I wasn’t sure if those fond memories were enough for me to reach out to herthough.
ChapterFive
Katie
“It’s actually pretty simple,once you get the hang of it,” my trainer said. Not that there was an official training program for this hole in the wall. But my dad’s friend, the owner of the place, stuck us together because we were similar in age and she was supposedly the most patient employeehehad.
Her name was Gwen and she had moved here from California a couple years before. We had missed each other by a matter of years, but I could instantly tell I was going to like her. She took a few minutes to get to know me before we started our shift. She had lots to say about Disney, considering both of us had lived in states that had the amusement park. We playfully argued over whether or not the West coast or East coast park was better. Honestly, I never was a huge Disney geek, but it was fun to jokearound.
Plus, Gwen had moved here recently enough that she was sympathetic to the insecurities I faced being new. I was gratefulforthat.
Even though I had grown up in this town, I was realizing I had left at a pretty crucial time. People had found themselves and fallen into their cliques while I was gone. Not only that, a good portion of the people my age were getting ready to move away forschool.
Not Gwen though. She was going to be making the drive to Boise State during the week while living at home with her parents. Another thing I was grateful for. I hoped this meant we would end up beingfriends.
We walked around the diner, while she showed me all the things in the dining area. Or what they referred to as the front of the house inrestaurants.
“So like I was saying, basically everything on the menu is the same thing with just a few modifications. Take a menu home to study.” She handed one to me. It was ratty and had a grease mark on the front, but that was part of the charm of thisplace.
“You’ll literally have it down by tomorrow,” Gwen assured me. “It’s basically burgers with fires or onion rings. Plus, the table numbers are a no brainer. Starting on this side they’re in order from one to twenty. When you take an order, just make sure you write the table number at the top. You bring it to the cooks over there,” she pointed to the kitchen, “and voila, the magichappens.”
She made it sound so simple, but there was so much more to it than bringing out food. There were secret codes for everything. For example, chicken wasn’t chicken, but insteadchkn.You needed to make sure you went back to a table after they’d had a chance to take a couple bites to make sure everything was right. There was a ton of side work to be done at any given moment. My head was spinning from theinfodump.
“Look,” she said nodding over to what I thought was table five. “He’s a friend of mine and his order should be simple enough. Let’s go over together and I’ll let you take hisorder.”
I took a deep breath and rubbed my sweaty palms over the apron tied at my waist. One person, it wasn’t a big deal. I could totally do it. I walked over to the table with the brightest smile I couldmuster.
“Hi, my name is Katie and I’ll be taking care of you today. Can I get you something to drink?” I recited the script Gwen had given meearlier.
The guy at the table looked up at me with a friendly smile. He had brown hair, cut short and styled in a way that made him look like he might have just rolled out of bed. He wore a simple tee and shorts combo, but the way he sat in the booth exuded confidence. I thought I recognized him, but couldn’t place a name. I pushed my lips together before asking, “Do Iknowyou?”
His smile faded and his face took on a look of concentration so intense you would have thought he was diffusing a bomb. He must have recognizedmetoo.
“Katie,” he said my name slowly, not taking his eyes off of me. But suddenly, his brows shot up, his eyes widened. The smile returned. “KatieLynch?”
“Yes!” I said excitedly as his first name finally popped into my own mind. “And you’re Mitch, right? Mitch…” I trailed off trying to remember hislastname.
“Barber,” he finished for me. His contagious smile was so broad it showed off deep dimples on either side of his mouth. This was a far cry from the boy I remembered from middle school. He had been short and stalky then, obviously not having hit his growth spurt. I remembered him wearingglasses.
“Where are your glasses?” The words came out before I had a chance to stop them and I felt sillythatwas what I said to him after so manyyears.
“Where are his glasses, she asks?” He said theatrically to Gwen, confirming it was indeed a weird thing to say. “The girl hasn't seen me in years and the first thing that comes from her mouth is about my glasses. Come on, Katie. They’re called contacts!” He still had the goofy grin on his face. I smiled back despite myembarrassment.
“You guys know each other?” Gwen finallyjumpedin.
“Yeah,” Mitch answered for me. “Katie used to live here before she realized she couldn’t handle the awesomeness coming offofme.”
“Something like that,” I said under my breath inresponse.
“Don’t be shy, everyone wants a piece of Mitch,” hecontinued.
I didn’t know how to respond to that, and Gwen just shook her head at him and mumbled something I didn’t quite catch. Our responses just made Mitch’s smile growwider.
“Fine, maybe not everyone. But I’m so close to breaking through Gwen’s hard exterior,” he said holding his thumb and forefinger close together. Gwen reached over and spread them apart. He laughed it off. “Okay, but in all seriousness, where didyougo?”
“My parents got divorced.” I explained with a shrug of my shoulder. “I moved to Florida withmymom.”
“Do you come back for college? Are you going to BSU like meandGwen?”
