Under Different Circumstances

Chapter 9

A few hours after lunch, the restaurant was starting to fill up with dinner guests. I was wearing an apron and had taken up my work as a waitress.

"Good evening, Martha," I greeted an old lady wearing a slightly frizzy wig.

Martha was in her mid-nineties and came to the restaurant every Saturday evening to eat her dinner. She would stay for hours, taking her time with every course she ordered.

"Hello, princess," Martha gave me a big smile and shakily motioned for me to sit down with her, "what happened to your head?"

I knew that Martha didn't have many people to talk to anymore, so I would always try to find the time to sit and chat with her. She was the first person I decided to tell the story of what had happened.

"That sounds awfully exciting, dear!" the old lady exclaimed when I had finished recounting the events. "That detective sounds like a very honourable young man."

"Yes, he is," I mumbled, smiling to myself.

"He reminds me of my late husband, Walter," Martha reminisced. "He was a firefighter, you know?"

I nodded. She had told me about her husband many times before.

"Hailey?"

I turned my head to find Zoe standing next to our table.

"We've got this customer at table 12 who insists that you should be his waitress," Zoe said a little hesitantly.

The request confused me. Zoe was beautiful, and most male customers rejoiced in being waited on by her. She always received by far the highest tips out of all the waiters.

"He's giving me a weird vibe. You don't have to go. I can get someone else to do it," Zoe whispered.

"No, it's fine. I'll go," I told her. "Will you excuse me, Martha?"

"Go ahead, princess," she smiled and started rearranging some objects on the table with unsteady hands.

I walked over to the very back of the restaurant. The man sitting at the table, typing on his phone, didn't look familiar. He was about my age, had a buzz cut, and wore a navy blue leather jacket. When I approached the table, he looked me up and down with a grim look on his face.

"Hi, you asked to see me. How can I-"

"What's your name?" he cut me off.

"Hailey," I replied warily, pointing to my nametag.

"Hmm," was his only reply to that information. "I'll have today's special."

He handed me his menu and returned his attention to his phone. For a moment, I stayed where I was, confused by the interaction that had taken place. Why had he wanted me to serve him? I didn't know him, and he hadn't explained. I spun around and headed towards the kitchen. I got the same bad vibes off the guy as Zoe had and was relieved when I was out of his presence.

When I brought him his food and set it down in front of him, he barely looked up from his phone and handed me a banknote.

I served a few more people and was sitting at Martha's table again, helping her cut her food, when the man walked past us on his way to the exit. Martha paused the story she was telling me as she saw him coming. I glanced up and caught his sinister gaze lingering on me again. He kept walking and put his phone to his ear, quietly talking with someone as he exited the restaurant and disappeared down the street. The encounter with him gave me an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that I wouldn't be able to shake for the rest of my shift.