"What?" Kacie wondered.
"Look at the tall guy on table 3." She was whispering now, cleaning the counter with a napkin as if trying to seem casual.
Kacie turned slowly and looked outside and then at table 3 to be a bit more casual than her aunt.
"I don't get it." She sighed and turned around.
"It's that guy from Glee!" She whispered loudly on Kacie's ear.
She turned around to look again and she opened her mouth.
"Ooh..." She put a hand in her forehead.
"That's why he looked familiar." She felt so dumb.
"What?" Her aunt seemed confused.
"He was at the mall, he said I was very talented. And then he asked me where this place was and I told him that I worked here and that we could walk together." She talked so quickly that she didn't get how on Earth Dianne seemed to understand her words so clearly.
"You have to take their orders." Dianne announced.
"What, why me? Didn't you take their orders yet?" Kacie squealed silently.
"No, they said they were waiting for a friend and besides, you know I'm going to embarrass myself if I go there." Kacie sighed and nodded.
"You're right. I'll go but you have to stop looking at them!" She laughed.
"Go, go." Dianne waved her away and she started to walk towards the table but she felt stupid. How didn't she realize it was him? She watched the show with her aunt every week.
To be fair he was wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses and he also had a beard; she hadn't paid him that much attention either.
She mentally told herself to calm down a couple of times before she finally got to table 3.
"Hi, are you guys ready to order?" She asked trying to sound as cool as she possibly could. She didn't feel intimidated or anything, it was just that she knew her aunt would be watching their every move with binoculars.
There were three man in the table. She didn't really pay any attention to two of them, they were like a blur to her. She got a glimpse of the third guy as she drew flowers on her notepad to make herself calm down. He had taken his glasses and the baseball hat off and now she could notice it was clearly him.
"Yes, I'll have french toasts and an espresso." He closed the menu and looked at Kacie.
"Alright." She now looked at the other guy.
"I'll have a latte."
And Cory was the only one left, he was still reading the menu.
"I'll have a black coffee and a bagel." He looked up at Kacie and smiled at her. She smiled back at him.
"OK, coming right up." Once she walked away from the table she felt lighter, like a huge weight was released from her shoulders. It came right back when she saw her aunt's face.
"They only ordered their food, OK?" She told her.
"I wasn't going to ask." Dianne smiled.
Kacie sat down and grabbed a magazine from behind the counter but couldn't make herself read it. She kept turning the pages but she had this weird need, more like urge to look at table 3. Well, to look at him.
"Table 3." Her aunt called from the kitchen window.
She got up from the chair and took the platter with her hands.
As she walked down to the table she saw the three men talking and Cory smiling.
Aw, that smile she thought to herself.
She had seen that smile before on TV, but it was different now. It was more real.
"Here you go." Kacie announced when she got to the table.
"Espresso and french toasts." She presented the food to the first guy.
"Latte for you." Second guy.
"Black coffee and bagel for you." He was, once again smiling at her.
Stop doing that she thought.
"Enjoy." She smiled at the other guys and walked away.
"Kacie, wait up." She froze.
Cory walked up to her and stood in front of her.
"Is there something wrong with the food?" She turned to look at the table.
"No." he laughed. "Could you come here for a second?"
He grabbed her platter-free hand and drove her towards his table.
"What's wrong?" She asked him but he didn't hear her.
"Kacie, right?" Guy #1 said.
"Yes." She swallowed. Was she in trouble?
"I'm Ryan and this is Ian." He pointed at guy #2.
"Nice to meet you." She replied.
"Cory here told us about you. He said that he heard you sing earlier and that you're very talented." Kacie shot a glance at Cory beside her. Her face was turning red, she could just feel the heat on her cheeks.
"Anyways, we thought that if Cory felt the need to tell us about your singing, then maybe we could hear something too." Ryan explained.
"But...why?" She was confused.
"Well, I don't know if you know but we have this show, Glee going on..."
"Yeah, I've heard about it." She was trying to be cool about the whole thing.
"And we're going through a casting period right now for the second half of this season and well..." He didn't know how to explain himself.
"They want you to sing something for them." Cory elbowed Kacie.
"What?" She was completely shocked.
"If you want to, of course." Ian added.
"But...I..." Kacie began.
"Come here." Cory grabbed her arm again and moved her a couple of steps away from the table.
"You're awesome Kacie, and this is huge." He was whispering now.
"I don't understand. They want me to audition for the show?" Her eyes had never been that wide before.
"Exactly. You should do it." Cory said.
"But how, when, where?" She was stuttering.
"Calm down. Are you up for it?"He asked looking at her.
"I-I guess." She replied still shocked.
"Good." He walked away and left her standing there.
He ran towards Dianne and began chatting with her, a few seconds later she covered her mouth in excitement and nodded repeatedly.
"Her aunt says we can do it here." Cory announced to Ryan and Ian.
"But what about all this people?" She turned around and the place was empty.
"Oh." Now she was terrified.
"You'll be fine. Pretend you're in the mall or something." Dianne said in her ear as she ran to lock the front door.
Dianne pulled out a chair from one of the tables and dragged it in front of Cory, Ryan and Ian. Next, she ran towards a door next to the one that lead to the kitchen and came back with an acoustic guitar in hands.
"She can play the guitar too." Dianne announced.
"Good. Do you know the chords of any song from the show?" Ian asked Kacie.
"I know Taking chances, is that alright?" She was nervous.
"Here you go." Her aunt kissed Kacie's forehead and dragged a chair next to the rest of the guys.
Ian smiled and nodded.
"That's great. Go ahead, whenever you're ready." All four of them were looking at her encouragingly.
She took a deep breath and tried to think that they weren't big businessmen. It helped a bit. She tried to think she was back at the mall, it was silly but she could feel calmer already.
She checked to see if her guitar was tuned for a few seconds and took another deep breath. Thank goodness she knew that song by heart so she was confident she wouldn't mess up with the guitar.
Her fingers began touching the strings and music started flowing through the room. She opened her mouth to sing.
"Don't know much about your life, don't know much about your world but
don't wanna be alone tonight on this planet they call Earth.
You don't know about my past and I don't have a future figured out,
and maybe this is going to fast, and maybe it's not meant to last."
She was singing like she always did, from the bottom of her heart.
Her aunt looked like she was about to cry or something and Cory was smiling. Like that was new. All he did was smile apparently. Ian and Ryan looked neutral, like they were focused on her.