★彡ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴅᴏᴡɴ | ᴘᴀᴜʟ ᴍᴄᴄᴀʀᴛɴᴇʏ彡★ ✅

★彡[ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 4]彡★

When Abby arrived at the greasy spoon where she worked, she was sweating and her hair was a dishevelled mess. Her feet were wet from taking a shortcut through a park which had been covered in early morning dew, and she badly needed a drink of water.

"You're late." The loud voice of Abby's boss - Arthur Spot - echoed across the cafe. They were quite empty, which wasn't unusual. The food didn't taste great, and it was almost always served cold despite it being freshly cooked. Abby hadn't worked out how Arthur, who was the chef, managed to do that. There was another waitress on shift, Daphne, but she was busy waiting one of the two tables that were occupied. "Daph had to fill your shoes."

Daphne, upon hearing her name, looked up at Abby and Arthur. She gave a small, barely perceivable shrug. Daphne knew that Arthur was unfairly hard on the other girl, but she'd rather he was hard on Abby than on her.

"I know," Abby wheezed, "and I'm sorry. So, so sorry. My sister wouldn't get out of bed, and then the clock stopped, and -"

"And you've got flowers to make up for it." Arthur came around the side of the counter, leaving whatever he was cooking to sizzle in the fryer. He approached Abby and took the flowers from her. She didn't have the gumption to speak up to him - she needed this job more than she needed those flowers.

"Yes!" She paused, "f-for your wife, Arthur. I won't be late again, I swear."

Daphne breezed past them carrying an empty mug from her table.

Abby looked at the flowers and let out a small sigh. They were beautiful, and she had wanted them badly when she had seen them on the stall this morning. She had been overjoyed when a total stranger had given them to her - Paul, she reminded herself. The man's name was Paul.

For a split second, Abby wondered if she would ever see the mysterious Paul again.

But Arthur's unkindness interrupted her train of thought. He snorted, "the fat bitch will think I love her again!" He turned and laughed, going over to the counter and throwing the flowers on top of it carelessly.

Abby's heart shattered as she looked at the discarded peonies. They represented her; thrown aside and dying by the minute.

"Get to work, Abby."

She emitted a sigh of relief and went to the staff area - a room which was a mere six feet by six feet in size. She hung up her jacket and bag and then put on her apron. Abby made sure that she had her order pad and two working pens before she went back to the front and over to the table which was occupied in her area of the cafe.

"Can I get you anything else?" They were mostly finished with the food on their plates, but she thought she would ask anyway. Maybe if she was extra polite and helpful, she'd get a tip from the couple. Whilst she wouldn't be allowed to keep it and would instead have to hand it over to Arthur at the end of her shift, she would feel good about herself knowing that people had thought her good enough to give her a little extra.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, and consisted mainly of Abby trying to avoid Arthur and his anger, and refusing a lunch break so she would be paid for the extra hour which she worked. She needed that money, and not even for herself. It was for Mollie, mostly. Mollie needed new clothes, a new uniform and probably a new school bag too... and her birthday was in a few weeks and she'd be ten! Abby wanted to get her little sister something big for the double-digit milestone.

"Do you want tea or coffee with that?" Abby asked for the umpteenth time that day, waiting for the customer to reply with their preference. She scribbled down the answer and then went to give the order to Arthur, who seemed like he was sweating the Amazon river.

"Abby, take this over I'm going out." Without waiting for answer, he handed her the spatula and left the cafe, not looking back.

Abby was dumbstruck, but soon noticed that the eggs were going to burn if she didn't flip them over. She did, and stood silently minding the food until Daphne came over with another order.

"Um, hi?" She asked in a confused tone, looking at the cooking utensil in her colleague's hand. "What are you doing?"

Abby replied, "waiting for the sausages to cook." With her spatula, she turned the sausages in front of her over. "See?"

Daphne replied, "not funny. I mean, why are you doing it and not Arthur?"

Abby shrugged, "your guess is as good as mine. Would you take a mug of tea over to table six for me?"

"But it's your table -"

"I can't leave the cooker, can I?" Abby reached over and took the order from Daph, reading through it and taking a mental note of how she'd prepare the meal. Surely a bacon sandwich wasn't that hard, right?

She'd never tried.

She had them before - in fact, they were one of her favourite foods when her mother was alive - but her mum had always made them for her, and she'd never been able to afford the bacon since she had passed away.

How would she know if the bacon was cooked? Abby decided to just take a leap and cook the bacon so it looked like how she liked it. She'd plate that, and hope it was satisfactory for the customer.

Reluctantly, Daphne made the tea and took it over whilst Abby concentrated on the cooking.

They were both wondering where Arthur Spot had gone, though neither of them hoped he would come back soon - they had this, didn't they? Between the two of them they were quite capable of keeping the cafe going for a while... right?

It got to 3 o'clock, the time that Abby would usually leave to collect her sister, and Arthur still wasn't back. Abby was worried sick, and even Daphne could see this. "You okay?" The girl asked.

Abby shook her head, gesturing for Daph to join her behind the counter so they could talk more privately. "My sister finishes school in fifteen minutes and I can't leave here to get her."

"Can't your parents get her?" Daphne asked, not unreasonably. Hardly anybody knew that their parents were gone.

Abby shook her head again. "No. I need to go."

Daphne looked at her watch, "we've still got three hours before we're allowed to close. Do you think he'll be back by then?"

Abby bit her lip, flipping a burger. "I don't know. It's weird, isn't it? He's never left before -"

"Look, you go get your sister, okay? But I need you to come back after because I can't run this place by myself."

"How are you going to cope?"

"I can manage half an hour, forty minutes... but I can't manage hours. Go now and be back as quickly as you can."

Abby really appreciated this. Her and Daphne weren't friends really, but despite this Abby quite liked the other waitress. She nodded and thanked Daphne before going to grab her coat and bag and dashing out of the door. Abby didn't even bother to take her apron off.