"Miss?"
The other girls giggled as I continued to stare at her. I snapped back to reality.
"My apologies," I said rather too quickly. "I will get your proper order as soon as possible."
Before she could even say anything, I power walked to the kitchen. Right then, I knew something was different about me. The feelings I felt were incredible. I felt like I was worth more than all the diamonds in the world, that I was just an ordinary girl wanting ordinary things. My heart felt like it was going to explode, but I was already willing to risk a heart attack.
I slowed my pace, and I remembered...something. Instinctly, I felt my back. I remembered a memory that I tried to push way back into my mind, The scar. The love. The loss. The failure. I remembered...I don't know what I remembered.
( "...shh now, everything will be okay...I promise you, it's better this way....")
"Miss Pamela!" the chef whispered rather too loudly. "The order!?"
The memory went away, and I went back to the real world. What just happened, I thought to myself.
I didn't recognize the memory, but somehow it seemed important.
Apologizing, I got the proper order and served it to Charlie. I was surprised I didn't make a fool of myself in front of her this time.
"Will that be all, ladies?" I asked calmly, but I can already feel droplet of sweat forming at the back of my neck. I made eye contact to everyone around the table, except Charlie. But I felt her staring at me with a confused look on her face.
Fight or flight. I wanted to get the hell out of there, but I wanted to be near her at the same time.
"Do I know you?" Charlie asked me suddenly. I looked at her with a confused expression on my face. " I mean, have we maybe met before?"
Shit.
I gave her a fake, thoughtful look.
"I don't believe we have, sorry," I said. "Well, you ladies have a gr-"
"No way," she replied bluntly. "I know we've met before, one time or another. There's definitely something familiar about you."
"Maybe she was at Michael's party?" one of the girls with long, wavy, blonde hair chimed in. "Or other previous parties."
"Hell no, she wasn't at Michael's party," one of the girls with medium, layered, red hair said while making eye contact to me. "I would've noticed." She then gave me a sly wink. I gave her an uncomfortable look.
"Stop it, Hanna," the brunette said, giggling. "You're making her nervous. Is that right," she looked at my name tag. "Pamela?"
"I-it's quite alright," I said nervously. "I guess I'm used to it."
"What," the redhead, Hanna, said while leaning in." Being hit on by women?"
"Don't mind her," the other blonde said, shaking her head." She thinks she's all that. Anyway, my name's Sara. The obnoxious redhead is Hanna, the raven haired one is Ashley, and the other blondie here is Aleesha."
They smiled very gorgeously while I shook their hands; while I shook Hanna's, I felt a thin piece of paper in my hand. She winked again.
"My name's Charlie," Charlie said, holding her hand out. " Sorry if I was a bit creepy on you, but there's...something really really familiar about you."
I shook it and gave her a gracious smile. "Pamela. And I'm sorry, I haven't seen you before though. I probably have one of those faces."
She looked at me harder as if she was trying to dig into my mind. She studied my facial features rather too closely.
"Uhh, sorry ladies," I said," I'd love to stay and chat, but I really got to go back to work."
They said okay, but as I slowly walked away, I heard their conversations behind my back:
"She's fucking beautiful."
"For once, I agree with you, Hanna. She has that exotic sexy look going on. I don't mind doing it with her."
"Dirty bisexual."
"What'd you say!?"
"Nothing, Ashley! Just the fact that's she's pretty hot."
"Yea, I gotta admit, she is pretty hot. Her puppy brown eyes are to die for."
"That's the thing. Her eyes are soooo familiar..."
"Charlie, hun, you were a creep to her."
"I couldn't help it! I definitely saw or met her before. And it's killing me not knowing where or how."
"Stalker alert?"
"Shut it, Ashley."
"How about inviting her to Ashley's party tomorrow night? That way you can get to know her better."
"Hey, don't steal my idea."
"You would, Hanna. And that's not really a bad idea there, Sara. I'll ask her when we're done eating."
I stopped listening, and went directly to the kitchen. I'm hoping that someone there is willing to switch tables with me.
A college girl by the name of Adrienne gladly switched tables with me since her table was utterly boring. Her table was table thirty-four, and was occupied by a Korean couple, judging from their language. And they were eerily quiet. Honestly, I can live with boring, I don't mind boring. But I can't risk Charlie knowing who I really am.
I served their meals, and went to my other tables to see how they were doing. I saw a glimpse of table ten, Charlie's table. They seemed a bit confused when they saw Adrienne standing by the table, asking how their meals were. Hanna seemed very disappointed. I chuckled as I felt the paper with her phone number she gave me in my pocket.
As I walked back to the kitchen, I saw a glimpse of Charlie making eye contact with me. The look of hurt in her eyes made me want to punch myself, but I can't risk anything. Besides, if she knew what I do for a living or what I almost did to her, she'll kill me herself.
The girls walked out of the restaurant an hour after the Korean couple left; Adrienne said they wanted to stick around to see if I came by again, but they had to prepare for a party for tomorrow.
"And one of the girls wanted you to have this," she said and handed me a formal looking envelope. "You're pretty lucky. Not a lot of rich folks give people like us invites like this one."
With a huff, she walked away rather too quickly. I opened the envelope up and read what was inside:
"Dear Pamela,
Sorry for being a creep in front of you today :( Anyway, I hope my first impression wasn't as creepy as I intended, but there's a party tomorrow night at my friend Ashley's house and you're officially invited. The address, phone number, everything you need to know is on the back of this letter. I really do hope you come. It'll be worthwhile :)
Sincerely,
Charlie Carlson
P.S. Hanna wants you to call her."
Sighing, I tucked in the letter along with the envelope to my back pocket. Sorry Charlie, I thought to myself. I can't really let you get close to me.