We arrive back at the flat after some walking to find Ringo and John in and I flash them both small smiles when we enter the kitchen, and John and I share an unspoken peace it seems. I wandered into the bathroom to wash my hands and to use the toilet and once I exit I hear my name being called.
"Yeah?" I call back and Paul's face comes into view as I enter the kitchen and he hands me the phone.
"It's the diner." he whispers as my hand muffles the mouth piece and I sigh.
"Hey, don't fret, maybe it's some good news." he encourages and he squeezes my shoulder before going to the fridge and I take a deep breath before answering with a nervous 'hello'.
"Hi, is this Courtney?" I hear a friendly voice say from the other side.
"Yes this is." I reply and I hear the refrigerator door shut and Paul treads out of the room.
"I just read over your application, and I'd love for you to come in possibly today or tomorrow and I can give you the tour and start your training. You're still interested, right?" I recognize the female voice to be Pearl and I smile and cross my arms over my chest, I really need to change out of these clothes.
"Yeah of course, which day would be better and what time should I be there?" I reply and I hear the front door shut and a mix of voices from the living room.
"Whichever works better for you." she suggests and a soft laugh echoes from the other room where the others are.
"Well I don't have anything to do today, so would today be okay?" I reply and I tap my hand against the edge of the kitchen counter.
"Yes of course, the sooner the better. It's 12:30 right now, so would 1 work for you?" she questions and I tell her yes.
"Yeah, I'll be there." I comment and she gives me a kind goodbye, before we both hang up and I linger there in the kitchen.
I walk up to the doorway to see the three guys, and a red head with her back to me, and I see it to be who else but Jane Asher when she turns her head to look at Paul. I go back over to the counter and I really wish I wasn't stuck here in the kitchen, and I know I could go out into the living room, but I also don't want to do that. What I want to do is to go up those stairs to change into different and clean clothes. I huff and stare at my feet and what I hear is the voices and soon footsteps that enter the kitchen.
"Hey love, is something wrong? Oh, what did the diner say on the phone?" Paul meets me in the kitchen and I raise my eyes to his and his hands sit in his pockets.
Before I get the chance to answer his question a voice interrupts. "Paul, where are you?" the high pitched voice calls out and Jane who the voice belongs to enters in a brown skirt and a button up shirt, she really does look like a teenager who's 17.
"Oh, hey darling, what is it?" Paul questions and I couldn't help but to notice Jane stealing a few looks at me and she didn't look exactly pleased to find me there with her boyfriend.
"That new movie we've wanted to see starts at five after, so if you still want to go we should get going sometime soon. Do you want to?" she proposes this to Paul and I mindlessly glance around the room as I feel like the third wheel in this awkward situation I'd rather not be in.
"Um I dunno right now, darling." he answers her and I stay silent as I wish to get out of here and no longer be bored.
"Do you wanna come with, Court? The lads are coming with their birds too." Paul suggests to me after we lock eyes and I shake my head 'no'.
"No thanks, the diner actually wants me to come by in a little bit." I reply since that we would terribly awkward and Paul nods with a bit of a disappointed look and Jane has an expectant look on her face while waiting for Paul's answer.
"Oh."
"I'm gonna go change then." I conclude and I don't wait for him to comment as I got out of their way to bound up the stairs to his room where I find the untouched bag of clothes.
I change there in his room with the door of course shut and I had decided on a pair of the pants and one of the other nice shirts I had gotten yesterday. I turn around to find a round mirror on his wall and I take out my long braid to re do and I expertly French braid my red hair that's a lot similar to Jane's, but longer. I've come up with a lot of new ways to do my hair with having it so long and I got easily bored with just putting it in a ponytail or a bun. I look myself over quickly in the mirror reflecting my image and I leave my bag on the floor by his bed to go back downstairs to find Paul and Jane sitting on the couch together looking all cuddly. Paul has always been my favorite my favorite Beatle, and I agree with the nickname of him being the cute Beatle, so i guess you could say I'm not exactly liking what I'm seeing. Another reason why I'd like to get out here and be by myself, I enjoy being alone in my own world to get away, I need one of those breathers right about now.
