Learning to Fly

Chapter 12

What was wrong with her? She'd lay in bed for many hours pondering what had gone wrong that evening. Jens had seemed keen on her, after her initial surprise at that, Carly was sure of that, but after walking her back to her room, he'd run off without as much as a kiss. Had he changed his mind? Jens wasn’t her type, he was too sophisticated, too experienced and far too much of a flirt for her, but the rejection hurt more than she was happy with. He'd left her with a real emotional hangover, and she didn't like it. After punching her pillow, tossing and turning, she had slept, but now as she headed for the restaurant with a sore ankle and a ridiculous level of fatigue, she rued the previous evening on so many levels.

She had slept, but not well, and she'd been woken by her parents phoning both excited and sad that she wasn't there with them. With a video link via Skype, she opened the parcel that had arrived in the week; it was filled with her favourite toiletries, a huge jar of Marmite, and some beautiful jewellery. So thoughtful. She'd gushed as her parents had similarly opened their gifts.

She'd sent them CD's, trendy winter hats, and some luxury rich dark chocolate for her chocoholic father. Carly had had to rush off to work after that, but she promised to call them later that day, to see how their day had passed.

Carly was nervous, after all whatever happened today, she'd be working outside her comfort zone. She'd worked bars and restaurants since she was fifteen, was confident she could do it in her sleep, but it didn't ease the apprehension of the unknown. For the first time in her life she worried that she was out of her depth, maybe the safety and security of home was her limit.

Carly shook her head, she didn't believe that for a minute, the last couple of months she'd felt like a butterfly, finally free of the restrictions of her chrysalis. She loved home, even more than she thought possible, but free of the restrictions, she finally felt free, alive.

The restaurant was quiet, but it gave Carly chance to catch up. She was so glad to get to grips with this new role, failure was not an option, with anything the management threw at her; she had to prove she could do this to herself more than anyone else. When she'd left home after all those years, she'd known this was her one and only chance for the life SHE wanted.

There was a large formal restaurant that was open for set meal times and required booking. Then there was the more casual cafe that sat the opposite side of the foyer, it was busier, but still nowhere near busy enough to need her, so once she'd helped serve breakfasts, mid morning, she was asked to assist in reception. The one thing that she hadn't really fully anticipated was spending time under the jurisdiction of Lucas.

Taking a deep breath, Carly made for the office behind the large reception counter that took up one whole wall of the spacious foyer, a spare uniform had been left there for her by Danica. Changing quickly, she emerged behind the desk pasting on a smile.

Lucas was the only other person working, and when she appeared, he was engrossed in a telephone call. The switchboard in front of him was blinking madly. He was talking in German, she realised, and his face was a beaming smile as he uttered a 'danke' before connecting to another call.

Carly suddenly realised she could do nothing to help until he’d talked her through the basics, so spotting papers spewing from the fax machine behind him, she moved towards it and started to try and sort through it. Several were messages for residents, the room number and ids clearly written on them. So finding envelopes, she started to fold the papers and slot them into envelopes, writing the name and room number on the front. She was placing them into the key slots for the corresponding rooms when Lucas hung up the call.

When she had finally finished and turned around. Lucas was leaning against the desk ankles crossed, watching her.

                "Nice initiative!" he finally offered. "Unless you speak German or French there's no point you taking any of the calls here, I'll talk you through the computer and key system then you can take the in person requests?"