Walter had always hated his job; he worked harder than anyone else at the restaurant, yet he still got no respect or credit from the management. On a regular basis he stayed past his shift to help out when ever he could and yet earlier this week he got the words, "I'd like you to show some effort, for once.", barked at him by his manager; after nine months of this monotonous and mind-numbing job, he was finding himself watching the hands on the clock, until he got to go home. It was a standard Thursday, he got out of school, drove home and worked on his homework. After feeding his dogs and talking with his mother about their days, he kissed her on the forehead and headed out to work.
He stood in front of the main doors to the restaurant and took a deep breath before begrudgingly opening the door. He punched his time card in and ventured his way back to the kitchen. He was a server, take your order, have small chit-chat and bring you your food. He liked it when he got to know his customers, when they were kind and indulged in the innocuous conversations; unfortunately he typically got assigned the party tables, ten or more people all yelling and being obnoxious. It was a quiet shift, only two people came in during the night so he was doing his school work in between his reoccurring, "How's everything going over here? Anything I can get for you?", check ups. Ten minutes before closing, when everyone was wiping down tables and stacking chairs, his manager came out from his office, "Meeting in the break room in five minutes!", he sighed deeply and continued stacking chairs.
He walked into the break room and saw mostly everyone was already there, staring at their manager standing in front of them. "Nice of you to join us.", "I was just finishing up..", he was cut off by the manager, "Don't give me some excuse", the manager said with such a demeaning tone that he didn't respond; he simply nodded as his hands coiled into fists. The others that were missing piled in the back quickly and were given a mere look of disapproval. Their manager cleared his throat, "So guys look, I know that no one wants to work tomorrow seeing as it's valentine's day..", Walters eyes dropped to the floor, "... so I will take volunteers first before I assign people, anyone willing to work tomorrow night?". Walters hand rose to the ceiling with his head hung low, as he knew he had no plans for valentine's day.
He got home after work on Thursday and the rest of the night became a blur. A storm of homework and chores, it whizzed past in a flash. Morning came quickly, propped up with pillows, a textbook in his lap; Walter was awoke by the deafening blare of his alarm clock. His mornings were all the same, let the dogs outside, pack his school bag, say goodbye to his mom and rush out while eating an improved breakfast, usually whatever fruit he could find. This morning however, everything was coated with cynicism because Walter simply despised valentine's day; not that the tradition isn't cute or anything, but he resented those who were happy whilst he was alone on such a romantic occasion. It didn't help that the one girl he had an eye on was in three of his classes on valentine's day. Gwynneth Peters, she went by Gwynn; he fell in love with her the first day of school. Much like the Sailor sees the nurse across the dance floor in a 1950's movie, he saw her and was rendered paralyzed by her light blue eyes.
In between Calculus and Government class, he and Gwynn were talking at her locker. "So have you got any plans for tonight Walt?", he loved that she called him Walt, "No, I can't say that I do, I have to work tonight.", he said with the best smile he could fabricate, "Well do you know where Pete is going to take me tonight?" she said with an eager smile while she bit her lip. "Oh come on Gwynn, Petey is my best friend but he doesn't tell me things like that! Sports, video games and what we're going to do in the summer, that's what we talk about.", Gwynn nodded, grinned halfheartedly and looked in her locker, "Well I know it'll be special, Petey's crazy about you", her smile widened and her eyes lit up, "Thanks Walt", two big forearms wrapper around her waist and picked her up, her feet dangling down. "Hello beautiful", Pete said with confidence, placed her down and kissed her. Breaking away from the tender kiss, he slugged Walter in the shoulder, "Hey bud! How goes it?", "It's all good Petey, I better head to Government, see you around man.". He scurried away, not wanting to see his best friend slobber all over his love.
The day continued as any other school day except it had an extra spoonful of couples kissing in the halls. He got an email from his manager saying that he started work at eight o'clock tonight until closing. He took the opportunity, drove home and started cooking for his mom and brothers. His two older brothers visit every year on valentines day to see their mother. She has been sick for a long time, a lot of medical jargon basically boils down to she can't breathe without an oxygen tank. It's been tough for Walter over the years looking after her but valentine's day was the hardest day because she reminisces about her husband and their father. He passed away when Walter was three.
