The Waitress (51 page)

‘Give me that –’ Paul snatched at it, but Katie was too quick for him. She held it behind her back. Sukie took it from her hand, safely out of Paul’s reach. ‘You seem to
find
it really hard to do the right thing by people, don’t you Paul?’ asked Katie sweetly.

‘Give me that photo now,’ Paul told Sukie.

‘You leave her out of it,’ said Jon, putting his arm round Sukie.

‘Give it to me now,’ repeated Paul. ‘Or –’

‘Or what will you do?’ asked Katie, reaching behind Jon’s back and taking the photo from Sukie. She held it over the gas hob. ‘Burn it? It won’t matter. This is only one copy. It’s on Sandy’s computer and on Jon’s computer. Oh, by the way, Jon’s my flatmate.’

Paul swallowed.

‘So,’ said Katie. ‘You’re going to go straight out there and tell your lovely fiancée that seeing us all has made you realise how fond you are of the business, and how you just can’t let down so many people.’

‘I can’t,’ moaned Paul.

Katie showed him the picture again and gave him a big smile. ‘Oh I think you can,’ she said.

He stared at them all and they stared back at him. He was about to speak when the door opened and in walked his fiancée, eyes bright with happiness.

‘Hello everyone!’ she said. ‘I’m so glad we’ve finally met. I do hope you weren’t too upset about Paul having to pull out.’

‘Actually, honey,’ said Paul. She turned to him with a trusting face. ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’

Katie, Dan, Sukie and Jon were touched by Paul’s fiancée’s response. She had smiled at them all graciously, a bit like the Duchess of Kent meeting a courageous
child
, and said it was wonderful news and they really hadn’t needed the house with the pool; she loved the pool at her gym anyway. If Katie had had a flat cap, she’d have doffed it to her. The couple then did them the honour of staying in the kitchen while Dan opened a bottle of bubbly and Katie genuinely believed that, by the end of his glass, Paul was almost as delighted to have so many people beholden to him as his delightful fiancée was. Dan kept giving Katie lingering looks, and seemed to be trying to move round Paul to her side, but it was a small kitchen and he couldn’t manage it without physically moving Paul out of the way. So she made do with the lingering looks. Then, after they had all clinked their glasses to Crichton Brown’s and downed their drinks in one, Paul took Dan’s arm to lead him outside to the party. The fiancée followed, after giving them all one last sweep of a smile. Dan stretched round to Katie, missed and got Sukie, who had no choice but to join them. She stretched back for Jon, but was out of the door before she got a chance to say anything.

Jon looked at the door for a while. Then he looked at Katie, and did a valiant attempt at pretending he really wanted to be in the kitchen with her, rather than in the party with Sukie. ‘So, Dan’s the man, eh?’ he asked.

She smiled at him. ‘So, an interested publisher, eh?’

Jon gave a small smile, hands in pocket. ‘Yeah.’ He looked at the door where Sukie had just been. Katie handed him the photos. ‘Have you ever looked at these properly?’ she asked. He shook his head. ‘I just printed them out and gave them to you,’ he said.

‘Well,’ said Katie, pointing at Sukie’s face. ‘Have a
good
look, and see if you can
read
what you see as well as you
write
what you see.’

When Katie came out into the party, it was a bit of a surprise. She knew everyone there and felt fond of them all, commuters, journalists, even Maxine. Maxine and Hugh had been busy getting attached at the hip and Katie joined Sukie in watching them with a mixture of disgust and fascination.

‘Get a room,’ Sukie muttered to Katie.

‘Or at least a five-bed terrace,’ agreed Katie.

Then their attention was seized by Paul, who stood on one of the tables. He tapped his glass with a fork. The room went quiet.

‘Cheek,’ whispered Sukie to Katie.

‘Do you think he’s going to tell his fiancée he cheated on her?’ whispered Katie back.

Paul coughed politely until there was complete silence.

‘I would just like to say welcome to everyone.’

