The diner was busy and smelled like bacon and warm maple syrup and something cinnamon, when Sunny Carter walked in.Her stomach turned over hard enough that she pressed a hand against it to quiet its grumbling.
She'd eaten the heel of the bread that morning so the kids could have the rest.She’d figured a piece of toast would hold her till lunch but seemed considerably less reasonable now, standing in the doorway of a diner that smelled like a county fair.She did the arithmetic she did about forty times a day of how to stretch the meager funds in her bank account until Reno’s next check arrived.
It shamed her deeply that she hadn’t asked him to stop sending the monthly checks when she’d found out who her anonymous benefactor was.But truth was, until she found a job that paid well enough to fully support her and the kids, she needed the checks he’d been sending her every month since her husband died three years ago.
Her bank account had eleven dollars and change to last her three more days.It would cover a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, and the cheap peanut butter.She had a pot of stew in the fridge the family could eat on for two more nights and a box of cereal and enough milk in the fridge to cover breakfasts.They would barely squeak by this month.But she’d had to pay for gas to drive from California to Montana, and until she found a cheap, permanent place to stay, the short term vacation rental they were staying in was expensive.
Her current budget did not include a county-fair breakfast for a grown woman who could let her stomach growl for a few hours.
She slid onto a stool at the far end of the counter away from the door.
An attractive woman behind the counter came over with a coffeepot and a smile that had clearly survived worse mornings than this one."Morning, Hon.What can I get you?"
"One egg, please.Over hard.And one slice of toast.Dry's fine."Sunny had ordering-small down to a science: name a number first, make it sound like a preference and not a ceiling."Just the coffee black."
"Coming up."
What arrived three minutes later was two eggs, three strips of bacon, a mound of grits with a pat of butter sliding off the top, a big patty of fried corned beef hash, and a slice of toast already buttered to the edges.
Sunny looked at the plate in alarm.Looked up at the woman."I ordered one egg."
"You did."The woman smiled and topped off her coffee, unbothered."Kitchen made a mistake, so I guess that’s all yours.Can't put that second egg back in the chicken.”
“But I can’t ..."
“If you don’t eat it, I’ll have to throw it away.I don’t know about you, but I was raised to consider wasting food a sin somewhere up near the top of God’s list."She said quietly, "Extra food's on the house.Go on and eat it before it gets cold."
Sunny's whole body ached to eat the steaming hot meal.Her pride wanted to slide the plate back across the counter and march out with her spine rigid.She’d gotten very, very good, the past few years, at telling apart necessity and pride.Problem was, she had a bad habit of listening to the wrong one.
"I really can't ..."
"Sure you can."The woman picked up the plate and cutlery of a customer who’d just left two stools down from Sunny and wiped down the counter.She had kind eyes and a face that didn't miss much, and she was studying Sunny out the corner of her eye as she worked.
She came back with the coffee pot to stand close to Sunny, who hadn’t taken even a sip of her coffee, yet.It dawned on Sunny that the coffee pot was a prop.An excuse to stand here and chat without other folks noticing them talking.
“My name’s Rose.What’s yours?”
“Sunny.”
"Things tight right now, Hon?"
The question was asked so plainly, but without the slightest hint of judgment, that the careful, well-bred denial Sunny had been issuing to people for three years just dried up in her mouth.She was so tired of lying.So tired of pretending to be fine.
"Yes," Sunny answered honestly."Very tight."
Rose nodded like that was the most ordinary thing in the world."Eat, then.I own this place, which means I get to feed whoever I want however much I want to feed them."
Sunny ate.She tried to do it slowly and daintily, using the manners she’d grown up with.But it lasted about four bites before her hunger caught up with her and she just ate.Rose worked the counter and didn't watch her eat, which was its own kindness.
Somewhere after the eggs and bacon and before she polished off the grits, Sunny felt a hot sting behind her eyes that always came at exactly the wrong moment.It always hit her when somebody was kind instead of when somebody was cruel.
Cruel she could handle.She'd built a whole shell around herself just for dealing with cruelty in the aftermath of the scandal that destroyed her world.
She fought down the tears and barely managed to shove them back under the lid where they belonged.
"You new in town?"Rose asked one of the times she passed by."Or just passing through, making my hash look bad?"
"New.Sort of.I ...got here a few weeks ago."Sunny set down her fork."I'm not entirely sure if I'm staying.That depends on a number of things I don't control."
