Read Online The Waitress by Melissa Nathan - Free Book Online Page A

hour.
    ‘So,’ said Great-Aunt Edna, pouring milk from the jug into the china cups. ‘What have you got to tell me?’ Desperate not to talk about work and not to leave too long a gap before answering, Katie found herself saying, ‘I’ve met a man.’
    Great-Aunt Edna’s eyebrows, fine arches of smoke, rose as she took the tea cosy off the teapot.
    ‘Is he handsome?’
    Katie smiled. ‘Yes, he is.’
    Great-Aunt Edna nodded as she placed the tea strainer on to the cup.
    ‘Is he wealthy?’
    Katie considered this. ‘I suppose he must be,’ she answered.
    Great-Aunt Edna placed one hand on the teapot lid and slowly poured out two perfect cups of tea. She placed the pot down heavily, just missing the doily, then she neatly replaced the tea cosy.
    They drank their tea.
    ‘So he could be a provider then,’ considered Great-Aunt Edna.
    ‘I hadn’t thought of it like that.’
    ‘You probably didn’t realise you did,’ said Great-Aunt Edna, ‘but you’ve been conditioned to think of exactly that.’
    Katie frowned. ‘I just like him.’
    Great-Aunt Edna placed her teacup in its saucer and treated herself to a custard cream straight out of the biscuit tin. (‘We don’t need to stand on ceremony here.’)
    ‘Would you like him as much if he were as poor as a church-mouse?’ she asked, dunking the custard cream into her tea and sucking thoughtfully on it.
    ‘Yes,’ said Katie. ‘In fact, I’d probably have preferred him.’
    Great-Aunt Edna bit into the rest of her biscuit. ‘Ah dear,’ she said. ‘If only it was irrelevant.’
    Katie nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But I suppose you could say the same about him.’
    Great-Aunt Edna smiled at her great-niece, her eyes suddenly pretty in their red-rimmed sockets.
    ‘Yes dear,’ she said warmly. ‘If you weren’t quite the lovely girl you are, he probably wouldn’t be interested.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Katie.
    ‘Oh it wasn’t a compliment, my dear,’ the old woman said, dunking the last of her custard cream. ‘It’s pure economics.’
    The kitchen clock had chimed the quarters four times before Katie finally made her way back through the chilly hall. She had asked Great-Aunt Edna to join them for lunch, as she always did whenever she did her duty visit. And Great-Aunt Edna had smiled and said thank you but no, as she always did whenever asked.
    By the time Katie got back home, her body slushing with tea, Bea was helping Deanna with lunch and there were distinct noises of The Men’s arrival. There were also distinct noises of more than the usual amount of men. Katie glanced out of the hall window and could see at least six making their way to the house for lunch. Her father had brought home eligible guests. At least their presence would stop her mother from pestering her. She bounded down the stairs and made her way into the kitchen.
    ‘Ah, Katie!’ greeted her father enthusiastically. From the swift response from his entourage – she hadn’t seen men swivel round so fast since her brother played bobbing apples at a Halloween party ten years before and walloped Mrs Higginbottom – it became apparent that she’d probably been promised as dessert. Her father approached and gave her a bear-hug.
    ‘Here’s my youngest daughter,’ he told the men, like he was presenting a prize calf. ‘Katie, meet your old dad’s young drinking buddies.’ Katie felt herself being scrutinised by three pairs of well-practised eyes. She knew well enough that to men like this she was somewhat lacking in the most vital criteria. She didn’t have Bea’s Boadicea bearing, her hips were far from child-bearing and her petite frame did not signal a good homely cook. To London men she always felt fine, but to country men she felt like the runt of the family. She murmured something about helping the women, who were so busy adjusting their lunch-time menu to stretch to eight that their movements were almost a blur.
    ‘First,’ said her father, taking Katie by the