Walter set the table as his brothers, Joe and Nate were arguing over who was taller; Chicken Alfredo pasta with broccoli, sat on the table with a bouquet of roses in the center that Nate had brought. Walter pulled the chair out for his mom, kissed her on the cheek and gave his brothers the two finger salute. He was off for work once again.
Walter walked into the restaurant and picked up his table assignments for the night out of his mail slot. It read, Table 9, Table 2, Table 8 and Table 16, those were all single pair tables so he was ecstatic. Walter was switching shifts in a minute with Frannie, a co-worker of his. Frannie came over in the break room, "Careful with table two, I think this girl got stood up, she's been there for an hour and a half just eating bread.", Walter nodded and got his order notebook. He greeted the first couple of the night and took them to the back, very nice, older couple he sat them down and they were too busy staring at one another to acknowledge his existence. He glimpsed over the booth wall to see the aforementioned girl and he saw Gwynn staring into the vase of flowers. "Gwynn, what's going on? Where's Petey?", hearing his name made her choke up, she tried to speak but was at a loss for words. Walter took her hands in his, "Breathe, it's okay, what happened?", she took a very slow breath, "I called him, when he was a half an hour late and a girl picked up the phone..", she lost her breath and a tear rolled down her cheek, "he grabbed the phone from her and started spouting off some bullshit about why he was late, he could barely talk.. he was clearly drunk."
They sat talking for a few minutes until his manager came over, "Seriously? Get to work Walter.", "I'm sorry sir, right away.", he stormed off and closed his office door. "I will be right back, I'm so sorry.", she wiper her nose and sniffled, "Don't be silly, go", Walter got up and turned the corner around the booth, she looked down at her phone in her lap, she was startled when Walter came back, "You look gorgeous Gwynn.", she blushed and smiled, "Thanks Walt".
He quickly ran to the kitchen and began frantically dialing on his phone. He stood there tapping his foot impatiently waiting, "Hey Walt, what's up bud?", "Joe, man I need a favor.".
Still processing everything, Gwynn sat there spinning her phone on the table. Walter came jogging around the corner and out of breath, "Gwynn come with me", he put his hand out to grab, "Wh.. Where are we going?", she wiped her eyes carefully to not smudge her makeup; "Just trust me.", he smiled at her and she at him. She took his hand and they walked towards the front doors, "Walter! where do you think you're going! you have three hours left on your shift.", his manager barked at him from across the room. Walter squared up to him, about a foot away from him, "I quit.", took his order notebook and firmly placed it on his managers chest. He grabbed Gwynn's hand, "Let's go".
Walter pulled into his drive way and ran around to give a helping hand for her to get out of his truck. They walked around the garage, and he led her to the patio. Walking around her corner, Gwynn's face was illuminated by the path of candles leading to a table, neatly set up. Flowers in the middle, candles in the middle with two Cup-O-Noodles, one for each of them. She stood in awe, her gorgeous brown hair glimmering in the light and turned to see him smiling at her, "How.. How did you do th..", "My brother owed me one", he smiled and gestured towards the table. He pulled her chair out for her, sat down himself and said embarrassed, "I'm sorry for the food, my brother's not much of a chef", he rubbed his head and chuckled to himself. She thought it was adorable and grabbed his hand on the table, "Walt, thank you.", he turned pink in the cheeks, "It's my pleasure Gwynn".
They talked for hours, losing track of time, it was eleven o'clock. Walter noticed the time on his watch and quickly got up, "I better get you home.", he walked around the table, before she got up and kissed her on the cheek, "Happy Valentine's day gorgeous.", he began to walk away and was stopped when his wrist was grabbed, she pulled him back, coiled her hand around the back of his neck and kissed him. In that moment he realized, maybe valentine's day wasn't so bad after all.
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