Chapter 5
Chapter Five
MELINDA
He was here again.
Well that was an understatement. He seemed to be everywhere.
He would be at the back of some of my lectures, I’d see him if I was working in the library and he would be in Daisy’s on most days.
Sometimes he would be eating, sometimes he would be working but I could always feel his eyes on me.
It was like I had my own little stalker.
Should I be concerned? Probably.
Was I? Not really.
The only places he tended to be was the diner or at university, when he appeared near my house then I would worry. He could waste his time if that’s what he wanted to do.
“Melinda.” I turned to see Megan walking in, and she sat at the counter. “I found a new show for us to binge watch.”
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t know if I trust your recommendations.”
Her mouth dropped open, offended. “Excuse me, my recommendations were good. What was wrong with Julie and the Phantoms or Winx?”
I folded my arms over my chest, “the fact that they haven’t been renewed for another season.”
“Dude, I can’t control Netflix, they just don’t know decent television if it smacks them in the face,” she said. “Anyway, this is a new reality television show. It’s called Below Deck, and it keeps stalking me on TikTok because there is the scene—”
“Hi, sorry to interrupt. Could I pay now?”
I turned around to see him.
I narrowed my eyes at him, I thought I was over it, but clearly I still held a tiny grudge. What could I say? Sometimes a girl just needed to be petty.
I walked over to the till pulling up his order.
He had been here well before my shift had started.
“That will be ￡24.99 please,” I said politely.
He handed me a ten and twenty pound note. “Keep the change, Melinda,” he said.
I bit my lip from saying something sarcastic. I walked over to the till processing it and made my way back over with the change.
“I told you to keep it,” he said.
“You already apologised to me. You don’t need to buy my forgiveness,” I told him.
“What do I need to earn your forgiveness, Melinda?” The man said, running a hand through his hair.
“Nothing,” I said flatly. “I’m sorry. I have to go back to work.” I added the money into the tip jar and pretended to wipe the counters trying to not pay attention.
“Mel, do you know him?”
I looked up as I heard the bell ring and looked back at Megan. “He’s the idiot that knocked me over,” I said with a shrug.
“You really don’t know who he is?” Megan asked again.
I looked at her, confused. “I just told you who he was.” I knocked on her head with my knuckles. “Are you okay up there?”
She slapped my hand away from her head, “You know what I’m going to let you figure this little situation out. But honestly, flabbergasted. Hurry up and clock out. I have a show to share.”
I smiled a little, this is where I knew her ADHD was spiralling other than her very interesting notes, her brain was moving miles a minute. “Are you okay?”
She looked up at me. “Of course I am. The sun is shining—”
“Babe, it’s October, and it’s cloudy as shit outside,” I told her, shaking my head. I patted her head as I walked to the staff room reaching for my things we headed outside to the bus stop and waited. “Maybe one of us should learn to drive.”
Megan grimaced. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I don’t know my left from my right.” She paused. “Neither do you.”
I protested. “I do, too.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Melinda, what’s in your left hand?”
I looked down at my hand. “My phone.”
“Babe, that’s your right hand.” She laughed. I looked down at my hand realising she was correct. Well that was that idea out of the way. “The only other option is one of us marrying a billionaire and promising to keep the other as a live-in bestie.”
“Or we live in a throuple,” I suggested. “A very platonic throuple.”
“Platonic, that’s a big word,” Megan teased.
I elbowed her, gently rolling my eyes.
I wasn’t that thick. Not all the time anyway. I had my moments. It thankfully didn’t take long for the bus to come and traffic was good.
An hour later, we arrived at Megan’s. Her parents weren’t home, so we headed straight into the living room and got settled for a binge watch.
Three hours later we hadn’t moved an inch.
Megan had decent choices in television shows.
I just hoped this one wasn’t cancelled because that would be just our luck.
I stood up, heading into the kitchen getting two cans of Coke Zero out and brought them back into the living room. I handed one to Megan.
I opened the can sitting next to her, and her phone vibrated. She picked it up and then put it back down. “You know you can talk to me, right?”
She flashed me a smile, “I know, I appreciate it. There’s nothing going on that needs talking about. Now hush. I’m watching TV.”
She turned away from me, focusing on the television.
I looked at her. I was worried because her ADHD spiralled when she was stressed or overwhelmed. And as much as she complained about the work from university, she was on top of it. Her phone buzzed multiple times, and she pushed it further and further away, usually she was attached to it.
“Megan.”
“Shhh!” Her eyes didn’t leave the television screen.
I let out a little sigh. I would play her game and pretend there was nothing wrong. If that’s what she needed, then that is what I would do for her. I heard the front door open.
“Have you two been attached to this sofa since you came home?”
Megan paused the television and turned to look at both of her parents. “No. Melinda got up to get a drink.”
“Really, Megan?” Oliver said, shaking his head.
“It’s an achievement.” She chuckled. “So, what are you cooking for us for dinner?”
“Shouldn’t you be offering to cook us dinner?” Lily said pointedly.
