Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Tom shook his head, grinning as he set a hamburger patty down onto the griddle.
He’d just finished seasoning it specially, and after washing his hands, he set to work creating a skewer of fancy olives and pickles from a couple of jars that he’d had stored in the back.
He wanted to put it on the hamburger plate once the meal was ready.
I can’t believe Delilah Bates is here, he thought. A real, honest-to-goodness movie star is here in our restaurant, and I get to prepare a meal for her.
He grinned, delighted by the fact that she’d ordered a plain old cheeseburger.
It seemed so charmingly down to earth of her.
He felt as gleeful as a kid about the fact that he got to prepare food for her, and he kept reminding himself that he needed to stay focused and not get too distracted.
He didn’t want to mess up her order and he didn’t want to get behind on other customers’ orders either.
He grabbed a pre-made side salad from the cooler and added a sprinkling of dried cranberries to it. He’d overheard Delilah say that she loved cranberry sauce the last time she’d been in the pub, and he wanted to spruce up her salad with a little something extra.
He’d noticed the second she’d walked through the front doors that afternoon. Even though she was by herself that time and she was wearing a simple white sweater paired with black jeans, he’d known right away who she was.
Once Delilah’s meal was ready, he slid the plate into the window and hollered, “Order up!”
Alexis appeared a moment later, carrying a tray. “Wow,” she said, her eyebrows lifting when she saw the spruced-up salad and the pickle and olive skewer next to the cheeseburger. She grinned at Tom. “This looks like a very special plate.”
Tom shrugged. “I was just feeling creative, I guess.”
“Oh, yeah?” Her eyes twinkled. “Don’t forget that I have a mother’s intuition. I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re trying to impress our visiting movie star.”
Tom’s mouth popped open, ready to protest, but his brain couldn’t think of a decent excuse. Thankfully, at that moment Vivian called to Alexis, who simply gave Tom a knowing look and hurried away.
“I’ll come back for that!” she called over her shoulder.
Not a chance, Tom thought. I didn’t put so much work into making this meal special only for it to cool down toward lukewarm by the time it gets to Delilah’s table.
He picked up the plate himself and headed out to where Delilah was sitting. He felt a surge of nervousness as he approached her booth, as if she was royalty and he wasn’t quite worthy of coming near her.
I hope she likes the food, he thought eagerly. This is the most important cheeseburger I’ve ever made.
As he got closer, he could see that she was looking at her laptop, and that whatever it was she was studying had completely captured her attention.
Not wanting to disturb her and feeling extremely shy about saying hello, he set the plate down gently and started to turn around hurriedly, ready to disappear.
As soon as the plate was at her elbow, however, Delilah returned to the present and smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you! This looks delicious.”
Wow, she’s got a beautiful smile, he thought.
Suddenly he was overwhelmed with a desire to stay and talk to her longer. “You look quite enthralled by whatever’s on your computer screen,” he told her.
“I am.” She laughed. “I’m pleasantly surprised by this screenplay sample that just got sent my way.”
“Oh?”
His one curious-sounding word was enough to make her elaborate.
“It’s for a movie I might do. I was told briefly about the story, and I thought it sounded boring—like nothing really happened in it.
But my initial hesitation has completely morphed into eagerness.
This sample I’ve been reading is wonderful.
Now I’m really hoping that I land this role. ”
Tom paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. He felt surprised by the information that Delilah wasn’t simply being offered the part. He would have expected that a movie star of her caliber would never have to wonder if she was going to land a role or not.
“What drew you to the part?” he asked.
“I just love this storyline,” she said, her eyes lighting up as she gestured to her laptop.
“It’s so well-written. It’s about a woman who chases happiness, thinking that success is going to make her feel complete, but she ends up realizing that happiness has been right in front of her all along, in the day to day, ordinary things in her life.
” Delilah’s voice was passionate as she spoke about the movie, and Tom felt inspired by how pure and earnest her enthusiasm was.
“It sounds like an interesting part, definitely,” he said.
“It is,” she said, glancing down at her laptop with an uncertain look.
“I hope I’m not being too forward, but you seem kind of hesitant about it. May I ask why?”
“I haven’t wanted a part so much in a long time,” she confessed, laughing a little in a way that was almost shy. “I’m afraid of the disappointment that I’ll feel if I don’t land the part. I feel as though I need to prepare extremely well for this so that I do get the role.”
Tom found himself blurting out his next words before he’d gotten a chance to really think about them. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
She chuckled. “Thanks for asking. The only thing anyone can do is run lines with me.”
“I’ll do that,” he said, even though he wasn’t entirely positive what “running lines” meant. “I’d run lines with you.”
“Would you really?” She looked at him with surprise, smiling. “You’d actually be willing to do that?”
Tom could hardly believe that he’d just offered to help a famous movie star prepare for an audition, but he nodded. “Yes, definitely.”
Delilah’s smile widened into a dazzling grin. “I might just take you up on that,” she said. She smiled at him for a moment and then looked down at her plate of food. “This looks very fancy,” she said, laughing again. “I didn’t expect such a well-dressed assortment of options.”
Tom grinned. “I hope you’ll like it.”
Her lips parted for a moment as if she was about to say something, but then she just grinned again. “It looks very nice,” she said after another pause.
Tom knew he needed to get back to work—and besides, he didn’t want to take up too much of her time.
He was well-aware that she was a movie star, and she clearly had things that she needed to do.
He still felt shocked at himself for offering to read lines with her.
He didn’t know the first thing about whatever that was.
He made a mental note that he would have to look it up on Google in case she did take him up on his offer.
“Enjoy your meal,” he said, taking a step back and getting ready to return to the kitchen. He would be at least four orders behind by now.
“Thank you so much,” Delilah said.
They shared another smile and then Tom turned around and hurried back inside the kitchen. He felt flushed and a little off balance, the same way he’d felt when he was a middle school boy trying to talk to a pretty girl without sounding like a total fool.
Once he was back at his workstation, he immediately went to work whipping up more orders. He moved at lightning speed, and his brain moved at lightning speed too. While his hands made the orders, his mind mulled over the conversation he’d just had with Delilah.
She won’t take me up on my offer, he thought, shaking his head a little. She was just being polite. I’m sure she’s got plenty of people on her movie team who can help her. I’m just a country bumpkin to her, and she probably knows I don’t really know how to help her.
He glanced over his shoulder as he worked. He could just see half of Delilah’s face past the side of her booth. She was staring at her computer screen, chewing and smiling.
He grinned, delighted that she seemed to like her food. He’d cooked for her, and he would have to be content with that. Doing anything more than that for a movie star was definitely not in his wheelhouse.