'Awaysick' - Scene of Chapter Seven.

Okay, so I just wrote this section, but I don't feel 100% great about, but I just really wanted to put it up. This is part of Chapter Seven, and I'll be putting the section straight after this one up really soon. :] I really hope you enjoy this!
ketxx

Also, the whole thing with the nametag is... that's the way Thomas and Cokey met, when she was changing the name on her nametag during her first day at Evers N' Afters. :]


Chapter Seven

Great, fat raindrops splattered against the Eatery’s lofty windows, and a vicious wind hissed against the restaurant, the sound of it like a sad cry. The eerie, hollow moan of the wind engulfed the place, a dark, swirled mass of cloud lingering above. The gusting current appeared to age the building even further than usual, and though Evers prided the restaurant on its ‘rustic appeal’, the gale seemed to merely exhaust it: surrounding trees beat their limbs against the glass-lined sides, and it was as though the Eatery was struggling to breath beneath its blackened brick walls.
Cokey hadn’t dressed appropriately for the weather. Her favourite neon pink heels fluttered beneath her as she darted towards Evers’ timber doors, soaked from the concrete’s long, deep puddles. Clinging to the staff of her mother’s large blue golf umbrella, she drew her elbows close so as to be fully sheltered beneath its wide frame.
She had taken extra caution in what she chose to wear today, spending a further thirty minutes in front of the mirror that morning. Thirteen additional outfits had been tried and discarded before she had settled upon a classic: her simple, sexy, reliable strapless black dress. She had taken elaborate care in her hair and makeup, rousing herself over an hour early so as to allow enough time to sufficiently pound her face with the compact puff. She had ironed her freshly coloured violet tresses, a rare occurrence, and now they lay as a provocative frame around her face, tickling her shoulders slightly as she went. An enormous, black faux fur jacket was wrapped lovingly around her shoulders for warmth, but she knew that this would be discarded, at least before 1 o’clock.
As she eventually reached the restaurant’s heavy doors, Cokey spared a threatening glance to the heaving weather. It was already noon, and she feared that if the billowing rain and buffeting wind continued over the next hour, all her hard work at making herself look fabulous would be for nothing. She crossed the fingers of one hand, squinting through heavily-mascaraed eyes at the seemingly undying storm, and hoped sincerely that Evers N’ Afters’ chilli flavoured chips were purely irresistible to Steven.
Steven.
Cokey pushed one of the wooden doors open with her side, and immediately felt the welcoming warmth of the restaurant’s interior flood over her. As she entered, she pulled the umbrella shut, shook it and placed it in the narrow tin adjacent to the doors. She could hear the faint tinkling of meeting glasses and the muffled buzz of lunchtime chatter. She removed her large jacket before tossing it to the side, hoping that it would land harmlessly atop a nearby bench. She faced the windowed entrance doors, and proceeded to adjust herself in her fuzzy, rain-hit reflection. She was running her hands smoothly down the front of her dress towards her legs to dismiss any unwanted creases, when a distressed, pitchy voice sounded behind her, and she spotted Mr Evers’ taller, equally fuzzy reflection beyond hers.
‘Now, Charlotte,’ he started, and she whipped around. ‘I have a bone to pick with you.’
‘Yes?’ She raised her eyebrows; his face was screwed into an expression of mixed disappointment and disgruntlement. Evers cleared his throat, and reached into his pocket. Within moments, he had pulled from it a plastic nametag. Cokey recognised it immediately as the one she had attacked with a permanent marker on her first day at the restaurant. Evers brandished the nametag before her, his brow furrowed.
‘Charlotte, this just isn’t appropriate. You can’t just go and deface Eatery property willy-nilly, whenever you like, for no reason at all.’
Is he serious? Cokey thought to herself, though outwardly she pouted and nodded in attempted remorse. She looked at the nametag, and surely, it was hers: the neatly typed word above, still faintly legible underneath her own scribbled black marker squiggles, read Charlotte. In her own scrawling handwriting below, the word Cokey stared her in the face, a tiny smiley face within the ‘o’.
‘I’m really sor- ‘ she began, though she wasn’t at all. But Evers raised his hand, silencing her, and said slowly,
‘No, Charlotte, I apologise for this, but I’m going to have to…’
No, don’t fire me. How will I be able to see Steven every day?
‘… To punish you.’
Oh, great.
