[[Just a short one shot.]]

It was a regular Tuesday for Anna at the small Italian restaurant where she worked nights at. The intimate, cheerful atmosphere was comforting and soothing, calming Anna down as she made her way around her tables, checking up on her customers, making sure that everything was alright with their food, taking checks to pay for meals, and just doing her job as required. Passing by tables, she could hear her clients whispering. They were always whispering about something: the newest baby in the family, who was doing what with whom, how the service here actually was; that sort of thing. This was one of the best jobs to have if you were a girl who loved to gossip. Which Anna was not, but she loved hearing stories. She was a much better listener than she was a talker. And she made sure that her customers were happy. Not many others here tried to do this, which was a mystery to her. Didn't they care about their customers? Or did just getting more people in the seats count? The whole quantity or quality thing…that's why her regular customers kept coming back; she actually cared about what they thought about her service and her food.

"I've heard that this is one of the best restaurants in town," came the voice. Anna froze in her tracks. No…not here, please not tonight! she thought, her back now rigid.

"A table for two please."

"Yes, of course. It'll be about a ten-minute wait."

"Alright, thank you." And with that, the voice went away. Anna turned around, and starting walking through her section towards the front of the house again. As she got to the front she, looked towards the doors and saw…him. Louis. Why was he here tonight of all nights? Looking over the divider, she saw that he was exactly the same as she remembered. About 5'9", slightly tanned skin, his hair slightly longer than his usual military haircut, his face splattered with those freckles that seemed to fit him just right. And there was a woman with him. He had his arm wrapped around her tiny waist, her pale blonde hair tumbling down her back as she looked up at him. She knew that he would eventually end up coming to her restaurant, as she had bragged about it a little when she had been dating him, and it was only an hour south of his monthly training facility. But she never thought he would come with a date on his arm.

As though he felt her gaze, he looked up, as though trying to find her. As Anna spun around, she ran into Angela, the main hostess for the night.

"Anna, what's going on with you?" asked the brunette, her hands on her hips as she stared at Anna.

"I…um…I…ju…uh…" she stuttered, trying not to look like an idiot, and failing miserably.

"Whatever, I don't care what your problem is today, but I need you to seat him tonight," Angela stated, pointing towards Louis.

"What?! But, I can't, not tonight," said Anna, her mind racing to come up with a plausible explanation as to why she couldn't be that close to him.

"Like I said, I don't care. Just. Seat. Him," she said, turning her attention back to the register.

"I…oh, fine. I'll seat him," Anna grumbled, straighten up and fixing her mouth into a smile once again.

"Hi, if you follow me this way, I'll seat you and you'll be good to go," she said, looking directly ahead, not making eye contact.

"Thank you," he said, following Anna. She could hear him the…woman…with Louis giggling slightly. Anna gritted her teeth against the high pitchd squeak that emanated from her mouth. As she came to a free table, she turned and said, "Here you are, and here are your menus. I'll be back soon to take your orders." There was that look again. She hated that look, and she loved it. It was the look he knew that would distract her.

"Come back soon, we'll be ready," replied Louis, not looking at his date, but at Anna.

"Of course, sir. I'll be right back to take your orders." With that, she turned on her heel and made her way to the kitchen window. Thankfully Andrew was working tonight, so she had someone to talk to. She was going to need it, especially if he was going to ask.

Andrew looked out the window at her. "Hey, is that guy you were talking about here?"

Anna just stared at him, with a 'did you seriously just ask that?' look. Andrew was used to this, as he got this look from Anna at least twice a week; sometimes more when he didn't cook the chicken right. And yes, he got it when they would talk on their breaks and he asked a either a stupid or a prying question Anna didn't want to answer. Though she did tend to tell him what was bugging her anyway. Seeing this look, Andrew just rolled his eyes, and held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'll back off."

"Thank you Andrew," she said, pulling her hair out of her face. "And yes, he is here tonight…and he brought someone with him."

"Ah…then you really don't want to talk about or to him, do you? And someone? Like…a cute someone or a…" asked Andrew, seeing that Anna was starting to draw away from her emotions. He tried making a joke but trailed off. She was getting quiet, and that was scaring him.

"No, I don't want to talk about him right now. Especially as he has a date here tonight, and I still have the rest of my shift to cover. But maybe later, when he leaves…maybe then I'll tell you okay?"

"Alright, I'll chill for now. But as soon as he leaves, you come back here and plant your butt in break-mood and talk to me."

"Will do," said Anna. "I have to go anyway; I have to take orders and all that fun stuff." With that, she left the kitchen and headed back onto the floor once again. She headed back to Louis's table, bracing herself against what she knew would be a flood of unwanted emotions.

"Okay, are you ready to order?" she asked, looking straight ahead, trying not to notice that the woman on her right was gazing at Louis with puppy-dog eyes, yet Louis wasn't paying any attention to her.

"Yes, uh, I'll have the lobster ravioli and she will have…" he trailed off, finally looking at the blonde across from him. She started, and then looked up at Anna.

