Divine (8 page)

The door swayed closed
behind me as I moved away from it and strolled over to meet Sarah at
the counter. “Hey, do you know what table this order belongs
to?” I asked her.

Her face crinkled under
a look of confusion. “Um, I think table four? Or six maybe? I
can't remember what number the table in the corner is, but it's that
one.”

“
Oh, okay, that's
actually table ten,” I responded, clearing up the issue. “Don't
worry; you'll get it. I had a hard time remembering the numbers of
the tables, too.” That was a lie, but I wanted to try and make
her feel a little better about it.

“
Thanks,”
she squeaked back with an embarrassed smile.

As much as I didn't
enjoy the shallowness of Sarah's character, there was a little speck
deep inside of me that kind of liked her. Her lack of intellect
translated into a sweet demeanor; she was actually a pretty nice
person.

I made my way to table
ten with the hot plates hoisted in front of me. It felt like an
important job, taking food to the customers. As funny as it may
sound, since I didn't have to wear a hairnet like the rest of the
people I worked with, I felt like I held a more valuable position.

My eyes focused on a
familiar face as I approached the table. It was Lou from the auto
shop, and he wasn't alone; he was sitting with someone else who had
their back to me.

Oh my god,
that's Jonah!

I knew the back of
Jonah's neck like I knew the back of my hand; I still had the image
of it engraved in my mind from the day he crouched down to look at my
tire.

Lou caught eyes with me
as I approached their table. “Well, would you look at who it
is,” he addressed me with a grin. “Aren't you that girl
who was in our shop some time ago?”

Jonah turned and looked
in my direction, his eyes lighting up with the sight of me. “Hey
Summer, how's it going?” he asked with a pleasant smile.

I was happy that he
actually remembered my name. “I'm doing great, how are you?”
I returned the question, placing their plates in front of them.

“
I'm good, just
taking lunch. I didn't know you worked here.”

“
Yeah, I've been
here about five months now.”

His eyes dropped to his
plate in a moment of shyness before looking up at me once again.
“That's cool.”

I racked my brain for
more things to say so I could linger longer at his table. “Actually,”
I went on, “the day you fixed my tire was my first day here.”

He turned in his seat
to face me, appearing to be interested in what I was saying. “Oh,
yeah? That sucks to get a flat tire on your first day of work. Do you
like working here?”

“
Yeah,” I
nodded, “it's okay I guess. I graduated from high school early
so I've been working a lot more. It keeps me busy.” I wanted to
throw in that little piece of information to let him know that I was
no longer a high school student, but a mature young woman. I think it
worked, too, because he looked intrigued by what I had said.

“
Wow, what an
accomplishment,” he complimented.

My bangs fell in front
of my face as I dropped my head with a bashful laugh, my cheeks
reddening brightly from his commendation.

Lou looked back and
forth between us. “Hey Jonah,” he cut in, as if feeling
left out, “why don't you invite her to the beach tomorrow for
the fireworks? I'm sure she'd love that.” He picked the burger
up from his plate and took a squishy bite. “Man, this sucker's
juicy,” he added.

We laughed nervously
together at his uncle and then slowly trailed off to an awkward
silence, the only exception of sound being the loudness of Lou's
chewing.

Jonah sat quietly in
thought for a moment before nodding his head. “Yeah, okay; that
sounds fun.” There was a touch of uncertainty in his words.

“
Oh, that's okay.
Threes a crowd anyway,” I said, coming to his rescue after
picking up on the hesitation in his voice. If he didn't want to hang
out with me, then I didn't want to force him.

“
No,” he
blurted out, “I want you to go. I mean, we invite a lot of
people to go.”

I stood there with what
must have been interpreted by him as a dumb expression on my face. I
didn't know whether I should feel happy that he invited me, or
offended that he invited basically everyone to go and that I was
nobody special.

“
It's a family
barbeque on the beach,” Lou added. “We do it every year
on New Years Eve. You should come.” He grabbed a french fry and
poked it in his mouth while he waited for my answer.

When I looked back at
Jonah it seemed that he had a hopeful look about him. His mannerisms
sure were confusing; he was a very hard person to read.

I casually nodded my
head as if I didn't care either way if I went. “Okay, I'll take
a drive down there and check it out.”

Jonah smiled with
delight at my decision. “Okay, I'll write down the directions
on a napkin for you after I eat. I'll give it to you on my way out.”

“
Okay, great,”
I said, giving them both a smile. “You two have a good lunch.”
I walked back to the kitchen as casually as I could, making sure to
add the tiniest bit of sway to my hips in case Jonah was looking.

Steve grabbed my
attention when I walked through the kitchen door. “Where have
you been? I've got orders coming out of my ears . . .” He gave
me an irritated glance as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead with
the back of his hand.

“
Ew, you better
go wash your hands,” I nagged.

He grabbed a metal
spatula and used it to point at the waiting plates. “Hey, don't
you worry yourself about me, now. I need you to get those orders out
to their tables, please.”

“
Okay, okay.
Sorry.” I grabbed as many plates as I could fit in my arms,
overlapping their edges against each other in an attempt to carry
them all out in one trip.

