Toast & Water

"Here he comes again, your toast and water." The waitress smiled. What was with this man who'd been in 4 times in the past 2 weeks? Surely he did not come in for the food. His order was always the same, whole wheat toast and a glass of water. Fifty-three cents. He'd drop a dollar on the table before leaving. He asked to sit in her section each time, so she'd pretty much figured out that he came in just to see her.

Today she didn't feel much like being social. Her baby was sick. She couldn't afford to take time off. She dropped her off at daycare feeling guilty. Her daughter had cried when she pulled her out of bed and tried to dress her shivering body. Probably running a fever. She shook those thoughts from her head as she approached the table. She mustered up what she thought was a pleasant voice, "hi, how are you today? Toast and water?"

"No, I think all have a couple of eggs." Taken back, she asked, "how would you like those cooked?"

"Hmmm...I don't know. Just a couple of eggs."

Maybe if she'd been in another mindset, she would have put his order in with Over Easy written down. She herself despised eggs with any hint of yellow liquid. But maybe he didn't like scrambled and if someone had given her a runny egg she could not have gagged it down. She was an emotional wreck and was not in a place to make decisions for someone else.

"I have to tell the cook how you want your eggs."

"Alright, how about poached?" Poached? Poached? Ugh! She wanted to tell him that poached eggs were awful, that they took longer to cook, that waitresses hated waiting for poached eggs.

She smiled weakly. "Ok, I'll get that right out." He grinned back at her. She wondered who he was and why he seemed interested. It certainly wasn't her sweet disposition. She wanted to tell him, "I am married, I have a child, so please don't bother coming back." But truthfully, her marriage was over and she knew at some point she would be interested in dating again. For now, she had way too much stress to even think about it and nothing left emotionally to give. Besides, it wasn't as if he'd asked her out on a date. No, the only thing he'd done was frequent the diner. She had nothing to say to him.

"Here you go, hope you like your eggs." She slid the plate of poached eggs towards him.

"I was wondering. How would you like to go to Prescott? We could take my plane and fly up there for lunch."

(To be continued...)
Part Two