The Last Letter

17

Chapter XVII

We went inside and sat at the empty table. I raised my hand for one of the employees to notice that I needed to see the menu. To our surprise, it was Suzanne who went to our table.

She stood beside where Ben is seated so I smiled sheepishly.

Suzanne smiled at both me and Ben then handed the menu to us, with no traces of uneasiness in her.

I looked at Ben and I could tell how nervous he was. He was just staring at Suzanne as if there is no tomorrow then at the table. I felt embarrassed in his stead so I pinched his finger just as hard to snap him out of reality.

“We noticed the restaurant was quite busy earlier so we stepped out for a while.” I said because Ben is still in his own little world. Maybe I’ll play as his spokesperson right now that he’s out of order.

“Yes. I actually saw you two earlier. I’m so sorry there were no available seats.” She paused then looked at Ben then at me again.

“No, it’s okay. It’s nice to see your workplace is filled with customers. That just means you’re serving quality products.” I said.

“You’re still as pro as ever but thank you very much for understanding. Just raise your hand like what you did earlier if you’re ready to order. I hope you two will have a good night.” She smiled and walked towards the counter.

I snapped my finger a couple of times in front of Ben.

“Are you okay? She’s gone to the counter. Can you please calm down and gather yourself together? How will you fave her later?”

He sighed and covered his face with his hands and rested his back on the chair.

“I wish I could melt right now. I’m trying so hard August but I am too nervous. That was so embarrassing!” He said quietly.

“I know and I think she understands your actions. It’s been a year since you two stood close to each other again. I just didn’t expect she’ll walk to us first.”

“I know. That’s why I was so startled when I saw her beside me. I thought my heart would come out of my chest!”

I laughed at how Ben is over acting now. It’s rare to see him acting like this so I should cherish this moment and laugh at him as much as I can.

We scanned the menu and we decided to keep it a little light but different from what we ordered the last time we were here.

We settled on getting a double patty cheeseburger with onion rings as side for me and a deluxe beef burger with large fries for Ben. It might be heavy for other people but for us, growing adults, this kind of meal is light.

Instead of raising my hand, I decided to walk to the counter to place our order. It was also Suzanne who’s on the counter that time so my timing is perfect.

I just pointed our orders to the menu laid on the counter and Suzanne got it right even though I didn’t speak. I leaned closer to her, almost like whispering.

“Hey! We are here to talk to you. What time will you finish your shift?” I asked.

“Really? Too bad, my shift every Friday is till midnight. And the restaurant is quite busy as you can see. If there are more customers, we might even extend a little.” She answered.

I stood properly now and thought about it. It’s still past 8pm right now which means Ben and I should figure out what we’ll do while waiting 3+ hours.

“You should reschedule it. I can’t help it when you two will wait for hours just for me.” She said when she noticed I’m still thinking.

“Hmm. I don’t know about that. Ben mustered up his courage today so you two should talk tonight no matter what. I think we won’t mind waiting.”

She seemed concerned about what I said. Maybe she’ll think we were wasting our time by waiting for her.

“Are you sure? I won’t mind it too if you’ll reschedule it, I have a lot of free time on Sunday.”

“That’s up to Ben tho. I’ll talk to him first.” I said and smiled. “By the way, how long will our order take?” I asked.

“About 15 minutes, your order will be ready.” She replied.

“Okay thank you! Keep up the good work my junior!” I grabbed some tissues before leaving the counter and going back to where we were seated earlier.

As I reached my seat, Ben asked me right away about what we talked about. I just told him that her shift will end by midnight so we need to think of something else to do before that time. We can’t stay here at the bistro since there are many customers checking out the restaurant from the outside. We need to leave here as soon as we finish our meal.

“Hmm. Let’s go clubbing for a while?” I suggested.

“No, I don’t want to drink before talking to her.” I nodded. He has a point with that.

“But we can’t roam the city for 3 hours Ben.”

