I sat on an arm chair in the service room on another hot Monday. Exhausted. I closed my eyes but all I could see was my crush who came on the previous Monday.

The same regret pained me, I knew he couldn’t dare to come again after Mandala’s harshness. How I wish my crush could afford one meal on our menu, so I could stand a chance to get to know him.

On my part, I tried. What else could I do? I tried my best to show him my feelings that day but he was too much into securing a mopping job and watching football on TV.

Suddenly, “Tawina!” a female chef yelled my name. Definitely, she wanted me to wipe down the counter. The clock was 14:30, the time after a tiresome lunch duty, many customers gathered in that room but then it was empty.

I stood up entirely, yawning, to the blinding flash of my crush in the same clothes walking down the restaurant’s pavement outside. My knees flagged. My mind told me to stop him as he snail-paced down the steep direction of the highway.

For once, I was static like a statue, only my eyes followed him without blinking through that casement window. To my wish, his head turned to me and he gave me a cute smile I had craved for previously. And I felt like a dog with two tails.

I smiled with my eyes and I saw him stopping in his tracks. I pushed my pear shaped body to the window to submit myself to his words. Instead, he showed me a hand gesture signaling he was hungry and wanted something to eat.

I nodded at him faster as if to promise him food. So I gestured with my thumb to invite him to the backyard of that restaurant.

As soon as he understood my hand gesture, I cruised to the kitchen and started collecting leftovers; rice, soup, barbecue and greens. I made sure the food filled a glass container.

“Tawina, what are you doing with that food?” the chef asked me. “And didn’t I call you some minutes ago?”

“I’m here now, talk,” I replied, forcing the container’s lid close.

“You must wipe down the counter,” she reminded me.

“I know, I’ll do that.”

“Mhuu, okay,” she sighed, crossing her arms. “But I ask you again, what that food for?”

I failed to answer her right away. I walked past her and approached the backdoor, saying, “I still feel empty in my stomach, so I want to eat this food outside.”

I left the chef and her three colleagues bewildered because I had already eaten my lunch some minutes ago.