The 24-Hour Café by Libby Page

Author:Libby Page [Page, Libby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2020-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

1.00 p.m.

Mona

‘Mona! Mona!’

It is only after hearing her name for a third time that Mona’s brain switches back to the room. She has been busy taking orders but realises she was working entirely on autopilot. Her senses return to her and she smells oil frying and hears a customer somewhere in the café talking loudly into a phone. There is a brief lull at the counter as customers take seats, and Mona sees Pablo standing in front of her, wearing his leather jacket.

‘I’m off now,’ he says. Mona’s eyes flick to the clock and she realises Pablo has worked an hour longer than his shift – not wanting to leave Aleksander on his own mid-lunchtime rush, she imagines. His voice is cheery despite the fact he has been working for over twelve hours.

‘Where’s Aleksander?’ asks Mona, looking around her, suddenly realising she doesn’t remember the other chef arriving.

‘He arrived ages ago,’ says Pablo, ‘He tried to say hello but you were busy serving customers.’

Mona pictures Aleksander slipping silently into the kitchen and feels bad but not surprised – after all their time working together (he started at the café three years ago) she has never got to know him well. He is desperately quiet and impossible to read. Unlike Pablo, whose eyes Mona suddenly notices are filling with tears.

‘I can’t believe you’re leaving,’ he says to her.

Mona feels her cheeks growing warm as she thinks with embarrassment and pain to the fight with Hannah.

‘So you overheard that then …’ she says, ‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean for things to get so heated. I don’t know what happened. And I really shouldn’t have said all those things here – I haven’t even told Stella yet …’

She trails off, thinking for the first time about how she will tell the café’s owner that she is leaving. Since Mona started working here Stella has been as flexible and supportive of Mona’s other life as she can possibly be, and Mona feels a surge of guilt at leaving with such short notice. Although she doesn’t officially leave for Paris for another two weeks, she could do with some time to pack and organise things, but that would give Stella hardly any time to find a new member of staff. Perhaps she should have mentioned the audition to Stella so this job doesn’t come as a total surprise, but she’d been so focused on doing well in it that she hadn’t thought of anything else. Her mind races, thinking about Stella’s reaction. Perhaps, like Hannah, she will be angry and Mona suddenly realises that Stella would have every right to be. Stella doesn’t work set hours at the café, but Mona imagines she will be in later that afternoon – she will tell her then. Better to do it in person, she thinks.

‘I won’t say anything!’ says Pablo, gesturing as though fastening a zip over his mouth, ‘Of course I won’t. It won’t be the same without you, but I’m also happy.’

He is suddenly behind the counter and pulling her into a hug before she really knows what is happening.

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