Tuesday 13 May 2014

Decisions - a bonus story

He sat in the restaurant staring at the menu trying to make head or tail of the food on offer, there were some pictures and some words but mostly just indecipherable Chinese symbols that left him with a sense of dread. Even with the visual aids and his phrase book he couldn’t work it out. The food looked exotic, mysterious, but most importantly inedible. He'd already shooed the waitress away twice, surely next time he'd have to order. His friends called him ‘one meal’ because he always ordered the same thing when they went out together back at home - chicken in breadcrumbs and chips. He was a bit more adventurous when he cooked for himself but when he was out he knew what he liked and he liked to know what he was getting. The waitress approached him again, she was petite and pretty, her black-rimmed glasses framing perfect dark eyes. She smiled a smile he'd usually have noticed but the panic over the food left him numb. He felt  sweat form on his brow as she approached - it was now or never.
He had a word with himself, he was being pretty silly, he was on holiday, hungry and now was surely the chance to show he wasn't so conservative. He took a deep breath, smiled at the sweet girl in the glasses and pointed to the fifth item on the menu; random, ruthless and so unlike him.
He felt great, a real sense of pride, he'd broken the mould. He wondered what he was going to get, it could be anything. He watched the kitchen door like a hawk, he'd gone from trepidation to anticipation in a matter of seconds. Food went to all four corners of the restaurant before finally the pretty waitress headed in his direction. She said something which he presumed was ‘enjoy your meal’ and then beat a retreat. Alan looked down at his food and let out a laugh, simultaneous waves of relief and disappointment flooded his mind as he tucked into his dinner with gusto - 
chicken in breadcrumbs with chips.

1 comment:

  1. The only failure is never to try.. you'll be feel alive on the change's road not in the end even when instinctively choose to go back to your comfort zone. Enjoy breaking the mould while nobody gets hurt

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