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Around five pm, I arrive at Sloppy Joe’s for the late shift and find that I’m going to be working with a new girl called Katie who just started today. It’s Amina’s night off and Brian asks me to show her the ropes, which I’m more than happy to do as it will help to keep me busy and not think too much.
The next couple of hours run like clockwork. The diner is naturally quiet on Monday nights, so I find I have plenty of downtime to show Katie what needs doing: where all the crockery and cleaning stuff are kept, how to process an order, how to work the jukebox, all the usual stuff, and we have a proper laugh doing it. She seems like a nice girl, a bit shy but with a great sense of humour, and I decide that I’m going to enjoy working with her.
Then sometime around nine-thirty, the door to the diner opens and in walks a group of guys I vaguely recognise from school (I think they were in the year above me). As soon as they swagger in, they instantly cause a commotion with their rowdy and obnoxious behaviour, and it soon becomes apparent that this is one stop on what will probably be an all-night bender.
I roll my eyes.Here we go…
Drunk customers are never nice to deal with at the best of times, and if Amina had been working tonight, I would have begged her to oversee their order. Unfortunately, Amina isn’t here to save the day, and as this is Katie’s first night on the job, it looks like it will fall to me to do it. It just wouldn’t be fair on the poor girl to drop her in at the deep end and leave her to deal with a bunch of boozers on her own.
Stealing myself for a confrontation, I pick up five menus from the countertop and walk hesitantly towards their table. As I get closer, my stomach lurches as I realise that one of the men is none other than Jack Parker. Seeing him again after all that’s happened gives me whiplash and I stop and take a sharp intake of breath before proceeding.
Dressed in a grey Reebok tracksuit with a fresh tan and lush blonde hair styled like a member of a boyband, there’s no denying he’s drop-dead gorgeous. But Jack Parker no longer has any effect on me. Now when I see him, there is no rush of butterflies, no racing heart, no sweaty palms. The scales have completely fallen from my eyes, and he’s now dead to me. In fact, just the sight of him makes me want to be sick. The thought of what he and Georgina did to me still makes me so angry I almost feel like turning around and walking right back to the kitchen.
Too late.He’s already seen me.
“Hey, Jessica, how have you been?” he asks with a nervous smile. “I haven’t seen you around in a while.”
I totally ignore him. “What can I get you boys to drink?”
“Five Budweisers,” slurs one of his friends.
“Actually, make mine a Cobra,” says another. “Do you serve Cobras here?”
“No, we don’t serve Cobras,” I reply coldly. “But we do have Budweiser.”
“Okay, then I’ll have to go with a Budweiser.” Then under his breath, the guy turns to his mate and hisses: “Bruv, have you seen the tits on that?”
“I know, proper fit, innit.”
Ignoring the crude jibe, I hastily scribble down their order and am just about to leave when Jack suddenly reaches out and grabs my hand.
“Why are you blanking me?” he whispers, looking up at me with the cutest baby blue eyes. “Why am I in the doghouse? What have I done to upset you?”
“You know damn well what,” I hiss. “Now let go of my hand, please.”
“Wooo! She’s fiery!” chuckles one of his friends.
“She’s not interested, bruv. Let the girl do her job in peace.”
Jack still refuses to let go. If anything, his grip gets tighter, and I can smell stale alcohol on his breath. “Can you just give me a chance to explain what happened?”
“There’s nothing to explain,” I snap. “Georgina put you up to it and you were too damn weak to say no.”
“It’s not what you think. I didn’t want anything to do with it, but she forced me.”
“Yeah right. You really had no other choice but to go through with it, even though you knew how much it would hurt and humiliate me?”
“Like I told you, I didn’t want any part of it. I hated the idea, but Georgina was blackmailing me. See, the thing is, I borrowed some money from my dad—”
“Borrowed?” scoffs his friend. “You meanstole.”
The other lads snicker, but Jack remains unfazed. He is completely fixated on me and it’s like he can’t see or hear anything else. “As I was saying, I borrowed some cash from my dad, and I was planning to give it back, you know? But before I could, Georgina threatened to tell my parents if I didn’t agree to go along with what she had planned for you. For what it’s worth, I want you to know that I’m sorry for what I did and if I could turn back the clock, I would. I never, ever meant to hurt you, Jessica. You’ve got to believe that.”
“Great, now can you let go of me?” Finally, Jack releases my hand, but he’s still not done with me. Not by a long shot.
“I’ve always liked you,” he resumes quietly. “I mean, like really liked you. Ever since Year Seven, you were the only girl in school I actually fancied. For so long, I wanted to ask you out, but you always seemed like such an Ice Queen, I never had the guts to. You never paid me any attention…”
His mates begin to heckle: “Ooh, Jack’s in love. Can’t you see she’s not into you? You’re such a fucking melt.”
