Cecelia Ahern Short Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

much love in the room drag her down so much?
    ‘Welcome, sir.’ Her colleague stepped in for her as she made herself busy by crossing out reservations and updating the sheet.
    ‘Hello. A table for one, please.’
    And there it was. The voice she had so desperately needed to hear. The voice of a stranger that would lift her out of her dark spell. Her head shot up, her eyes twinkling with happy tears. She was faced with a man aged what she would guess to be in his mid- to late thirties.
    He looked her way and gave her a small smile. He wore a long navy-blue cashmere coat, with a brown Burberry scarf wrapped around his neck. His hands looked cold as he rubbed them together and glanced around the restaurant. Lucy’s heart danced with delight at the man’s request. A young man. Ordinary-looking. No rings on his fingers.
A table for one!
He had said it proudly, strongly, as if there was nothing at all wrong with it. Lucy loved to hear it roll off his tongue. She wanted to hear it again.
A table for one! Halleluiah
!
    ‘I’m sorry, sir, if you don’t have a reservation I’m afraid we can’t accommodate you,’ her colleague apologized.
    ‘What?’ Lucy snapped, her head turning to face her colleague. It was as if the record she was dancing to inher head had abruptly scratched to a stop.
    ‘Lucy,’ he hissed, pulling her away from the desk and out of earshot of the gentleman. ‘What are you doing?’
    ‘We have one table free,’ she defended herself. She pointed down the restaurant at it. There it was by the window with a beautiful view of the park.
    ‘That’s a table for two,’ her colleague said, dismissing her. ‘We’ll fill that by the end of the night.’ He took a step back towards the desk to the man.
    ‘We’ll fill it now,’ Lucy said far louder and sharper than she had intended.
    ‘Excuse me one moment, sir.’ Her colleague spun around on his heel with a face like thunder, ‘What are you doing? he hissed. ‘Are you mad? We’ll make more money with a table for two.’
    More money. Lucy’s eyes filled with tears. ‘No.’ Her voice shook quietly. No, she couldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t let being alone lose out to being in love. While she was lost in thought she heard the door open, she looked up and saw a couple approaching them.
    ‘A table for two, please.’ The man smiled.
    ‘Do you have a reservation? her colleague asked.
    ‘No, we don’t.’ They smiled stupidly at each other. ‘This was all very last-minute.’ They gazed into each other’s eyes, their fingers entwined.
    ‘Certainly, allow me to take your coats.’ He held out his hands and said very softly to the lone man still waiting at the desk. ‘I’m very sorry, sir, we’re fully booked.’
    Tears spilled over the brim of Lucy’s eyes. She felt the warm salty water run down her cheeks and drip from her chin. No one noticed her. No one ever did.
    She just rattled along, shuddering occasionally through life, doing the same routine, helping people, bringing them from A to B but never joining them, stopping and starting, starting and stopping. Never being allowed to go her own pace or change route.
    Well not this time. She dried her eyes.
    ‘Excuse me, sir?’ she called out loudly to the man pulling the door open.
    He stopped and turned.
    ‘There seems to be a mistake,’ she said politely to the couple before her. ‘This man was here before you and he will be seated at our last table. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, but my colleague was confused.’ She smiled sympathetically at them.
    Her colleague’s jaw dropped and he was faced with the awkward situation of apologizing to the couple.
    ‘Allow me to take your coat, sir,’ Lucy said, eyes shining as she held her hand out to take the lonegentleman’s coat.
    He took her hand in his, it was warm. ‘Thank you,’ he said softly. Lucy blushed.
    ‘You’re welcome,’ she whispered back.
    She took his coat, led him to his table, handed him the menu and