, but unfortunately, her mind had other things to think of and the memory of Alejandro kissing her cheek emerged under her eyelids.

The sensation of his lips pressed against her cool skin had come back on her arms and a red tint had sprouted on her cheeks. Athena opened her eyes and gasped out, rubbing her eyes in hopes of ridding the memory. She cursed herself for thinking such things, but now, her mind had latched onto the thought and all hopes of forgetting the image had stayed in her mind.

Letting out an aggravated sigh, she tried to stop thinking about the way it felt nice to feel affection or the fact that he was the one giving the action towards her. She shook her head wildly and mentally shouted to her brain to shut up and let her work in peace. So instead of sitting on the couch, she got up and resumed her work. She waited tables upon tables thinking that working would help her forget, but it didn't, it only made it worse.

No matter what, it seemed as if she couldn't run from the memory, it seemed to be haunting her, from the elderly couple to the teenagers who sat in the corner of the place. She couldn't escape. She couldn't escape the butterflies, she couldn't escape the goosebumps and she couldn't escape the beautiful lips that pressed against her cheek. For the rest of the shift she tried to run and run, but it came back to her and by the end of the four annoying hours she picked up Drew and headed home.

When she made it, she prayed to the all amazing being in the sky that the memory would fade away, but fate was not very kind to her and what she saw waiting in front of her door was none other than the person who she didn't want to see, Alejandro. She winced at the sight of him, he didn't look bad, nor did he looked very good. His hair was messy as if he ran his hand through it multiple times, his shirt was unbuttoned and his jeans were creased. He seemed to have been waiting for her for a while and she felt bad for not telling him when her shifts were. Thinking she should head back to her car, she started to slowly walk backwards with her stroller, but for some ungodly reason, the stroller squeaked out and all plans of avoiding him were thrown out of the window when he looked up to see her.