“Should we just go to my house? Maybe watch a movie then go out again.” He said.

I rarely go to Ben’s house since it is by the city and I can’t go there without informing Ben since the security in their subdivision is tight. Only the wealthiest families in our province could live in that area. But do I really want to go there, especially at this time? I might cause disturbance and I’m quite nervous around Uncle John, Ben’s dad. I am only close to his mom and sisters because his dad seems serious all the time, but I know he is a nice person. He helped our town so much, he is a good mayor and a good politician in general.

“Hmm. I don’t know, I kinda don’t want to go there at this time.” I told him honestly.

We both took a deep breath. I mean if I just brought my study materials, I could study for my lessons next week. My problem would’ve been solved and as for Ben, he can maybe use this time to go to gym for three hours. But it was our free time now and we both are having a hard time thinking about what to do.

“You know what, let’s just drive around and find more places we could eat at and let’s also buy her food.” I said.

“Yes. That’s the best we could do. Okay, let's do that.”

In less than 15 minutes, Suzanne served us our orders and she was just so casual about it while Ben tried so hard to not to be nervous and embarrass himself.

***

After eating, I signaled Suzanne that we’ll come back a little later by midnight. I think she got what I meant.

We walked around first to fully digest our meals. To be honest, my stomach kinda hurts now that I ate so much food. I didn’t think the burger I ordered at the bistro would make my stomach so full.

Not much happened after that. Our plans earlier are to drive around the city and find more foods we could eat but both of us are too full. We walked and chatted because we don't run out of topics. Our topics even went as far as politics and world problems are concerned.

We just decided to spend some time at some newly opened karaoke bar we found somewhat farther from the bistro. We rented a karaoke room for only an hour but we had a great time inside. We decided to spend more time extending and extending the time until time passed so much that we didn't notice that it was already 11:30pm.

We ran back to the restaurant and it was only the exact time since the employees were preparing to close the restaurant for the day. We asked the employee, the one with Suzanne at the counter earlier about where her Suzanne is? She said she was in the locker room at the back part of the bistro, preparing to go home.

We waited for Suzanne outside the bistro patiently. Ben seemed more at ease now but he said that his hands are still shaking and sweating. We sat at one of the waiting areas in front of the bistro.

There are significantly less people walking around outside right now and some of the shops are also closing down. The clubs and snack bars around are still operating since this kind of place peaks as the night progresses.

“Hey.” We heard a voice from behind us. It was none other than Suzanne. She was closing and locking the glass door from the inside.

She smiled at us.

She seemed still energetic even though Ben and I witnessed how hard she worked for today.

After she made sure the door was locked properly, she walked to the back door again and after about 5 minutes, we saw her walking towards us, coming from the side of the building.

“I’m really sorry my shift took so long. I didn’t really think you'd wait for me at this hour.” She said panting since she ran a little.

“It’s okay. We understand.” I said and elbowed Benjamin who was standing like a statue beside me.

“Yeah. It’s okay.” Ben said and smiled awkwardly.

We just stood there for a minute and no one talked.

“Uhm… shall we?” Ben said that broke the silence.

I realizedhow stupid Ben and I are. We didn’t plan where and how they would talk. We only thought about what we’ll do for the time we’ll wait for Suzanne.

“Where are we going? We haven’t talked about that.” I said.

“Let’s buy snacks and drinks first. We’ll figure out where we’ll go later.” He said.

“Is that okay for you Suzanne? How about your sleep or your shift tomorrow?” I asked as I turned my head to Suzanne.

“I think that’s okay. My shift will start at 3pm tomorrow. I could still get complete rest and sleep. And… I can’t let you both leave here since you waited for me for such a long time.” She smiled.

“Yes I know right. You shouldn’t do that to your seniors. Okay so we’re all settled. Let’s start the night!” I said cheerfully so we started to walk down the alley to the snackbar near the park where Ben parked his car earlier.

To be continued…