It was at that point that Evers took hold of her wrist; the nametag still clutched in his other hand, and began to lead her towards the rear of the restaurant. As they passed, Cokey took a glance toward the kitchen, expecting to see Thomas and his hairnet, though he was not there. Nobody was there, the kitchen was deserted and, in fact, the entire Eatery seemed to be abandoned by all staff together. Cokey was confused, and as she still trailed behind Evers, she realised that they were making their way towards his office at the very end of the restaurant. As they reached the door bearing a tiny, wilting gold plaque stating Mr Robert S. Evers, Manager, Cokey attempted to shift her body around, to manage a peek at the embellished clock on the wall. Was it becoming close to 1 o’clock now?
The office door squeaked open, and the unmistakable noise of laughter within died away systematically. Evers led Cokey into the room, and the whereabouts of her co-workers became clear. Within the little office, it seemed that Evers had arranged approximately ten spindly chairs into three cramped rows. Seated randomly throughout, the staff of Evers N’ Afters Eatery had evidently just ceased giggling and joking with each other, because they were now watching Mr Evers with an odd combination of eagerness and apprehension. Evidently, they knew as little about what was to happen within the office as Cokey did. She spotted Thomas, sitting silently at the far end of the squashy arrangement, cradling his hairnet in his lap. He was watching her.
‘Charlotte,’ Cokey heard Evers say next to her. She hadn’t noticed that he had released her wrist and was now looking at her. ‘Take a seat please.’
She obeyed. With a scrambled plethora of ‘Excuse mes’ and ‘Oh, sorrys’, she clambered through the gaps in between the fragile chairs and the apron-sporting people, and took an available seat next to Thomas.
‘What are we doing?’ She whispered to him hastily as she rested herself upon the rickety chair. He merely shook his head without replying.
Cokey adjusted herself in the seat and took in the room around her. She wasn’t sure whether it would appear the same in the absence of the ten wobbly chairs, but at that moment, the office was truly tiny. It was significantly more disintegrated than the rest of the Eatery: the pale beige paint was peeling at its corners, and a large, brown, coffee-like stain stood unchallenged on the wall in front of them. Pushed against the wall to the left, apparently to make room for the assembly, was Evers’ desk. Excepting a solitary photo within an elderly timber frame whose varnish was wearing, the desktop was entirely bare. Cokey leaned to the side slightly and squinted: the photo was old, with muted, faded colour, and it presented a much younger, much happier Evers than she had ever seen him, with a younger man who looked very much like him. Cokey was just wondering to herself the origin of the photograph, when a slight rumbling noise sounded to the right, and caused her to turn around.
Evers had evidently left the office, and was now returning, pushing a small television atop a wheeled cart before him. Cokey raised an eyebrow, and waited for him to explain, as it seemed he was bursting to: he was beaming broadly, his rounded cheeks glowing pink.
He halted, the television placed directly in front of them, and stood upright. His face was brimming with elation.
‘Well, guys,’ he expressed, holding his own hands. ‘I’ve brought you all here to my office this afternoon as a result of a recent problem the Eatery has experienced in the area of ‘Uniform and Restaurant Paraphernalia’.’ He made quotation marks with his fingers. Cokey flushed, and he continued.
‘Recently, somebody who is relatively new to the Evers N’ Afters team…’ He paused, apparently for dramatic effect. ‘… Vandalised an object belonging to the Eatery.’
Cokey could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. Despite the fact that she was watching Evers determinedly, she could feel several pairs of eyes burning holes through her. She was eternally thankful when Evers spoke again, because it relieved her of some of the unwanted attention.
‘Therefore,’ a toothy smile emerged upon his face. ‘I think it necessary that we all, not only those responsible, participate in what I like to call ‘Customer Service Team Rehash’.’ Once again, Evers’ fingers flapped in quotation, and his words were met with a consensual groaning. Cokey sunk deep into her rickety seat as Evers fumbled with the television remote. Determined not to face the incriminatory stares of her co-workers, she turned to the left, instead choosing to examine the photograph upon her boss’ desk once again. However, her gaze was met by Thomas’, and she was surprised to see him giving her a small, yet warm smile.
‘I like this movie.’ He said. Cokey pouted slightly.
‘We’re watching a movie?’
‘Yeah.’ Thomas replied, and he immediately seemed to relax somewhat, sinking down to her level in his chair. ‘He’ll look for any excuse to put it on.’
