Not Today | ✔️

Chapter Twenty.

"You're the sweetest thing
That I ever did see..."

✧✧✧

Evelyn felt spellbound.

It was odd, she wasn't entirely sure why this, of all things, would feel spell-binding to her, but it did.

Currently, she was sitting down on one of the mahogany chairs at a table, alone, sipping on a lemonade as she watched Tristan work, literally, as they were both in the restaurant he'd gotten a job at, Georgia's. Until now, she'd been doing her homework, and he'd been working. He was still working, waiting tables, but her eyes were no longer on the sheet of paper; they were on him.

Tristan was clad in his work uniform, which happened to be a crisp, white button-up shirt tucked into pristine black slacks. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, making it so his forearms were on display as they worked, picking up plates from and bringing trays to customers. The top couple buttons of the shirt were left undone, showing a sliver of the skin of his chest. The mellow, golden light in the restaurant illuminated the silver chain of his necklace, causing it to glint slightly.

If his appearance wasn't spell-binding enough, a far cry from his usual, casual attire, the way he moved with such fluidity was. Even in the traffic of the restaurant, he moved effortlessly, the way a hand might slice through water; despite being surrounded, he still made a path, easily.

It was interesting how the lack of order in the restaurant didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Every time a family or couple left and their chairs were pushed in, Evelyn itched to go fix the chairs, as they never seemed to be even enough, and the restaurant was chaotic, in some ways, though not poorly-run.

Evelyn had just gone back to her homework when a beautiful woman, looking to be in her mid-twenties, with shiny brown curls came up to Evelyn, a small, kind smile on her face.

"Has no one served you yet, darling?" she asked.

Evelyn smiled politely. "They have."

The woman furrowed her eyebrows, looking to Evelyn's table, where there was only a half-drank glass of lemonade and the silverware and plate had been left untouched.

"You're sure?" she said.

"Mhm, I'm fine with only a lemonade. I'm waiting for someone," Evelyn said.

The woman's face immediately fell. "Oh sweetheart, how long have you been waiting on them?"

Evelyn frowned, trying to do the math. "About an hour and a half."

The woman's eyes widened. "That long?!"

"Um, yes?"

"Oh, darling. Mind if I sit here for a moment?" she asked, gesturing to the empty chair across from Evelyn.

"I don't mind."

The woman took a seat. "Sweetheart, I think you've been stood up. If you want to order something, it's on the house, and we close soon, I could give you a ride if you were counting on your date to do it."

Evelyn felt like smiling at the stranger's kindness, while simultaneously feeling like slapping herself for her ignorance, she'd made it sound like she was waiting for a date who didn't show up.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean I was waiting for someone to arrive, I'm waiting for him to get off of work!" she clarified, heat feeling her cheeks at the misunderstanding.

The woman's sympathetic expression melted away and she smiled. "I'm glad to hear that! I was about ready to ask you for the boy's name and knock some sense into him, the way I did with the imbecile who stood me up at your age."