I wander into the kitchen to find Ringo searching through the cabinets for probably something to eat and his head turns in my direction.
"Hey, Courtney."
"Hi Ringo, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind walking me to The Roadside diner a few blocks away. I got a job there and I just want to get out of here for awhile." I ask him quietly with the hopes that he'll say yes.
"Yeah, of course I wouldn't mind a walk and I'd like a smoke too." he replies and I smile at him.
"I'm gonna go use the loo quick." he states and he walks off to leave me in the kitchen alone and Paul enters without Jane on his arm.
"Hey, where you off to?" he questions with furrowed brows.
"The diner." I reply and he sighs.
"All by yourself again? Courtney-." he takes it the wrong way and I cut in.
"Calm down, Ringo is going to walk me there. I'm not completely hopeless, Paul. Have a little faith in me." I barge in and he relaxes and nods his head vertically at my words.
"Alright, I'm erm sorry for overreacting. Be careful though, alright? If somebody gives you a hard time there just let me know and I'll handle it," he apologizes. "And I hope you have a nice time, when do ya reckon you'll be back?"
"I'm not sure, I'll be back for dinner definitely." I reply and he runs his thumb over his bottom lip while he seems to think.
"Okay then, and when you're finished give the flat a ring so one of us can walk with you back." he recommends.
"Paul, I can figure out how to get back here after going there a few times."
"Yeah maybe you can, but just do it, kay? I don't want something happening to you or anything." he adds on and I say that I will and he returns to his schoolgirl girlfriend.
"Let's go." Ringo states after getting his shoes on and we leave the flat and I again meet the London streets and it's citizens.
"Ya got a job there, as a waitress I reckon?"
"Mmhmm. I'm doing some training today." I reply and he lights a cigarette in his fingers to take a long drag from it.
"Ah well that's great, I hope you enjoy it." he adds on with a smile and we talk some more about irrelevant things on our walk and he waves at me before I enter the diner to find Pearl at the register.
"Hello, love. What're you doing here early? It's only twelve forty-two." she says and I remember that.
"Oh well I thought it wouldn't of hurt to come in early, I wanted to get away from home." I reply and a smile appears on her lips marked with red lipstick.
"Ah, well you're always welcome here." she replies and I thank her.
She started me with putting on a red waist apron over my clothes and she told me to wear pants with a white or red shirt, and otherwise a dress for work. She started me with a tour of the place; the booths in front of the counter as well as the tables and booths on the outside of the square walls, next behind the counter and the kitchen.
"This is the main cook Marty, a few other waitresses, and the sous chef Robbie." Pearl introduces the kind staff who all give me a wave and Robbie caught my eye, he looks about my age.
"That's Robbie, huh?" I causally ask Pearl as I sit at the counter afterwards in front of her as she fills up the coffee maker behind the counter.
"Yes, he's quite the chef and he's only 19. He went to college a year for the culinary arts and came here to get a job, and he makes the best kind of stuff. The doughnuts are all him, and he makes brilliant soup," she tells me about this tall, brunette haired boy with crystal blue eyes that wouldn't fail to put any girl under their spell. "He's a nice boy, he is, and he likes to tell a lot of jokes. The two of you will get on well, I know it." she concludes and she flashes me a smile before servicing an old man a few seats down from me and I look to the geezer who smiles at me with his dentures and then he winks at me, and I can't forget how he wiggled his eyebrows, oh boy.
I laugh to myself after I turn away from him and I look back to my folded hands with an amused grin. I already like this job and the place, with the nice people and the comfortable atmosphere. I'm glad to be out of the apartment where I still feel not all that welcome, and here I already feel like I'm home. I know how soon it is to think that about a job I started twenty minutes ago, but honestly it's true.
