When I look at you

The dinner

It was beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale. The reception area was light up with blue lights while varying different colours of corals and sea flowers lined the grand staircase and feel over the banisters. Statues of mermaids holding up candelabras were placed in two lines creating a path for the guests.

In the main dining room chandeliers of crystal sparkled like a thousand diamonds and becoming the tails of jellyfish. Gigantic fish tanks had been brought in with beautiful fish of every colour swimming around in it. There was round tables with silver tablecloths over them and in the middle of the table stood a large glass ornament that had water trickling down then collecting in the basin below. Flowers spilled out everywhere and the large amounts of blue light gave the illusion that we were under water.

In the centre past the tables there was a walkway of marble and either side was shallow water but with fountains springing up. At the end of the path was a large pavilion that had glass and sea flowers winding up the edges and surrounding it with hundreds of crystal strands dangling from the roof. It was truly magical.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to stand and gape in awe as the guests were arriving and we would have to start serving the hors d'oeuvres.

All the guests that came in looked beautiful the women had diamond draped over them and their dresses were in every shape of blue and green. The men wore excellently tailored suits and escorted the women in on their arm. It truly was like something out of a fairy tale.

We began serving right away and before we knew it the room was full of people all talking and gossiping, but I couldn't see him. I suppose I should have been relieved, but I had a strange feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong.

I saw my stepmother and stepsisters come in, Julia and Melissa were giggling and whispering secrets into each other's ears while Cassandra stood behind them surveying the crowd. It is not lost on me the similarities between myself and Cinderella, the only difference was my stepsister weren't ugly, in fact they were very beautiful, and men would fawn over them. Well they would until they opened their mouths and realised that although they are beautiful on the outside, that their beauty was only skin deep.

We had just finished serving the hors d'oeuvres as the meal would be served shortly and I had been successful in managing to avoid any interaction with my stepfamily when there became a hushed silence.

In the entrance way, tall and proud was Rowan, dressed in an exquisitely tailored suit accompanied by a beautiful girl dressed in a pale blue lace dress with crystal embellishments.

I felt a stab of pain in my heart, that he had moved on so quickly, it had only been a week or two I didn't understand.

They began to walk down to one of the tables near the centre of the room and people parted to let them through. Courteously he pulled out the chair for her and she sat down gracefully into it. People began to talk again their interest clearly waning and time seemed to move on, for everyone but me. 

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to face Alice who said, "That's him, isn't it?" I looked at him again and nodded.

"Alice sighed, "Come on your on table 20"

She gave me the speech about how he is not worth it if he is going to behave like that, but it didn't change anything I only hope that I would never see or talk to him again. We went into the kitchen and were given the starters that were to be served in roughly five minutes once all the guests were seated.

"Oh my gosh did you hear Rowan Donovan is here?" squealed Marry

"Of course, he's here it's his hotel he comes every year" replied Lauren rolling her eyes. Soon the pair of them erupted in giggles and I just had to turn away.

"Hey, don't think about him" said Alice wrapping her arm around me and giving me a little squeeze.

"He was holding up the line anyway" said Paul. I gave him a puzzled look and when he and then he added "The line of guys who would happily be your boyfriend and I am first by the way" I laughed; I knew he was only trying to cheer me up.

"Nope I think Jamie is before you in the line" said Alice with a laugh and we turned to see Jamie who is Papa's nine year old grandson who thinks he's way older than he is, trying to flirt with another one of the waitresses.

"I suppose we better go; this food isn't going to save itself" I said.

I stepped out of the kitchen and into the blue Hue of the dining room I was assigned to table twenty which luckily was near the end of the room and it meant he probably wouldn't see me. Once the starters were done we served the main meal I began to relax as I had no encounter with him, or my stepfamily and I could see the light at the end of this dark tunnel.

"Hey Laura table one needs a bottle of wine could you take it to them everyone else is busy" said Papa.

I agreed and began venturing out again into the dining room only when I was a metre away from the table did I realise my mistake.
It was him he wasn't talking or smiling he looked almost angry. Seeing his eyes made all my feelings towards him come flooding back I felt my heart racing at abnormal speeds, so I kept my head down as I poured the wine into the glasses.

When I felt a tight grip on my wrist in all the time I spent looking at him I hadn't notice my stepmother and stepsisters sitting on the table behind him.

"How lovely it is to see you" Cassandra purred. "I hope you've been behaving yourself and not making an embarrassment of me your mother"

"You're not my mother you're just a woman who tricked my father into marrying her" I said standing up for myself and twisting my arm out of her grip.

"You ungrateful little imp" she said standing up out of her chair she reached for the plate from the main course of the meal and dropped onto the floor.

"Whoops clean it up" she said with a sneer

"No, she will not!"

The smashing of the plate had caught the attention of rowan's table and when I turned to face the voice of the man I'd tried so hard to avoid I found myself raising my eyes to meet his.

"Laura" Rowan said, with affection and love dripping off every syllable. I couldn't help the fact that the corner of my lips tucked into a smile.

"Would someone like to tell me what the HELL is going on here!" shouted Rowan.