Made of Glass Chapter 4

A Chapter by Charlie

The thing you may suspect but I had grossly over looked during this incident was that the repercussions were pretty large and quite a few in number. Not all of which were bad. Not even most of them were bad. First and foremost, my exile at the bar ended. Of course, Elaina and Bucky were practically fawning over me at my “heroic display” as Elaina put it. But they weren’t the only ones. Lauren actually mumbled a “thanks” to me in passing which from her I took to be the same as expressing her undying gratitude and never-ceasing service. No more mixed up drinks from her. In fact, she started giving me tips on how to handle some of the more rowdy boys. Being an expert on quelling over-excited college boy’s emotions, I found her advice quite useful. But the helping didn’t just come from her. Everyone that Ashley had manipulated away from me gradually realized that I was actually their favorite person ever. At least for the week after the incident. Monica gave me all the best costumers and I got so many offers to cover my shifts that I could have taken entire weeks off. I turned them all down of course. But the friendly greetings from the other girls and genuine probing to know how my day was going never ceased. It was difficult making up different ways to lie about how great my life was but at least they cared enough to ask. The downside to this new found popularity was that now people wanted me to hang out with them or something. They would invite me out after we got off work or on the weekends. I found it even more difficult to make up lies about how I was too busy. Especially since they all knew very well that I had no life. I was glad that I was done being the pariah of the bar but I didn’t want to be the center of attention by any means either.

I did get a whole lot of points. In fact I rose right up to contend with the leaders on our little score board. I wondered if you got some kind of bonus at the end of the year if you won. Before I hadn’t cared enough to try and get points but now that they were all flooding in I found myself being pleased with each new sticker I got. Deep down inside I was a competitive person and this was a competition. A demeaning and ridiculous competition, but hey I was winning and that made it a lot better. Pretty much life with people in the bar wasn’t half bad.

On the other hand, Ashley refused to join the club. In fact she elected herself president of the “I hate Dolly” group. She hated the extra attention I was getting. Her bite wasn’t nearly so bad as the bark since she lost control of her minions so her harsh glares didn’t really bother me so much.

The thing that did bother me was Mrs. Weston. That little old timid lady actually did have some bite. She was furious that such a scene had played out in her bar. Never mind that she had been passed out in her office at that time every day this week. I learned right then and there my dislike of the lady was well founded. She was much more concerned in her business success than she was of the young ladies under her employment. Because of this her poor opinion of me meant very little but her punishment meant a good deal more. At first I was afraid she was going to fire me but instead she took away the tips I got from waiting tables for two weeks. Something I thought was very illegal but had nothing to say on the matter. It wasn’t actually that much money because I didn’t wait tables nearly as much for the next couple of weeks. I got put on the odd jobs that took me away from the floor. These were especially bad for me because they were mindless tasks like scrubbing the floor. Repetitive motions like that just made me think of bashing my head into the floor over and over and over.

The other thing that bothered me a lot more than it should have was that Edward wouldn’t join my side either. He wasn’t particularly rude to me. Not that he didn’t have any reason to be. He just sort of ignored me. I don’t know why I expected him to behave like everyone else when he was clearly nothing like anyone else. He was never at my tables so I never spoke to him. I could only watch him and his bizarre habits reading every day so close and yet so far away. Maybe because I couldn’t have him or maybe because he was just too damn gorgeous but for some reason he was the only one in all the bar whose attention I really wanted. I felt stupid for being so wrapped up in a boy but he wasn’t like anyone else who hung around this dump. I just wanted him to talk to me, and be impressed at how amazingly I handled that jerkface.

I finally did get my opportunity several weeks after I had kicked Damion out. (By the way, he never showed his face again. So I guess he’s not actually as stupid as he looks.) The hype of the whole experience was pretty much petering out. Everyone was still being really nice to me but they started treating me as a person again instead of this mythical creature up on a pedestal which was best. They started to realize they weren’t going to get me out of the bar and stopped asking me to hang out. So I could focus my attentions on more important things like getting an attractive red head to look this way. I even suffered through high-heels which I was thoroughly embarrassed about but unwilling to stop. I had acknowledged my desire to talk to him and now I wasn’t going to stop until I succeeded.

My chance arose on a Friday night right when the tables really started to get busy, Ashley called me into the kitchen. A feeling of dread coursed through me. If Ashley needed me, it couldn’t be good.

“Hey, new chick.”

Months I’ve been here now and she still couldn’t use my full name?

She stood taller than me leering down. Clearly trying to be intimidating. All I could think of was that if she stood with her chest puffed out like that for very long her buttons would pop off into some poor guy’s eye and the bar would probably get sued and then I would be kicked out on the street. I tried to be meek to get her to relax her posture.

“I need you to cover my tables,”

“Uhhh . . . sure for how long?”

“For the rest of the night. I got Trevor to ask me out and I need to capitalize on this opportunity!”

“You can just leave like that?” I asked amazed at how lax the rules were on their senior waitress.

“I can do whatever the hell I want! I’ve been here for four years! I run this joint. Now I’m covering ten through nineteen. You can handle that right?”

“All of them?”

“Yes all of them. I have to go. Good luck.” I think she meant to smile at me but it turned into a sneer. Then she threw her apron at me and pranced out the door. Four more rowdy men entered and sat down at some random tables without waiting to be seated and then waved at me to clear the mess that was already there. With a start I realized that half of the tables were a mess and needed to be cleared and the other half were waiting to have their orders taken. Not to mention my own tables. It’s like she purposely left more work undone so she could pass it off to me.

This was going to be a long night.