Pearl gave me a few burger baskets, coffees or little things to deliver to tables, but I mostly talked to the other waitresses and watched them.
"Pearl?" Robbie calls out for the head waitress who i heard from another waitress has been working here since she was a teen herself, her dad used to own it, and left it to her when he died early on in his life.
"Would you happen to know where Pearl is?" he turns to me and says and I shake my head 'no'.
"The last time I saw her she went out back for a smoke." I reply and be nods his head with a grin and he walks around to take a seat by me.
"Robbie Stevens." he holds out a hand for me to shake which I do and we share small smiles.
"Courtney Oakes."
"It's nice to meet you, Courtney. I couldn't help but to notice your accent love, you're from the U.S. right?"
"Yeah." I reply and he nods and looks ahead and he runs his hand through his hair that's in a style like Paul's used to be during their Hamburg days, but his is a light brown.
I notice his blue eyes again that are round and I can't deny that he is rather good looking.
"You on break too?"
"Mmhmm." I reply and he pulls at the short sleeves of his white t shirts before getting up.
"Well I'm gonna go back to the kitchen."
"But I thought you're on break." I say, confused.
"That's how I spend my break, cooking and making up new recipes. You can come along if you like, maybe I can give you a few pointers." he replies and I follow him back to empty kitchen and he takes a pan full of oil sitting on the stove and he pours the oil out.
"Have ya ever made doughnuts?"
"No, I love to eat them though." I reply with a smile and he grins too and he pours some gold colored oil from a clear jug into the pot.
"Well I'll teach you, and you'll be helping me make batches in no time." he comments and he finds a bowl with plastic wrap over the top from a bottom shelf below the metal counter.
"We'll start with simple; the glazed doughnuts and doughnut holes." he begins and I lean against the slab of tiled wall next to the counter to watch him.
I see how he takes a ball of dough from the batch to roll it out onto the floured surface and he expertly cuts it and shows me the end result of a dough ring, he tosses it in the bubbling oil.
"Come here, so you can learn." he waves me over and I walk over with a nervous smile and he stands behind me and hands me the right amount of dough.
"Now roll it out so it's a sheet." he tells me and I take the rolling pin and he places his hands over mine to help me roll it out to the desired thickness and I smile.
"That's good, now just take the cutter and cut a circle, then the smaller cutter to make the hole." he directs me and I do as he says.
"There, you made a doughnut!" he exclaims with a giant smile and I show a proud grin and he places that and the hole in the oil.
I was helping with cleaning up after he made the batch, fried it and laid them in baskets lined with paper for the waitresses to take and we got in the others way accidentally. We lock eyes and he wipes the flour off of my cheek that I had forgot about being there and he glances to my lips and after a few seconds he clears his throat and makes a funny face. We both laugh and finish with the small clean up before I had to leave to go talk to Pearl quickly.
"I see you met Robbie."
"Yeah, we made doughnuts together. He's a lot of fun, and a great cook too, those doughnuts are killer." I reply as I help her clear dirty tables and she wipes one.
I continue to help her until she lets me go for the day and I asked to use the phone up front and Robbie stops in front of the counter as I take awhile to put the number in, phones are so different in this time.
"Need a ride or something?"
"Just somebody to walk me home, I don't exactly know where I'm going. I'm new here." I explain and he offers to walk me and I leave the phone on its hook.
I tell him where I'm staying at and we chatted about our hobbies, dislikes, family, favorites and similar things. I found that we both have a lot in common; we like to read, listen to music, sleep in, be by ourselves at times and to try new things.
"I'll see you later then. Bye, Courtney." he bids as his hands are in the pockets of his black jacket as we stand away from the step up the flats door.
"Thanks for walking me, and yeah I'll talk to later. See ya, Robbie."
"You're welcome, love. Had a good night." he concludes and I watch as he walks down the sidewalk and I turn to approach the door, I'm beginning to like today and just maybe I'm making a new friend here.
AN: What do you think?