Out of the Ordinary

Chapter 18

My mental list of things to do was only getting longer.

I yanked down the bottom of my pant leg after retying my shoe, cursing myself for leaving so much to the last minute.

In addition to cleaning my room, buying the coffee he likes, getting food for the dinner I was going to attempt to make, figuring out what exactly I was going to cook, making sure the dress I'd planned to wear wasn't wrinkled (and ironing it if it was), and making sure anything incriminating (like Gary the Minion) was well-hidden, I had to shave my legs.

Now I had at least a whole hour less to do everything else.

"Hey! Julian," I called as I stood, rushing over to him as he stopped in his hurried tracks.

He spun around to stare at me, his hazel eyes wide, and his brow creased with focus.

"Sorry," I said, knowing he was busy. We all were. The restaurant was packed, but my mind was occupied with too many other things, "I told you I won't be in tomorrow, right?"

He smiled, already moving forward again, and called over his shoulder, "Only about a hundred times."

Right. Well. I just wanted to be sure so that I could tick that one off my list once and for all.

Tomorrow.

He was flying in tomorrow.

As I went about my work, practically skipping between my tables, taking orders, carrying dinners over to the tables, refilling drinks, and chatting with customers, jolts of excitement shot through me. My smile felt permanent, and I could see that some of the customers were eyeing me a bit, wondering why the hell I was so damn happy.

If only they knew.

Harry - my boyfriend - was coming tomorrow. After two whole months of not seeing each other, I'd be able to touch him, feel his arms around me, kiss him, see him smile, laugh, hold his hand, run my fingers through his hair, sleep with him, feel his body heat right up against mine...

"Here you go," I said, my voice too soft, too dreamy as I handed a guy at one of my tables his burger.

"Uh," the guy was looking at me funny, wary of my crazed smile, "thanks."

And I didn't care. Just kept smiling. Because how was I supposed to stop?

"Maddie, can you help me with this?" Shantal asked a little while later, peeking at me over the tray laden with full plates she had perched on her shoulder.

"Sure," I said, too brightly as I grabbed a stand for her to place the tray on, and started uncovering the hot food.

"What's with you?" She asked after we finished passing out the dinners. She folded the stand back up, and I stepped away from the table.

"What?" I could still feel the smile on my face.

After a moment of thought, during which time she side-eyed me, giving me the once-over, she said, "You just seem really happy," now she was smiling as we walked towards the kitchen, "Not that you're not usually happy, just..." she turned to look at me as she set the tray down, "you're not usually this happy."

"You say it like its a bad thing," I said, knowing full well I should go take my new table's order, but too excited about the prospect of just talking about seeing Harry (without actually talking about the fact that I'm seeing Harry) to do much about it.

She smiled at me, and cocked her hip, "Of course not. I'm happy you're happy."

That's when I couldn't take it anymore, when I felt ready to burst with the news, "A really good friend of mine is coming into town tomorrow. And I haven't seen him in months."