“
Thank you,
Summer,” he added with a playful attitude.

“
You're welcome,
Steve,” I shot back with a chuckle.

I could see Jonah
glancing at me out of the corner of my eye when I delivered the food
to the tables. I didn't know what to think about the way he was
acting, so I decided to keep to myself while he was there; I didn't
want to seem desperate for his attention. But, in reality, I
was
desperate for his attention.

As I waited for more
orders from Steve, I took a moment to glance at Jonah through the
little plastic window in the kitchen door, watching closely as Lou
pulled a pen from his shirt pocket and slid it across the table to
him. He picked it up and pulled a napkin out of the dispenser, one
that I had stuffed full earlier that day, thank you very much, and
scribbled something down on it.

They pushed their
chairs back and stood up from the table in unison. I jumped away from
the window, taking myself out of view so they couldn't see that I was
watching them. My nerves made me feel like I needed to hide from
Jonah, so I stayed in the kitchen as they walked over to the counter.

A moment later Sarah
busted in with the napkin in her hand. “Summer! Summer look!”
she chorused. “You got something from a hot guy!”

I grabbed the napkin
from her hand and read it quietly to myself.

Go
left at Marty's gas station up the street.

Continue down
and go left once you hit

the end
of the road. The beach is on the right, but

you will
have to look for us. We usually have a big

fire.
Sorry the directions are lame. I hope to

see you
there.

My stomach fluttered at
the “I hope to see you there” part.
Does he really
feel that way or is he just being polite?

“
Ooh, a date!”
Sarah squealed. I hadn't noticed that she had been reading the note
from over my shoulder.

“
It's
not
a
date,” I insisted, folding the napkin up and sticking it in the
pocket of my pants. “I don't even think he wants me there.”

“
Oh, I don't
believe that,” she said consolingly. “You are a pretty
girl; I'm sure he likes you. At least I hope he does, because he's a
hottie!”

Fox walked into the
room just as she finished her sentence. “Who's a hottie?”
he asked, intrigued by our conversation.

“
The guy who
asked Summer to go to the beach with him,” Sarah divulged.

Fox stood firmly next
to me with his arms crossed. “How old is this guy?”

“
I don't know,”
I shrugged. “Maybe twenty or twenty one?”

A tiny spark of
jealousy seemed to flicker in his eyes. “Seems a bit old for
you, don't you think?”

I put my head down, not
knowing how to reply. Thankfully Sarah helped me out.

“
Come on, Fox. If
he's three or four years older than she is it's no big deal. You're
three years older than me,” she said matter-of-factly.

“
Well, just be
careful,” he warned me, “because us older men work hard
to get what we want. Some men take advantage of young women like
yourself.”

I lifted my head and
narrowed my eyes at him. “I think I'm intelligent enough to
stay away from that kind of a man, no matter how
attractive
he
is,” I replied sharply.

A heavy sigh breathed
past his nose as he shook his head in mild disagreement. “We'll
see about that.”

Sarah stood with her
hands on her hips and stared at Fox with an irritated look. He took
note of her expression and picked up her hand, bringing it to his
soft lips and planting a kiss on her tanned skin. She smiled and
batted her eyelashes at his effort.

“
Get back to
work,” Fox said to me as he led Sarah out of the kitchen.

Steve looked up from
his cooking and shot me a confused look. “What was
that
all
about?”

“
I have no idea.
Maybe he's just looking out for me?”

Steve shook his head in
disagreement. “Nah, that sounded like jealousy to me.”

Jealousy?
Why would Fox be jealous? He's never shown any interest in
me before. And besides, he's twenty-seven years old, way too old for
me.

I shrugged my shoulders
at Steve and he shrugged back. We didn't know
what
to think.

* * *

The next day my stomach
was in knots as I picked out the outfit that I would wear to see
Jonah: jeans, a blue long-sleeved shirt, and my hot pink sweatshirt
with the yellow hearts on it. Nothing special, I know, but I wanted
to be comfortable.

I went downstairs and
met my mom at the kitchen table. And, of course, she sensed my
nervousness.

“
What wrong,
sweetheart?” she queried.

“
Ugh, I'm okay;
I'm just a little nervous.”

“
What about?”

“
I'm going to the
beach to watch the fireworks tonight.”

She looked a little
puzzled. “Why would that make you nervous? It sounds like fun.”

I lowered my eyes to
the table. “Well,” I started slowly, unsure if she was
going to approve of my plans, “I'm kind of meeting someone
there.” My eyes darted back up to gauge the reaction on her
face. It was blank.

“
Oh,” she
sputtered out, “well, that’s nice. Who's this person that
is lucky enough to escort you around the beach?” After asking
the question she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms lightly
across her chest, waiting to hear the answer.

“
The guy who
fixed my flat tire five months ago.” There. I said it.

She pursed her lips and
slowly nodded up and down. “I see. Well, how old is he?”
I knew she was going to ask that question.

“
I don't know,
Mom, like twenty?”

“
Twenty!”
she croaked out, flinging forward in her chair.

“
I'm not even
sure, though . . . he might be younger than that.”