Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 148: Last Day

Chapter 148: Last Day

Emily was officially working her final shift at Bee’s diner. Earlier she had come in to work thirty minutes before she was supposed to. All so that she could catch the manager before he left. When she had handed the man her resignation letter he had read it with a sorrowful look in his eyes. And then once he had been done with it, he had looked up at her.

"You were one of the best night shift waitresses that this diner has ever had. I am sad to lose you. Is there anything else I can do to make you reconsider your decision?" He had asked, and Emily had shaken her head.

And the man, clearly used to waitresses’ quitting, had not tried to follow it up some more. Instead, he had simply accepted the letter and nodded.

Now Emily was in the middle of what would be the last time that she ever set foot in Bee’s diner as a worker there.

Thanks to her sleeping problem, Emily had quit a lot of jobs. She had quite a bit of experience when it came to that. But one thing that she had found to be consistent was that there was a certain feeling when it came to quitting. There was just something about the last shift, or working off the two weeks notice that was required in order to leave a job that just felt different. All of the things that used to bother you about the place. Suddenly did not seem so bad. Emily had had that feeling come over her in the majority of the various places that she had worked at. And as it turned out, Bee’s diner was no different.

Coming into work night after night, Emily had not really been interested in anything at the diner. After all, it was hard to get excited over the same walls, same furniture, tables and chairs arranged in one particular way each and every single night. But now that she knew that she would not be coming back.

The whole place just looked different. It had a new feel to it. Logically, Emily knew that everything was as it had always been. The only thing that had changed was her. She was seeing things with rose colored glasses now because she would not be seeing it ever again.

And her rose-colored glasses theory was proven to be true when the police walked in. Normally, Emily always served them while feeling a low-level irritation, at their crude remarks and their entitled attitudes. But now, as she took their orders and gave them their food, when Emily smiled at them, the smile was genuine. It was not a smile that said that she was happy to see them, but it was one that said she was happy to be seeing them for the last time. Something that she was pretty sure that most of them would take offense to. But since they could not read her mind, she kept on smiling at them.

Some of them even returned the smile. Even if the ones that they gave her looked very fake and practiced, like they had spent hours in the mirror learning how to smile charmingly.

Most likely there were even some in the group who thought that Emily smiling at them was the result of all the little games that they had been playing over the past few weeks finally paying off. Emily had to suppress the scoff that was building up in her throat at that thought.

Did people really think calling somebody sweet buns and sweet cheeks and sugar in a condescending manner counted as something that could lead to anything positive? Looking over at some of them, she realized that they probably did. Thank goodness she never had to deal with this again. And so she continued with her job, serving them until they left.

Once they were gone she carried on. For a while longer, a steady stream of customers coming in. Somewhere around three in the morning, the customers tapered off and Emily took the chance to go and say goodbye to the stone-faced cook. Good old, unsmiling Ben, she was going to miss him.

When she entered the kitchen he turned to her, obviously expecting her to be bringing an order, but when he saw that her hands were empty he gave her a look.

"Relax Ben, I’m not here to give you more work," She told him and he raised a brow, silently asking why she was there then. "I take it you know that today is my last shift, right?" He nodded, looking unbothered.

"I came to say goodbye,"

He shrugged, unaffected. Good old Ben. Emily really was going to miss him.

The man was so stoic he might as well have been carved out of granite. He was just about to turn back to his workstation when Emily decided to do something impulsive. Darting into his personal space, she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. He froze at first, his whole body going tense.

And then, wonder of wonders, in a brief move so fast that had Emily not been paying attention, she would have missed it. His arms came up and he hugged her for a short moment before letting her go. Sensing that he was now getting uncomfortable, she let go of him.

"See you around, Ben," She told him. And with that, she left the kitchen and went back up front.

When she had come in, she had left her resignation letter with the manager, but the one that she had written for her regulars was still burning a hole in her pocket. She really hoped that one of them managed to make it that night, so that she could give it to them personally. But if they did not, she was going to have to go back into the kitchen and give it to Ben.

He would be the one to say her goodbyes for her. And knowing him, he would probably throw it at whoever it was who came in. Like it was some sort of threat, and then march back into the kitchen. It was funny to think about, but Emily did not want it to end that way. She wanted to at least see one of her regulars.

But as the time ticked away and it got closer and closer to her knocking off, Emily began to wonder if she would ever see them again.

But she need not have worried. Just after four in the morning, Miss Beth came in. Her laugh at the door signalling her presence even before the doorbell could jingle. Keeping it professional, Emily did not say anything at first.

Instead she made sure that Miss Beth got the best service ever. And only once the old woman was done and was getting ready to leave, did Emily give her the letter. She stared from the letter to Emily and then back again. "I have heard of people giving envelopes with bribe money in them, but in all of my time I never thought that I would see bribery coming from a waitress at Bee’s diner to little old me," She said, a twinkle in her eye and it was Emily’s turn to speak.

"This is my goodbye, Miss Beth. I’m going back to my old job, but I did not want to leave all of you without at least giving you something to remember me by. Do not open it now. I know that you guys have now become friends. Read it together. It is not much, but it shows how deeply all of you, impacted me," She said.

Miss Beth, who had been all cheerful at first, now had tears in her eyes. And the next thing Emily knew, she was the one being hugged out of the blue. She returned the hug fiercely. It lasted way longer than what was considered normal.

But when they broke apart, it still did not feel as though it was enough.

"I take it you are going back to that young man of yours," Miss Beth said with a wink, and Emily took a startled breath. What? Miss Beth had only ever seen Derek that one time. How could she think that?

"Please, do not give me that look. I know young love when I see it. Go after your man and do not let anything stand in your way," Miss Beth finished. And after one more hug, she was gone, leaving Emily stunned.

Young love? What was she on about? Emily and Derek were professionals. That was all. They worked together. There was no love there. Shaking her head to dislodge the thoughts Emily went to stand by the counter, waiting. A few minutes after five, Derek showed up. He looked nervous, and somehow his nervousness transferred over to Emily. After having known that she would be going back to Haven Group the whole day, now she suddenly felt nerves that she had no idea how to deal with.

When he took a seat, she took the one that was opposite it, and they stared at each other.

"Well, what is your decision?" He asked, and Emily shrugged. She tried to speak, but the words would not come, and the longer she stayed quiet, the more nervous Derek seemed to become, his whole body going as still as a statue. Finally, after opening and closing her mouth a few times with no results, Emily decided to do something else. She grabbed a napkin from the table and pulled out a pen from her pocket. Then she wrote down her answer, flipped the napkin over and pushed it over to Derek’s side. He picked it up, looked at it and then looked back at it, but the simple word that she had written on the napkin did not seem to be registering.

Derek did not seem to understand that she had written yes on the tiny napkin. All that he seemed to be able to do was look back from the napkin, to her, and then down at it again.