Katie scanned the room for Dan, but couldn’t find him. She saw Jon though, and if she wasn’t very much mistaken, he looked like a man possessed. As Paul started telling everyone just how much the café meant to him, and how he and his fiancée were delighted to be a part of something so special, Jon brushed past her to Sukie. Sukie was transfixed. As Paul began the tale of how he and Dan’s dream had taken shape, Katie watched as Jon edged his way into Sukie’s private space, bent slowly down so that their breaths mingled and, when he was convinced that he had not misread the signals and that she wasn’t going to run away screaming, kissed her. Katie felt tears
well
up in her eyes, then she suddenly realised everyone was looking at her. She blinked.

‘
What?
’ she asked the room, huffily. ‘
What?
’

Everyone laughed. Or rather, everyone had hysterics.

‘You see?’ laughed Paul. ‘The rudest waitress I’d ever seen.’

Katie gasped. And then suddenly Dan stood up on the counter, which was higher than the table Paul was standing on. Everyone turned to him.

‘But it wasn’t until we properly got to know Katie,’ he said, ‘that we began to learn exactly how much this café depended on her.’

‘Yes,’ said Paul. ‘Absolutely. I was –’

‘And not just the café,’ cut in Dan. He looked down at her. There was silence. ‘But me too.’

The room sighed as one.

‘Katie,’ he said. ‘I absolutely adore you.’ He got down on one knee on the counter. The room hushed. ‘Paul may be my silent partner, but you are, without doubt, my outspoken one.’ The audience gasped. ‘Without you, the café would be nothing.’ The audience cheered. ‘Without you,
I
would be nothing. I know, without a doubt, that Paul will agree with me when I ask you, Katie Simmonds, please will you do me the honour of becoming my official business partner.’

The audience erupted. Katie couldn’t remember how she got up on to the counter with him, she just remembered being lifted up and then being held tight, while the sound of cheering drowned out her crying.

And finally, their third kiss. Which was a bit of a dark horse, because it overtook the other two and became the
instant
Best Kiss Ever. Ooh yes, she thought, tears running down her smiling face, as Dan picked her up and squeezed her to him. They just got better and better. She should definitely ask for the best seven.

Epilogue

Katie sat in the corner of the café, an espresso on the table in front of her, while Patsy showed the new boy how to work the coffee machine. Dan was due back from the jeweller’s later this afternoon – he’d insisted that even though they had chosen the ring together, he was the one to pick it up.

She’d waited a long time to open the letter. Great-Aunt Edna’s funeral had been surprisingly serene. It was hard to mourn for someone who had so clearly loved her life. There were no great surprises in the reading of the will and Katie’s share hadn’t amounted to much, just as her mother had predicted. And Katie had been glad. It meant she had no emotion to deal with other than bidding farewell to someone she had grown to love. When the solicitor had handed her the private letter, he had told her, most clearly, that this was not to be opened until she was somewhere that made her happy. That was her Great-Aunt’s wish. And so, here she was.

She tore open the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper.

Katherine Jane
,

There are many sayings in this world: Life is not a rehearsal; What doesn’t kill us makes us strong; You can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. All
I
know is that in a world where speed has overtaken sense, where money is all and where feeding one’s soul has become the last priority, you were strong enough to wait until you understood yourself.
I
did not want you to know the money was safe.
I
wanted to see if, as
I
thought, you would make ‘finding yourself’ a priority over money.
I
wanted you to learn the value of independence, so that you could then appreciate the value of money. But
I
had no idea that
I
would learn from you. The more time you took to make your decision, the more
I
realised you didn’t need anyone to teach you what you knew instinctively. And the more
I
grew to love you. So
I
will add another saying that I’m sure you know well: ‘Good things come to those who wait.’ If one is waiting for the right thing, this one is the truest of them all. And
I
should know, my love, because
I
waited until you were ready to know me for me, and not just for what
I
could offer you
.

You have a trust fund in your name, my dear
.

Be happy. God Bless
,

Edna
.

Which was how, when Paul’s fiancée decided, upon reflection, that she really did need a house with a pool, Katie was only too happy to buy Paul out and become Dan’s partner. In every sense of the word.

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Epub ISBN 9781407099781

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Published by Arrow in 2004

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Copyright © Melissa Nathan 2004

Melissa Nathan has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental

First published in the United Kingdom in 2004 by Century

Arrow Books
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ISBN 9780099427988