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But I looked back down at the glass I was holding full of light brown liquid, nowhere near the color it should have been, and glanced helplessly over to the table of businessmen that were looking down at their menus. A small bit of panic was starting to edge in, making my hands tremble just slightly. There had to be a simple explanation, right? I had never worked in a diner before or anywhere that served drinks. The small bookstore I worked at didn’t even sell coffee.
“Hey, hun. How’s it going?” One of the other waitresses, a few years older than me, sidled up next to where I was standing in front of the soda dispenser, grabbing a glass to fill with ice.
I looked back down at my glass. “Uhh…”
“Oh, it looks like the Coke is out. Come on, and I’ll show you how to replace the syrup.” She smiled, turning around and walking to the swinging door that separated the kitchen from the dining room.
I sat the glass down next to the machine and hurried after her, relief washing over me. I had been nervous ever since I arrived. Changing into the t-shirt with the diner’s logo felt like entering an arena filled with lions that I would have to survive. I knew I was being overly dramatic, but I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. All I could picture was having to tell the guys that I couldn’t cut it as a waitress and would need to find a different job. That I had let Grace down. After everything they had done for me, and the kindness Grace had shown me, I was determined to succeed and scared to death that I would screw up.
The other woman, Mandy, I think her name was, opened a door to a room I hadn’t been in yet, revealing shelves of supplies. There was everything in there, from ketchup bottles and napkins to extra plates, stacked neatly and orderly. The industrial metal shelves filled the three walls, and there seemed to be enough supplies to allow an entire restaurant full of people to survive an apocalypse for a month.
At the bottom of one of the shelves were several brown boxes, each with labels of different types of sodas. She went straight for the one markedCokeand grunted when she slid the box out and hefted it into her arms.
“This is where the extra cases of syrup are. And, well, everything else we might need if we run out up front.” I glanced at a large box of sugar substitutes and hummed my agreement. “Alright, let’s get this bad boy hooked up, shall we?”
“Do you want me to carry that?” I offered, watching her grunt again as she elbowed her way through the door. I quickly followed her, shutting the storage room door behind us.
“Nah, it’s not that bad. I’ve done this lots of times.”
She was through the swinging door and back into the dining room, with me following behind her like a lost puppy, wringing my hands. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how. All I could do was watch helplessly as she dropped the box on the counter and turned to the soda machine.
Grace walked by as Mandy was opening the metal doors to the bottom of the machine.
“Oh, I was planning on checking the levels today. I guess we finally ran out of something, huh?” She gave me a smile and a wink as she grabbed a couple of coffee cups in one hand and a pot of coffee that I had just brewed a few minutes before. “You’re doing great, Casey. Keep up the good work.”
I gave her a wan smile back and looked down to see Mandy doing something with one of the boxes that were stacked on shelves I didn’t even know were under the machine. She handed me the old box that felt empty and gestured to the new one behind us.
“Can you hand that one to me?” I sat the empty box down, exchanging it for the surprisingly heavy one that we had just retrieved from storage. I let out my own grunt as I held it out to her and watched in fascination as she did something with a tube. It happened so fast, and I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to tell someone what she did if asked and bit my lip, hoping that this wouldn’t be a common occurrence.
“There! See? Easy peasy. Now you can do it next time.” She stood up and closed the door before wiping her hands on a towel. I watched as she dumped the glass I had filled a few minutes ago and put it back under the dispenser. There were several spurts of the clear liquid, and then, like magic, it turned brown again. She dumped that one too, then set the glass aside, grabbing fresh glasses and quickly, efficiently filling the three with ice and finally with soda that looked perfectly fine.
I sighed with relief and thanked her for her help. I hurriedly filled the drink orders for the table of businessmen. I wasn’t taking orders just yet. I was simply helping around the dining room where I could, filling drink orders, refilling coffee cups, and bringing whatever items the customers were asking for. It wasn’t difficult work, but I had a newfound gratitude for the work that servers did.
I walked over to the table with a small tray of drinks, nowhere in the same league as Grace’s, who could carry all four glasses in her hands without spilling a drop. I smiled a fake smile at the table of men who didn’t pay me much attention, instead continuing their conversations as if I weren’t there. I was perfectly okay with being invisible. It hadn’t occurred to me that I might have to talk to these strangers. It wasn’t helping my anxiety any, constantly studying the men that walked in. Wondering if one of them might be a serial killer waiting to pounce.
The bell over the door jingled, and instinctively, I looked up to see Brent stroll in. I could barely contain the relief and the giddy feeling at seeing him. He was dirtier than he had been that morning. His blond hair was mussed up as if he had been running his hand through it repeatedly. I thought of him wearing a hard hat while carrying heavy equipment, hammering or sawing, and swallowed back the little wave of heat that zinged through my belly. He looked around the room, his eyes stopping once he saw me, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a grin. The look in his eyes said he was as happy to see me as I was him.
I nervously ran my hands over the apron I had tied around my hips and broke eye contact, looking over his shoulder. I tried not to let the disappointment at seeing him alone get to me. I looked back at him to see he was walking straight to me, that grin still turned up. When he reached me, he didn’t pause, just bent down and kissed my cheek. I could have sworn he lingered there just a second longer than was necessary before straightening back up.
“How’s our girl doing on her first day at work?”
I laughed nervously and glanced around to see several curious eyes on us. “I haven’t broken anything… yet.”
“That’s good, dollface. Just relax. You’ll be fine, I promise.” He stood there staring down at me, and I fidgeted with my hands, feeling awkward.
“Do you want a table?” I wanted to facepalm myself. Of course, he wanted a table. It was his lunchtime, and he came to the diner. His smile widened, showing off his straight white teeth. The sight was mesmerizing, and I swayed slightly toward him, pulled into his orbit. He really was one of the most gorgeous men I had ever seen.
“Yeah, dollface. Why don’t you walk me to my table?” He gestured his head to the same table he had sat at the first day I had seen him, the one closest to the kitchen and the hallway to the restrooms.
“Oh, okay. Do you want a menu?” I was nervous. Thrown off-kilter by the soft kiss he had given my cheek. I couldn’t explain the need to show him I was a competent worker, but it was there nonetheless.
He chuckled softly, walking with me to his seat, and I shivered slightly at the heat of his hand at my back leading me. He slid into the booth and grinned up at me, those mossy green eyes sparkling with mirth. I stood next to the table, staring down at him for a long beat before shaking myself out of the daze his eyes had put me in.
“Do you, ah, want something to drink?”
“Why don’t you sit with me? Have you had a break yet?” He looked me up and down as if he were looking for signs of fatigue.
“Oh, umm…” I looked over at Grace, who was walking past with an arm full of plates steaming with food.