I hadn’t noticed that I never looked people in the eye until I became a waitress. Smiling was never a problem. I did that as a defensive default but it was always directed toward the pad in my hands not at the people. It was a lot easier that way. Still I wanted to do a good job so at the end of the order I always looked directly at the people and gave them my brightest fake smile. Or at least I tried.

This night I zoomed around like an overfilled balloon that had been let go. Flying every which way as fast as I could go without running or falling on my face in the heels. I was so completely focused on the orders I was taking that the people were generally forgotten. I smiled straight down into the pad the entire night. Monica would shout numbers at me when people came in and sat at my tables and I would run over take the order run back to Elaina and then run back out to the floor for something else. I probably could have taken my dead mother’s order and not have noticed.

It was no surprise then that I didn’t realize that Edward had entered and sat at his booth which happened to be one of Ashley’s tables. I didn’t even realize that he was the one I was addressing when I asked if there was anything I could get for him. Only when he responded did my head pop up to take him all in. It was the first time that I had gotten such a close look at him since our small battle the only other time I had talked to him. I was struck again by how attractive he was. It wasn’t just that he was unattainable. God had given him one of the most gorgeous faces on this great green planet. It was just plain unabated greed. Why did he get so much and everyone else so little in comparison? His eyes seemed lighter than I remembered. They were a kind of unnatural golden brown surrounded with a flurry of long romantic lashes. Maybe it was contacts. His entire complexion looked soft and clear. All the weariness from the last time I talked to him seemed to have vanished. I couldn’t draw my eyes away from his face but I could imagine that his body matched the masculinity of his face. He must have been getting progressively more attractive since I had been working here. My jaw probably would have dropped open if it hadn’t slammed shut in pure jealousy. I had never been jealous of a man’s looks before.

It took a few moments of unrestrained staring before I remembered that he said something and I should have responded. I rewinded my mind and tried to think of what he asked for.

“Just a beer, please,” that was it. He even said please. That was nice. Nice like his voice. It was like honey or silk but not honey and silk because that would just be messy. But something soft and sweet along those lines.

“No,” what? Did I just deny him his beer? What was I thinking a moment ago that lead me to that? All I could remember was that his face was very very lovely.

“No?” his velvety voice asked confused.

“No?” I asked confused.

He gave me a look that clearly said he was questioning my sanity. D****t. Stop being a girl, D!

“No, I’m not going to get you a beer if you are just going to take two sips out of it and then I get to dump the rest down the drain!” I gave him my departing sweet smile and turned to get back to my work.

I had brought out an order for another table and taken another order and given it to Elaina before my mind became unmuddled enough to think of what I had said. Upon review I decided it wasn’t exactly appropriate behavior. For some reason I seemed incapable of taking this guy’s order like a normal person.

I peeked around the corner and saw he was still sitting there with a small crease of confusion along his perfect forehead. I took a deep breath and headed back out to his table.

He looked up at me expectantly and I looked back at him expectantly.

“Would you like a . . . uh . . . a beer?”

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” This would be so much easier if he didn’t speak.

“I’m having a hard night, and sorry about taking it out on you. And I happen to be the very good at my job so what kind of beer do you want? And are you reading the princess bride?” That’s the kind of book he was into? What a girl.

He closed the book and pulled it out of my sight.

“What difference does it make if I don’t drink the beer if I pay for it?” he responded ignoring all of my questions.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you about starving children in Africa?”

"No?”

“Well there are starving children in Africa who would give anything for the crumbs off your plate!”

“You think my beer will help them?”

“It’s a whole mentality! Ya know you don’t have to drink anything just enjoy this lovely booze reeking stained uncomfortable booth!”

“No, I think I’ll take the beer, and it’s your job to get it for me so . . .” he made a shoo gesture with his hand that my the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Shoo me, will he?!

“Yeah well- Wesley is actually the dread pirate Roberts and he dies!!”

I turned and stormed away. It had been a long time since I had lost my cool so noticeably. It was a weird feeling. Even weirder was that I smiling as I stomped away. I brought a beer over to him a little later.

"Here, take your beer, Buttercup," I said more viciously than I had wanted.

He gave me an evil look as he tossed his book to the side and took a long drink from the glass.

So my second run-in went about as well as the first. It was really rather frustrating to think I was just an ordinary girl who handled boys the same way as everyone else. Well perhaps not exactly like everyone else. I just couldn’t believe how easily I lost my head when he was around. It was really nice though because I was so busy oogling at him that I wasn’t in my own head ever.

I was very disappointed the next day though when Ashley returned and reclaimed her tables. It was so unfair that so unworthy a creature as her would get the privilege of talking to Edward every day and I would not get to talk to him again maybe for another month if things continued as they were.

“Table seven, Doll” Monica’s call brought me out of my brooding and back to work. I took a deep breath, popped in a jolly rancher and walked out to the floor.

“Got it.” I skipped over to the table and stopped suddenly in front of Edward.

“Good evening,” He pronounced the gs at the end of his gerunds.

“This isn’t your seat,” I said stunned.

“I wasn’t aware that there was assigned seating,” he said politely. “I thought if I sat here I wouldn’t have to force down any beer. You’ll let me get away with taking up space, won’t you? Also, Wesley doesn't die. But I forgive you for ruining that whole book,” he looked up at me through his lashes. So he thought he could flirt his way out of this did he?

I looked at the book he had brought with him. Hm, Crime and Punishment. There didn’t appear to be any pattern in his book choices.

“Raskolnikov turns himself in,” His smug face slipped away. I winked and turned to go.

'O' for three.

When I returned to the floor his table was empty.

He wasn’t there the next day or the day after. I thought I might have finally scared him out of the bar for good. I thought I deserved some points for that one. It was still something no one else had managed to do. I had to be content with that, I thought chomping down hard on a jolly rancher.

prev chapter