You can all thank @peonybooks for the early update.  I have decided to post smaller chapters more often instead of one long chapter each week.  Enjoy!

 Kayla's P.O.V.     

        “Table 43’s full order is ready.  Kayla where are you?” A voice shouted as I rushed through the double doors into the kitchen at Burt’s Steakhouse.  I was in the middle of my second shift that night and I was exhausted.

               “Sorry I’m here.  Tracy some kid puked in our section can you get that please, I’ve got an impatient elderly couple who are going to flip if I don’t have their liver and onions, ew, out in the next thirty seconds” I begged my perky blonde coworker.

               “I’ll handle it, but only because you cleaned up last time” Tracy hip bumped me on my way out of the kitchen.  I served the elderly couple with that “Burt smile” and hurried to my next table, as I turned around my jaw dropped.  Who had just walked into Burt’s, of course Jake Mitchells along with three other football players and four girls wearing shorts that barely qualify as shorts.  And of course where did they sit, right smack dab in the middle of my section.  Could this get any worse or more predictable?  I swear I have the worst luck sometimes.  Tracy was still cleaning up kid vomit, so I had no choice but to go wait on their table. 

Jake and I had been teammates for three weeks, we had won all three of our games and were getting along great.  He was funny, he worked hard, and understood how I could be a little overly controlling sometimes.  He was great with Charlotte, he didn’t treat her like a little kid, and we had a lot of fun together, but we always avoided discussing school and our friends and stuff.  It was kind of nice keeping our two worlds separate.  That whole unspoken plan of ours just became a lot more complicated.

               “Welcome to Burt’s Steakhouse, my name is Kayla and I’ll be your server this evening” When Jake heard my name his head snapped up.  He seemed shocked to see me, but I mean come on there are two steakhouses in town, he had to know the odds were pretty high he would see me here.  I waited for his reaction.

               “Hey Kayla, I’ll have a Burger with everything on it and mashed potatoes instead of the fries” As soon as Jake said mashed potatoes we both started laughing.  After our win the previous Saturday we picked Charlotte up from Day Camp and the three of us went out for lunch afterwards.  Charlotte got all flustered when the waitress insisted she couldn’t have mashed potatoes as her whole meal, it could only be a side.  Charlotte thought this was ridiculous and accused the waitress of being racist toward mashed potatoes.  She spent a solid ten minutes ranting about how mashed potatoes are an independent food and can be perfectly delicious on their own.  She got into a huge fight with the waitress and she started using all of these big words that I had no idea she knew, it was hilarious.  After a minute I realized all of Jake’s friends were giving us weird looks.

               “Do you two know each other?” Tyler Barrett asked.  The only reason I knew his name was because Paige thought he was “dreamy and perfect”, her words not mine.

               “Oh, well we are-“ I started to explain.

               “We were in the same biology class freshman year.  Right Kayla?” Jake interrupted me.  His eyes pleaded for me to agree with him.

               “Yeah right.  I mean we really don’t know each other at all” I responded pointedly.  I took their orders and left. 

What the heck was Jake’s problem?  Did he really need to lie to his friends about being my doubles partner?  It’s like I was some embarrassing secret or something.  What a two- faced jerk.  Just because he was some big shot on the football team, and he might be slightly attractive didn’t mean he could wiggle his way into my life and pretend we were actually friends just to ignore me in public.  This is why I didn’t open up to new people, you can’t trust them to stick around.

Tracy must have noticed the deep scowl etched into my face because she offered to take over that table for me.  She’s a saint.

               By the end of the night I was still ticked off, and even more exhausted, but I was $50 richer and I was looking forward to going home, taking a long hot shower, and cuddling up with my beloved Netflix.

               I was watching Bridesmaids and facetiming Paige when there was a soft knock on my door.  Charlotte’s head peeked around the door, which would be completely normal if her head wasn’t six feet in the air.  The door opened wider and there was Charlotte, sitting on Jake’s shoulders.

               “Kayla look at me!  I’m flying” Charlotte was giggling and had a huge smile on her face.

               “I see that, you’re an airplane!  Why don’t you go see if Mom needs some help with the dishes since you’re the world famous dish dryer” I tried to pretend like Jake being in my room wasn’t completely throwing me for a loop.

               “I am the world’s best dish dryer and don’t you forget it” Charlotte climbed down from Jake’s shoulders, gave him a hug, struck a pose, and ran down the hallway.

               “Hey Kayla, sorry for barging in like this, your mom let me in.  Can we talk?”  Jake made himself at home and sat down on my beanbag.

               “What did you want to talk about?  How you pretended not to know me when your friends were around?  Why?  Because I was your waitress?  You know some of us have to work Jake and I’m not ashamed of that so I don’t get why you are.  My bad, sorry I thought we were friends.  I don’t like to play games Jake and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t drag Charlotte into your lies too” I don’t know why his stupid lie bothered me so much, I was just sick of trusting people and having them let me down.

               “You think I’m embarrassed of you?  Kayla no no no that’s not what happened at all.  I have a job too.  I’m a lifeguard down at the town pool whenever I’m not at practice with you.  I can’t believe you think I’m embarrassed to be friends with you.  Why would I?  You’re basically perfect at everything, if anything you should be embarrassed of me.  I didn’t tell my friends we were teammates because no one besides Tyler knows I play volleyball.  Everyone is so involved in my football life, volleyball is the one thing that’s just mine and I like keeping that world separate.  You know?”  In the middle of his little speech Jake had started pacing the room with his hands in his pockets.  He was scratching the back of his neck and he wouldn’t look me in the eye.

               It may sound a little evil, but it was nice seeing him flustered for once.  He was always so smooth and easy going during conversations (and life), it was nice to know he was human and got shaken sometimes like the rest of us.

               “Trust me, I get it.  I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions” I felt like such an idiot.

               “No you were right.  I should have handled it better.  So we’re cool?” The idiot still looked nervous for some reason, which was hilarious.

               “Yeah we’re cool” I smiled and then chucked a pillow at his head.  He of course attacked me and a full on pillow fight ensued.  Before I knew it Charlotte had joined the fight and we had both dog piled onto Jake until he surrendered.  If I ever got into a fight I would definitely call my six year old sister for back up.

Hmmm looks like the unlikely duo ran into a bit of a rough patch.  How do you think they handled it?  I wonder what makes Kayla so defensvie when it comes to situations like this?  And i mean come on how cute is Charlotte? 

Please comment and let me know what you think!  And don't forget to vote, it always helps encourage me to write faster and update sooner!