ALETHEIA [ON GOING]

16. Thievery, Cheats and Disasters

song: 'Tejano Blue' by Cigarettes After Sex

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After 4 long hours, Sophie and I had finally cleaned the change rooms to the point that not even a speck of dust remained.

I wipe the sweat away from my brow as I collapse onto one of the benches. I close my eyes and I hear a thump next to me as Sophie sighs with exhaustion.

"I swear, if I come back in tomorrow and there's dirt on the floor, I will have a mental breakdown." She mutters. I laugh as she starts to giggle, and I get back up on wobbly legs and offer her a hand.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat." I suggest. She nods enthusiastically as she takes my hand and I pull her up, and we walk back to the front desk.

She collects all of her things as she puts them in her pocket, and I lift a finger up. "Just one minute, I need to take this back."

She nods and sits back down into the chair, moving my blazer onto the desk, as she starts to sign both of us out.

I walk down the corridor as I spot the familiar door, and I push it open as I take the jumper off and fold it, placing it back in the box.

I close the door shut behind me, and give the door at the end of the hallway one last look as I make my way back to Sophie.

"Ready to go?" She asks, and I nod as I put my blazer back on, stuffing my keys, AirPods and phone into the chest pocket.

"Caffè dei fiori?" I ask. "You know me so well." She smiles, and loops her arm through mine as we cross the road and enter, the bell ringing overhead as we push open the door.

The same waitress from the other day smiles at us as we enter, and she walks up to us with a pastel yellow notebook in hand.

"Hi again! Where would you like to sit?" She asks. I turn to Sophie, and she points to the window seats. "The bar stools? Good choice! You get a perfect view of the sunset." She winks, and leads us over as she hands us two dinner menus.

"Just call me over if you need anything." She offers with a smile as she turns around and walks back over to the counter.

"I like her. She's very nice, and I have to ask her where she got those pink shoes from the other day. They were very cute!"

I nod as I look at the menu, and see that today's special was pizza with pineapple on top. "I think I'll get the pineapple pizza, what about you?"

She scrunches her nose as she shakes her head. "Pineapple on pizza is so weird. It's a fruit, you aren't meant to put it on a pizza!" I roll my eyes as I lightly tap her menu.

"Alright, miss judgy, what are you going to get then?" Her eyes rake over the menu, and she smiles as she turns the menu around and points to the plain cheese spaghetti.

"Only cheese? Why not meat?" I ask, and she lifts an eyebrow as if it was an obvious question. "I'm a vegetarian!"

"Seriously?" I ask, as she nods. "Oh. Damn, I need to pay more attention. I guess that makes sense though since I've never seen you eat meat." She rolls her eyes but smiles as we watch the sunset fall over the buildings and the street, and after a few minutes the waitress comes back over.

"Have you lovely ladies decided on what you would like yet?" She asks, bringing her pen to her notebook.

"Yes, we have. I would like today's pineapple pizza with a sprite, please." She nods as she turns to Sophie, and she looks back down at the menu.