The Secret Of The Works Canteen

A girl was working in a company canteen. It was just a vacation job so that she could make some money before going on to university, and it was hard work, too, but she was loving every minute of it.

Part of her job was to go in early and have the boiler lit and breakfast ready for her colleagues when they got there. She liked the responsibility, and it meant extra money for her, too – but there was just one problem. The boiler was practically impossible to light.

An engineer took pity on her. Every morning he'd be waiting for her at the station, then he'd take her in his car to work, and light the boiler for her. In return she'd make him breakfast, and the two would chat across their steaming mugs of coffee.

She thought he probably just did it out of kindness, but she was hoping desperately that it meant more than that. Fresh from a convent school, she didn't have a clue how to encourage him... and she was sure he was aware of how she felt about him, anyway. He was 7 years older than she was, after all. If he didn't make a move, it surely had to mean he didn't want to.

The weeks passed, and her vacation job was over. The engineer said nothing, and the girl went home and cried herself to sleep.

She went on to university, and it was several years before she heard of him again. She ran into a friend of his, and asked after the boy she'd liked so much - only to be told that he'd died, just recently, in a tragic accident. She was devastated, and asked if he had left a wife and children.

"No," his friend said sadly. "He never even had a steady girlfriend. The only girl he ever cared about was you." The girl was bewildered.

"But he never even asked me out!" she said. The man couldn't meet her eyes.

Embarrassed, he admitted that the workmates of the engineer had teased him mercilessly about his canteen girlfriend, who, they said, was only making use of him and would forget him the moment that she didn't any longer need his help.

Girls on their way to university, they'd said, just don't go out with small-town engineers.

"My own father's an engineer who comes from a small town," she retorted, "and I'm very proud of him!" The man had tears in his eyes.

"We never meant him any harm," he said. "It was intended as a joke, that's all. We never thought he'd take it seriously. When you left, we just assumed you hadn't wanted to go out with him. We never realized that we'd put him right off asking you!"

Once again, the girl went home in tears - not just of grief, but also anger and frustration that they'd both been too inhibited and shy to go for what they'd so much wanted.

Worse still, they'd both gone right on thinking far too lowly of themselves to dare make contact later, even though she realized now he must have wanted to as much as she did... and there was no way now that it could ever be put right.

If shyness puts you off going after what you really want, check out Supreme-Success.com and find out how you can reveal your true, dynamic self.