We were a Ticking Bomb [On Hold]

10 - The aftermath

Wow. I gotta be honest here, I'm really surprised to see there's been a few people reading my story in the last couple days. And because of that, I feel like I need to apologise about my outburst in my last update.

So, sorry. I kind of lost my shit. I was having a bad day, John had contacted me to sort some shit out, and we ended up arguing and well, I just lost it. So yeah, sorry.

So, where was I? It had already been almost a month of me working at the Hotel, and John had worked in the front office for a while, and then after the party, he started working with the ungrateful bitches up front. The first time we ran into each other after the party, was as if nothing had ever happened. 

He walked through the double doors, dropped a bunch of plates on the bench and looked at me as I was stacking some plates to the side.

“Morning, Sal,” he said with a half grin.

“Good morning, John. How were your days off?” I was being polite, I didn’t want to know what had happened after he left the party, but I was hoping he wouldn’t really tell me.

“It was good, thanks. What about yours?” He finished scraping the plates, and dropped some cutlery into the soapy water.

“Hadn’t had any yet,” I said nonchalantly. “Been here all along.” With that, I turned around with my back to him, going back to my sink, to the interminable pile of dirty dishes.

I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed about what had happened at the party, and I kept mostly to myself for a few days. It was probably about a week or so after that that Maria came to me halfway through my shift, and asked me for a favour. There had been a small function in the upstairs room, and the little kitchen on the first floor needed to be cleaned. Maria had lots of things to do, so off I went, to clean up on my own.

It was quiet upstairs, and I have to admit, it was nice having the whole place to myself. I got my phone out of my pocket, put some music on, and started washing the dried up food from pots, pans and trays alike as I sang along. A few people walked past, few of them saying hello, few of them I didn’t even know ignoring me completely. But I can’t complain, I ignored them too.

I was almost done with all the main dishes when I felt like I was being watched. I turned around halfway through the chorus of one of my favourite songs, and found John propped against the wall, watching me. I closed my mouth, and raised my eyebrows at him.

“Oh, don’t stop on my account, I was enjoying the show.”

“You see, that is your problem, you think everything is there for your enjoyment.”

“And, isn’t it?” He walked towards me, stopping only a few feet away.

“Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“Maybe not the whole world…” He was inside the little dishy area with me, the air clammy with the hot steam of the dishwasher, my face already covered in sweat. I ran a sleeve through my forehead, and turned around to the sink.

“Stop distracting me,” I said, my back to him. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“That’s an easy fix, bella.” He pushed me to the side, grabbed a big pile of dishes and put it inside the sink. “I’ll wash, you can put things away.”

“Don’t you have other things to do?” I asked hesitatingly. 

“We’re done out there, they don’t need me anymore. Now, hurry, these pots won’t find their own way to the shelves!”