Cokey looked to the front. Sure enough, Evers was now seated to the left of the television, leaning forwards with his chin in his hands, his face inches from the screen. It seemed that they were about to watch some type of orientation video for the Eatery, as a very tanned man with a very outdated haircut was now leading the audience through a tour of the storerooms, and explaining the ‘SEE method: Smile, Eye contact and Enthusiasm’.
‘Where are you going?’
Cokey started when she heard Thomas’ voice again, thinking their conversation had finished. She turned to him.
‘Hmm?’
‘Where are you going?’ He repeated. ‘You’re all dressed up.’
‘Oh! Oh – nowhere.’ She didn’t want to tell him she had dressed this way for Steven. After all, the last time she had openly strived for his attentions, she had embarrassed herself and Thomas had had to proverbially save her with a large plate of chilli chips.
Thomas was watching her, and after a long time he simply said, ‘Okay.’
Cokey looked to the orientation video again. The outdated man was leading a role-playing scenario in the dining hall.
‘Well, Mrs Smith, I see you’ve ordered the Parmesan chicken…’
‘Are you working tomorrow?’ It was Thomas again.
God, if he loves this movie so much, why doesn’t he just watch it? She thought as she nodded to him.
‘Why?’ She asked him, and he smiled, though only replied by shrugging sheepishly.
Cokey narrowed her eyes questioningly, and Thomas’ smiled broadened.
‘I just might… Have a surprise.’ He whispered, for Evers was scanning the room to make sure that everybody was just as enthralled and informed by the video as he was. Cokey’s eyes widened.
‘A surprise?’ She breathed back, suddenly intrigued. Cokey had always had a fascination with anything that might be related to exciting news or gossip. ‘Tell me!’
Thomas looked bewildered yet glad at her interest.
‘I can’t, well, I really shouldn’t… You’ll see it tomorrow, if you’re here.’ She had never seen him smile in such a way before.
‘Ooh!’ Cokey squealed at a pitch that made Evers wheel around, his eyes as slits. She lowered her face from his sight. ‘So it’s something I can see…’ She said slowly.
Thomas laughed at her attempts to guess him out, and opened his mouth to speak, when a loud, banging knock came at the door. Cokey spun around to see a disgruntled Evers move away from the television screen and towards the office door. Once opened, Cokey could not see anybody, but a weary yet agitated female voice was clearly audible beyond the room.
‘… And the beef I ordered went cold, and I want a refund.’
‘I’m sorry, you can’t have a refund because you left your food uneaten and it went cold, that’s – ‘
‘I deserve a refund. If your cook can’t make any food that stays hot for long enough, I should get my money back.’
Cokey looked to Thomas; he was leaning to the side, attempting to peer out of the office door at the complainer beyond.
Evers turned to his workers, sighed and said, ‘Alright, people. Peak time. Let’s go.’
Glad to follow the order, Cokey heaved herself out of the wobbly, spindly chair and began to make her way out of the office in Thomas’ wake. As they reached the door, Evers took hold of Thomas’ elbow, thrust a plate of half-devoured roast beef and vegetables into his hands and whispered hastily, ‘Reheat this, Tom?’
‘Uh, yeah.’
Cokey exited the office, leaving Evers to tend to his abandoned orientation video. Despite having to reheat the complainer’s partially eaten lunch, Cokey noticed that Thomas was still smiling.
‘You still haven’t been able to guess, so you’ll be here tomorrow?’ He asked of her as they walked through the dining area. Cokey grinned.
‘I’ll be here, I love surp – oh my gosh!’ She squeaked without warning.
‘What? What’s wrong?’ Thomas looked worried, but Cokey barely noticed. They had just passed the ornate clock upon the wall at which she had gazed so frequently. It was five minutes to 1 o’clock!
‘Oh my gosh, Steven is going to be here any minute! And I haven’t even checked the way I look!’ She darted to the closest window, frantically observing her appearance in the glass that was still being pelted with heavy rain. She flattened her hair with her hands, before whirling around again to face Thomas. ‘Do I look okay? Do you think he’ll like the way I look?’
Thomas remained quiet for a long time, and Cokey grew increasingly impatient, until he uttered only, ‘Yes.’
Cokey made no delay in concluding their conversation. She raced past Thomas and to the entrance of the Eatery, ready and prepared to fulfil her role as maitre’d for Steven. Excepting her wide grin, she reclaimed her composure, ran her hands across her dress once more, and waited eagerly.






If I didn't have such a thing for Lehiff, I'd have a crush on Thomas! Lol, joking! I don't have feeling for my characters! :| Hehe, or do I?

Thankyou so much!
ketxx
:]:]:]