The following evening was my evening at college. As lessons were from 6:30 to 8:30, I’d got into the habit of going to a café after work and then going onto my course. To go home first seemed pointless as I would have to turn around immediately to go out again. Since Rainbow’s End had opened, I’d been going there. They closed around 5:30 which gave me just enough time in case I needed to do any shopping.
Rainbow’s End was deserted when I arrived and Sean joined me at my table as I drank my coffee and ate some delicious carrot cake. Apparently he made all the cakes himself, after the shop closed. A few minutes before closing time he turned the sign to ‘Closed’ and locked the door. And then he asked if I was free on Saturday. I’d not had a date for months, years even, and now I’d been asked out twice in a little over 24 hours by two different men. I liked both of them, for different reasons. I didn’t feel I was ‘going out’ with Oliver, not yet, and I did like Sean. I told him I hadn’t anything specific planned. He sighed with relief. The tea shop was particularly busy on a Saturday, he told me, and he was short staffed. He had advertised for help and was interviewing on Friday but he would be so grateful if I could help out. From 9:30 to 4:30. He wouldn’t be able to pay much, but I could keep whatever tips I earned.
It was obvious that he had seen my reaction was not overly favourable. This wasn’t what I’d expected when he asked if I was free. I had assumed he meant in the evening; assumed he was asking me out. It seemed I’d completely misunderstood. I didn’t want to let him see my confusion, but my face told him the truth. “And, as a special thank you for helping me out I’d like to take you out for a drink, a meal even, and perhaps onto a nightclub.” A broad grin spread across his face. I wasn’t sure if the offer of an evening out had been planned all along or was a spur of the moment decision as an inducement to help out during the day. At that stage I didn’t really care. I agreed to help him out and promised him the evening would be expensive, to make up for the lousy pay. It was then time to do a bit of shopping and decorate a ‘Teenager in bed’ birthday cake for Jane’s nephew. He never rose from his bed before noon at the weekend and she wanted something that represented his favourite pastime.