The crowd at the counter was uncomfortably calm. Danni and I were doing our best to keep up the cheerful
facade that hides our complete indifference towards
our work, Danni is far
better at it than me.
She appeared from nowhere at the far left of the counter, slyly
avoiding waiting in line.
"Good afternoon."
I make a small effort to smile, I wonder how sincere I really look.
"Oh, Hi."
Ugh, she's taken a piece of Hot Cross Bun from the taster box before speaking, I hate that. She covers her mouth with her hand, and I can see her eyes are smiling, but only at herself. She does that bob-the-head-from-side-to-side-and-roll-the-eyes thing people do, as though they're trying to chew with their whole head. You're chewing, I get it. Now she's making the "just a second" gesture, but I've hardly noticed any of this; I've realised that I know this girl.
"Take your time."
PLEASE don't take your time. Oh thank god, she's finally finished chewing.
"Could I have a danish square please?"
She's pointing at them, pointing from the wrist; usually that annoys me, but she makes it graceful somehow (does she practice these things?). It's a hot Autumn day, but she's dressed like she just stepped in from the streets of Reykjavík. I've always liked it when women show less skin (I'm shocked to see so many girls not covering up their ankles these days, it's disgraceful).
"Sure."
I reach for a paper bag, but it won't separate from the others. I glance at her for a moment; I'm still trying to figure out who she is.
"That's $2.80 change, then. No, wait, just $2.80." I start mumbling. "You know what I mean."
Idiot. You're just lucky your face can't get any redder, or you'd look like a pimply tomato.
She chuckles as I pass her the danish and she passes me a $20 note. She has quite a deep voice, relatively speaking; I've always liked that in a woman (Squeaky voices are like nails on a chalkboard to me). I'm fumbling with the change, the $2 coins are right in the back corner of the drawer (whose bright idea was that?). I've taken to working out the change in my head, rather than letting the till tell me (I'm a regular Will Hunting, I am).
"OK, so that's $17.20 change."
My fingers brush her palm as I hand the change to her.
"Thanks."
I finally realise who she is. She's my dream girl. I've known her for as long as I can remember, but I haven't seen her in 6 years. I'm not sure exactly how old she is, but I suppose she must be in her early-mid-twenties by now. She wasn't my dream girl 6 years ago; but after I stopped seeing her, I thought about her constantly for a long time. Sometimes I would find myself speaking to her when I was alone in my room. You're just crazy, that's all. In my mind she became perfect, and she was all I wanted. Many times I imagined what I would say to her when I saw her (something devastatingly charming), and now she was right in front of me.
"Have a nice afternoon."
She turned and left, and I said nothing more. I should've said something, I could've at least called her by name, but I didn't. I wanted to watch her leave, to see her hair sway as she walked away, but I was already moving on to the next customer (the man with Palsy who buys a date scone every day). I didn't even think about her for the rest of my shift.
Maybe it wasn't even her, maybe I was just projecting onto some stranger. What would she be doing in Armidale anyway? As last I heard, she was in Sydney, at university. Maybe she was just passing through? Who knows. When I got home, I asked Mum if she could describe her for me (I once told Mum about my obsession with her, which was a bad choice). It all matched; the height, the hands (slender and dexterous), the age, everything. She was somewhat different to how I remembered her, but only in small ways. Her hair was wavy where it once was straight, and she had a rounder face than I recall; but my memory is less than perfect. I told myself that I was wrong, that it couldn't be her, but I wasn't convinced.
In a way I'm glad she didn't recognise me, because it would've been unfortunate to lose my dream girl in exchange for a real one.