Megan looked at her parents, annoyed. “Last time I checked, you’re the parents?”
“Last time I checked, you’re an adult.” Oliver countered.
I laughed. “They have you on that, Megan. We are adults.”
“There is a reason I didn’t move out you know,” Megan said. “It was so I didn’t have to fend for myself.”
I looked at my phone and saw it was almost 7:00 p.m. “Anyway, I got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow in our lecture. I’ve got a shift at Daisy’s in the morning.”
Megan nodded.
“I’ll text you,” I told her. I got off the sofa, slipping my shoes on. “Wait, can I watch this without you?”
“Yeah, I just needed to get you hooked, so I have someone to talk to when the new season comes out,” Megan said.
“Of course.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll see you later, bye Lily and Oliver.” I waved goodbye to them heading straight out the house.
Parked cars littered one side of the road as the traffic lights stayed green, I looked both ways before crossing the road.
Our roads were so quiet sometimes I wondered why we had lights instead of a zebra crossing.
The bins were outside the houses ready for bin collection tomorrow morning, the street lights shone light on the bags that were next to some of the bins. The cold breeze of the wind moved some of the rubbish along the road.
I walked into the garden avoiding the broken step reaching the front door pulling the keys out unlocking it.
I entered the house, locking it straight away behind me before heading straight to bed.
Iwas going to kill Cindy.
It wasn’t many people that could piss me off this bad, but she did it easy, it wasn’t just the way she spoke to me and slacked off doing her job. It was the way she was rude to the customers, I think she forgets that without customers we’d be out of a job.
Leah walked over to the counter where I was standing. “Girl, have you seen who is in the far booth?”
I looked over to where she was nodding her head. “Yeah, that’s the idiot who knocked me over the other week,” I said. “I should really probably most definitely still stop holding a grudge.”
Leah frowned, cocking her head to the side, “I feel like I missed something. Anyway, he would like you to serve his table.”
“Since when did we take requests?” I scoffed. “Tell him to fuck off, customer friendly way of course.”
“I did.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m sensing a but.”
“He gave me a tip to not be his waitress,” she said. “Believe me, I didn’t think I could be bought but apparently I can.” She walked away laughing and I couldn’t help but smile a little. As annoyed as I was at him, I loved that it made Leah happy. We all loved a good tip, so I couldn’t blame her.
I walked over to his booth. “You may be willing to pay off the other waitress to have me, but most normal people tend to just walk over and talk to the people they would like to take care of,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest.
He scoffed. “Don’t kid yourself, Melinda. If I tried to talk to you, you would’ve told me to fuck off.”
I smiled a little. “Don’t be silly I would never use such foul language,” I fluttered my eyelashes at him.
“You called me a dickhead the other day,” he said, scrunching his face up in disbelief.
“Slip of the tongue,” I lied.
“Can you sit please?” He asked, gesturing to the seat in front of him.
I sat down in the booth across from him, he bit his lip looking nervous. His brown eyes looked away from mine as he looked around the diner before his eyes landed outside for a moment. “Alex—”
“No, no.” He shook his head, turning back to me. “I need to get this out.”
I sat back on the seat getting comfortable. I could wait until he found his voice. I tapped my fingers on the table as I looked out into the quad. Students were milling around, and I knew it wouldn’t be too long until it started to get busy in the diner.
“The day I knocked you down,” he started. “I know I already said sorry, but I feel like I owe you a little explanation. I was in a terrible mood, which isn’t any excuse for the way I treated you.”
“Alex, it’s fine. I understand. We all have shit days,” I said with a shrug.
It was hard to stay petty at the man when he was being nice.
“Does this mean you’ll stop stalking me?”
“I call it research.” He shrugged. “I needed to know more about you.”
“Oh, and that doesn’t sound creepy at all,” I said pointedly. “Should I be worried about you? Do I need to call the police and tell them I have a stalker?”
Alex shook his head. “Lucky for you, Melinda, I’m far too lazy to be an actual stalker.”
I let out a little laugh, that I could relate to and also why I was not some big far fetched criminal. I was far too lazy for that. “So, why the babysitter?” I asked curiously.
“Who? Jones?”
I nodded.
“He’s my personal assistant. My mother and father like to know my days are filled with all the boring and important things that need to be done. I prefer not to be bored all day.”
I smiled. “Sometimes boredom is necessary.”
“My parents would like you,” Alex said with a little grin. “A woman who knows that boredom is necessary and doesn’t take any shit.”
“Thanks, I guess. Anyway, I have to get back to work,” I stood up from the booth.
I didn’t get far before I felt his hand grab mine, I looked back at him confused. “What?”
“What time do you finish work?”
I looked behind me at the clock. “In about an hour,” I said.
“Don’t you have a lecture at 9:00 a.m.?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Stalker. I should be waving a million red flags at you right now.”
“Do you even own any flags?”
“Nope.”
“So, can I see you again please?”
I grinned. “You seem to know where I am. Goodbye, Alex.”