“Excuse me”.
Silence.
“Excuse me”.
Still no response.
“I said excuse me”, the voice grew bolder. “Can I grab a sit next to you?”.
“Yeh”, it was a tired response as his eyes continued to rummage through the newspaper.
Putting her books down, she pulled a chair and sat. A waiter was immediately beside her.
“Evening miss”, he greeted.
“Evening”, was her response.
“What can I get you?”, the waiter said.
“Water please”, she managed.
“Is that all?”, he quipped.
“Yes”, the girl said, then at the surprised look of the waiter, she added. I will order later. I need to organise my things first”. At that comment, the waiter turned to leave.
She picked up her books and put them noisily on the table. Still the man’s eyes seemed made to read the paper only. She sighed heavily as she packed her books into her overnight bag rather slowly.
“Your water miss”. She had hardly seen the waiter return.
“Thank you, she smiled sweetly.
“Sir, are you now ready to place an order”, the waiter addressed the man.
“No”, the gentleman replied, turning to the next page without lifting his head. The waiter shrugged before briskly walking away.
The girl frowned. Whatever he was reading, it was sure interesting! She sipped her water eyeing the man coolly with her slightly slanted eyes. Her mouth painted the glass brown, as her eyes moved from the man to the surrounding tables of other diners in the Amakhosirestaurant. She noticed that the restaurant was almost full. The diners in Sandton surely dressed to kill! Suits and ties, evening dresses and magazine hairstyles, expensive jewellery and coats! The place was indeed crawling with moneyed people! Looking at the menu, her eyes almost fell out of their sockets! No wonder why the waiter eyed her nervously. The prices were enough to pay for half her rent! She better order now for the waiter seemed to be making his way to her table.
Finishing the last drop of water, she faintly said, “Lets order”.
“Go ahead”, the man surprised her, for she thought that he would not hear it, His eyes though were still plastered on the newspaper.
She sighed deeply before signalling to the waiter who was already a few inches from their table. At once, he was at their table, thankful that at last they were ordering. The night was still young and the place was already proving too small for their esteemed guests.
“I’ll have beef stroganoff”, she said putting down the menu.
“And drinks?”.
“I’ll have white wine”.
The waiter seemed hesitant as he looked from the girl to the gentleman. He finally said, “Are you together?”.
Before she could answer, the man flatly said, “No”, not for once looking up which was rather bizarre. The girl’s mind raced maliciously. If this was the way with which he approached life, then he was as arrogant as they came! Wasn’t he even curious enough to see who had next sat to him! He was a real chauvinist, through and through!
“Miss can you afford this?”, the question intruded her thoughts.
“Would I order, if I didn’t?”, she snapped.
“I am sorry miss. You will have to pay first”.
“I beg your pardon?”, her voice was a little high pitched. “Is this how you treat your customers?”, she screeched,
“Please miss, I don’t want trouble…”.
She could not let him finish, “All I want to do is to enjoy a meal and what do you do? Treat me like some cheap bimbo”, she was getting hysterical.
“Miss”, the waiter tried to keep the conversation down.
“Don’t you ‘miss’ me!”, her eyes narrowed viciously. “And you…”, she snatched the newspaper away from the man… “You just sit there and continue to read that good for nothing paper whilst this morone insults me!”. Several faces turned to look towards their tables. The silence was loud enough for anyone to hear. After a split second, all you could hear were a few mumblings and the noise of forks and knives as guests seemed to resume eating.
For a few minutes, the girl thought that the man would never look up, for his eyes remained downcast looking at his fingers, which once held the newspaper. The man had heard enough! He had no time to entertain prostitutes! Finally, he lifted his eyes to look at her and was about to say something when he stopped, bamboozled. His gaze burned on the girl’s face. The waiter and the girl looked on. The girl knew that she had gone too far. The waiter stared amused. How he would love to see the spoilt brat humiliated.
The man could hardly find his voice. Were his eyes failing him or was he dreaming? He looked at the oval shaped face, the dark eyelashes, the lightly slanted eyes, the golden tan skin, the stylish coppery hued hair and of course the brown black dress which skimmed her figure. His eyes than made a trip back to her face, then to the waiter.
I’ll pay for the lady”, the man unexpectedly said.
The waiter’s smile faded slowly. He abhorred the triumphant glint in the girl’s eyes.
“Don’t worry. I will pay”, the girl fluttered her eyelashes.
“Come on. I can see you are a student and you really could save the money”, he urged.
She smiled a bit shyly, you really don’t have to.
“I insist”, he pressed.