vignette ~ Wait Up

“Wait up, Madeline, my shoe slipped off my foot!” Sherri quickly got her foot secured, then pushed her purse strap higher onto her shoulder and tried to catch up.

“Sherri, we’ve got to hurry ... we’re losing them!” Madeline dropped her notebook, tried to slow her momentum so as to grab it, then ended up stumbling and dropping her purse, too.

“Here,” said Sherri, stooping down to grab the notebook and the purse. “Let’s go!”

But it was too late.

“Oh, good grief,” whimpered Maddie. “I can’t believe those guys got away. We were so close!”

“Come on,” said Sherri, “let’s go in this place and have lunch. We can see if anyone else looks good. I mean really, how hard should it be to find a guy to practice on?!” She headed into the deli, tripping over her shoe as she crossed the threshold.

Maddie jerked to a stop to keep from running into her and dropped her notebook again. “You know,” she said as she picked up her notebook, “I just don’t get it. I mean, we’re two nice-looking, nice-acting, nice girls and we can’t seem to get any guy interested in us. What is the deal?”

They walked over to a window table, bumping the edge of it as they sat down. “I mean, it doesn’t show, does it? Like, written on our faces or something...” Maddie’s voice trailed off as she grabbed Sherri’s arm. “Look!” she hissed. “Code red -- dark hair, 6 foot 5, great build, no ring. And cute!”

Sherri slowly turned around, looked past the busboy setting water on the table, pretended to look for a waiter, then gasped, froze, and stared.

“What?! What?!” Maddie whispered. “What’s going on? Talk to me or I’m going to have to--”

Sherri spun around, her face white, and proceeded to flip the menu up so that it completely covered her face. “Don’t let him see me, don’t let him see me!”

“Wh--? Uhh, okay. Well, what are you going to have?" Maddie picked up her menu and accidentally bumped her glass of water, knocking it off the table. Water flew everywhere, but it was, after all, just water so it wasn’t a big deal. “Oh god. Well, at least the glass didn’t break.” She bent down to pick it up just as the waitress headed over.

“You gals ready to order?” she said as she took the empty glass. “I’ll bring you more water right away, unless you’d like something else to drink.”

“Actually we’d like just another minute,” said Maddie, smiling up at the waitress who was just nodding good-bye to Code Red as he went past the table.

“I’m ready,” said Sherri who had seen the cute guy heading out and figured she was safe. “I’ll have a ...”

But just then Code Red glanced back at the waitress and happened to notice Sherri. He halted, then came back to the table. “You!” he said angrily.