Her high-pitched voice grated on Anna's ears. "Yes, and I'll have the soup and salad combo."

"What type of soup do you want tonight?"

Again, the high-pitch ran through Anna's head. "I'll have the minestrone, the only Italian soup worth having."

"Of course, and to drink?" she asked, itching to get out of there soon.

"Two Cokes."

"Alright, then I'll be back soon with your orders," and with that Anna scurried out as fast as she could, taking the order to the kitchen and then out to the floor again to take care of her other tables. As her normal rhythm of taking orders, bringing out orders and checking people out for the night settled around her again, she felt herself relaxing.

As she picked up the order for Louis's table, she felt her breathing starting to hitch faster again. "Okay, here's your order. Is there anything else that I can do for you right now?" she asked, as she handed them their food.

"Not at the moment no, but later maybe you could join us on your break?" asked Louis, smirking slightly at her. Anna saw his date shoot a glare at him, then at her. Anna resisted the urge to step back as she responded. "I'm sorry sir, but that is not allowed. If that is all you need, then I'll be your cashier when you are ready."

"Okay, thank you, you can leave," stated the blonde, her voice ice chilled and her eyes, once blue like cornflowers, now brittle ice. Anna shivered, and turned away.

With that, Anna headed back to the kitchen again. Getting there, she sat down on the floor out of everyone's way, and connected to Angela through her walki. "Hey, Angela, I'm going to take my break now."

"That's fine. Get some food too, you look like you need it," crackled Angela's voice back into her ear.

"Will do, and thank you." Anna laid her head against the wall. "Andrew. Can I talk to you know, please?" she asked, calling through the kitchen, knowing that he would hear her.

"Yeah! Just give me a minute to finish this, and I'll be right there," came his voice circling back. Within five minutes, Andrew was sitting across from her, holding a plate of hot noodles with marinara sauce and parmesan cheese. The corners of Anna's mouth twitched up a little as she took the plate from him and smelled the delicious aroma coming from it.

"Thanks so much Andrew. You're a life saver tonight," she said, taking her first mouthful.

"No prob, Anna. But maybe you can explain to me why you're so freaked out that this guy, Louis right, is here?" he asked, propping his head on his hand.

Anna couldn't decide whether or not to tell this story to Andrew, but the food was distracting her and the story tumbled out.

"I used to date him…and it was one of the best times of my life. He was my everything. He is also in the Army Reserves. So he would be gone one weekend a month. This didn't bother me. But then I came here for college and he left for three months of training in Missouri. We didn't break up, we tried the long distance thing. It just didn't work though, he didn't call, he didn't write. I felt as though he wasn't even trying to keep our relationship alive! And I couldn't call or write him as I didn't know if I could. So finally, when I knew he was back from training, I called him. It was one of the hardest days of my life. I didn't know how to tell him…but he guessed anyway."

"So…you used to date the guy. You broke up with him, yet…you are the one scared to see him and his date?" Andrew inquired, trying to make sense of Anna's logic.

"Yes, I broke it off…but I'm scared. I still feel like I love him, yet there he is with his date, like nothing happened. And I'm still stuck pining over him. And I hate it! That's why I'm scared to be around him, I'm scared of what I'll do." She said, putting her plate down. Pulling her knees up, she wrapped her arms around her legs and put her head down on her knees, trying to calm her breathing. "Why am I such an idiot?" she asked, her voiced muffled by her knees.

Seeing Anna like this, so small and scared looking, Andrew was shocked to see how much this affected him. Getting down on the floor, he circled his arms around her and hugged her a little, trying to calm her down. "Just go out there, and act as though you don't remember him at all. Just let him see how strong you've become and it'll be alright. You'll see." She snorted at him. Rolling his eyes, Andrew tried making her laugh. "And you're not an idiot. I'm the idiot. If you were the idiot, you would not be talking to me, I can promise you that. We would be walking around this kitchen like monkeys."

Anna sniffled slightly, and chuckled at Andrew's description of what would be happening to them. As she pulled out of his embrace she smiled and said, "you're right. I just have to keep doing what I've been doing. Anyway, it's the end of my break; I need to go back out there, check him out, and leave. It's toward the end of my shift anyway." She got up, brushing the seat of her pants off.

"And thanks Andrew. For everything…you know how to make it better. I don't know what I would do without you here to talk to me." With that, she left the kitchen. Andrew watched her leave, trying to get over the shock of his feelings for Anna.

Back out on the floor, Anna headed straight for Louis's table. Seeing that he and his date were done, she printed off the receipt. Holding her head high, she swept over to his table. "Alright, here is your receipt. I'll be your cashier when you're ready," she said, not once looking at Louis. All she could really think about was that Andrew knew what he was talking about.

Once Louis and his date left, with Louis looking back at her, Anna realized that she wasn't even thinking of him anymore. She was thinking of Andrew. Maybe it was time for her to move on. And maybe Andrew could help her.