The Waitress

1 - Ambushed

Another couple walked into the café, looking around and murmuring to themselves, but no heads turned. It was a usual occurrence; someone else coming in for lunch with their family or just a catch up with a friend they haven't seen in a while. The café wasn't a family business, but it was the only job Kaely Monsford was able to get for herself, being an orphan and an only child growing up in Adelaide alone. At least being a waitress, she didn't really have to communicate. She only brought the orders to her customers and cleaned up after them when they left.

No attachments whatsoever.

It was a fresh March afternoon, on a Monday. Kaely not only had a whole day shift, but had to stay late afterwards to clean up the kitchen for the next day. She worked at Spargo's Café in Glenelg, in Marion, which wasn't so bad now that she was used to it. She had been in since morning, and still had a few hours until close, but it wasn't so quiet that she noticed.

She glanced at her appearance in the backroom mirror and straightened her striped apron over her white t-shirt. She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans with flat black sneakers on her feet, and her thin, wavy brown hair was tied up on her head, out of her lightly tanned face. She took care of herself and her body; running was something she did every morning from five to six, before she returned home to shower and prepare for work if she had it. It was a simple life, and she appreciated every minute she got.

Walking out of the backroom after seeing a woman and man enter, Kaely plastered a smile on her face and approached them swiftly.

"Hi, how are you?" she asked cheerfully, and the woman with the light coloured hair smiled back.

"Good thanks," she answered. "Um, my husband and I are just looking for a table for two, if you've got one."

Kaely glanced over her shoulder and smiled back at the couple. "Yep, definitely," she told them. "Just follow me through here."

The man nodded and the woman smiled as Kaely turned around, heading further into the café before leading the man and the woman up the back, right next to the large window at a table for two. She stood aside as the couple took their seats at the table, and then smiled again, although she was exhausted enough to drop.

"When you're ready to order, just come up to the counter and we'll get you started," she told them.

"Thank you," the man answered with a tight smile, and Kaely nodded out of habit and turned back around to the counter where two more meals were ready to be served up. She took them and read their table number, moving across the room again near the front. She held the plates steadily in her hands as she did so. She delivered them to the two men seated at the table and smiled again before turning around to come back behind the counter, standing beside her work colleague. Audrey was ten years older than Kaely, and her age definitely showed in her height. She was manning the register when Kaely approached her and let out a heavy sigh.

"I don't know how you keep this up every day," she said finally, her dark hair poking up on her head slightly as she shot a concerned glance in her direction. Kaely chuckled.

"I need the money," she explained for the hundredth time, but Audrey wrinkled her nose.

"For what, your dream?" she asked. "What do you plan to do with yourself after working here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know Audrey," she sighed. "Something exciting. Maybe I'll direct a horror movie one day. Scare people into submission."

Audrey rolled her eyes as her head lolled forward, playing with the buttons on the coffee machine. "You're not a very scary person," she reminded her, and Kaely narrowed her eyes before she jabbed her in the back of her neck, making her jump and bite back a curse.