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“Here we go.”Still holding my hand, Rick led us to the diner, an unassuming one-story white stucco building with a neon sign above the door that readThe Redwing Diner.
“As you can see, the name isverycreative,” Rick uttered as I snorted.He opened the door.The bell rung to announce our presence, its cheery tinkle making me grin.
“Well, it’s about time you showed your face ‘round here!”a woman called from the counter at the back of the space.
She could have been anywhere between fifty and eighty.Her hair was coloured deep pink streaked with silver, and she wore a bright yellow polo shirt with the diner name embroidered across the left breast.
“Hey, Magda,” Rick called to her.
A younger woman, who Rick introduced as Tori, appeared from a side door.She wore the same polo and a sunny yellow apron around her waist.She greeted Rick and he introduced them to me.
“Nice to meet you, Maddie!You’ve got fantastic hair.So shiny.I’m very jealous.Take a seat anywhere you want, and I’ll bring y’all some coffee,” Tori offered.
Rick led us to a table by the window and passed me a laminated menu as we sat down opposite each other.
I saw that the hot brown was listed as the special, but the diner also offered much of the stuff I’d expect to see at a greasy spoon, as we called them in the UK.Like my favourite greasy spoons, they also offered an enormous, heartburn inducing breakfast, all day.
“What’re you getting?”Rick asked.
I noticed that his hand rested near the middle of the table.Should I take it?I wanted to, but I had a feeling that’d move us further from the friend zone and into the date zone.
“Still the hot brown.You?Will you be able to resist the lure of breakfast for dinner?”
He grinned, and it was irresistible; I was powerless to resist smiling back.“Everyone knows that dinner is thebesttime to eat breakfast.”He grinned lazily.“But I think I’ll have my usual, steak and eggs.”
Tori appeared and set down two yellow porcelain mugs, pouring coffee into them.“Sugar, sweetener, and creamer are on the table.Rick, my grandmalovesthe spindles you made for her staircase.She says they look like they were always there.You made them just how she saw them in her head.”
He beamed, his eyes crinkling at the corners.“I’m happy to hear that.”
Tori turned to me.“How’re you enjoying our little corner of Kentucky?”
“It’s great!To be honest, I needed a break from home.”
She gave me a knowing look.“Well, I sure hope Rick’s takin’ care of you.”
I flushed.“Oh, it’s not—”
“I still remember when he used to wear his underwear on the outside of his pants to play superheroes,” Magda announced from the counter.
I bit my lip to stop from laughing, but the image of a little Rick, superhero-style attire in place, was very cute.
Rick closed his eyes briefly.To Magda he called, “Thanks, Mrs.Kriska.Appreciate the trip down memory lane.”
“You’re welcome,” she called out.
When Tori had scribbled down our order and crossed back to the kitchen, Rick leaned back in his chair.
He was sobroad.
It was hopeless not to be attracted to him.I could feel my strength waning.
I took my time doctoring my coffee to my liking.Rick did the same, and for a moment I observed him as he stirred, watching his arms move, admiring the planes and angles of his face.
“I’m gonna enjoy watching you try your first diner coffee.”
I smiled.“You said the coffee here isn’t bad!”
“It ain’t.Which is why, before you go, I’ve gotta take you to the piece-of-shit diner off Route 65.That coffee’s so strong you can stand a spoon up in it.”
