"Eggs and bacon," I replied. "And some coffee."
"Sounds a little....plain."
"Good amount of protein if you’ve been walking all day, plus the caffeine will give you the energy to get back into town," I explained. "And besides, the way Pam does it, nothing’s plain in here, I can tell you."
He grinned.
"How did you know I’ve been walking today?"
"Everyone comes here to hike," I replied, as I nodded to Pam to let her know she could get to cooking. He didn’t seem to be protesting the order I had put in for him too much, and I was going to take that as all the confirmation I needed. "Clue’s in the name. Whisper Falls, right?"
"Guess so," he agreed. "I haven’t made it up there yet. Is it worth the trip?"
"Oh, of course," I replied. "It’s beautiful. Especially this time of year, with all the trees and flowers in bloom."
"I’ll have to add it to my list."
"It’s not far from here," I told him, gesturing out of the door, to where one of the trails that led up to the waterfalls started. "Probably an hour or so to the height of it, but there’s some nice paths that go around a little lower, too."
"Depends how weighed down I am by this dinner," he replied, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
"Guess so."
He paused for a moment, just looking at me, as I tucked my pad back into my apron. I love working with Pam, who orderedthese uniforms. I mentioned to her that they made us look like we belonged in the fifties. She insisted that tourists liked the feel of the place when it was a little old-fashioned. So we were stuck in these red aprons and striped red and white shirts, though thank God she had conceded the point on allowing us to wear slacks, at least.
This guy, for his part, looked far more relaxed, in jeans and a white tee that made his tanned skin look even more rugged beneath the blue light in here. He was handsome, in that classic sort of way; blue eyes, strong jaw, clear skin, some light stubble on his face. Not that I was going to let my mind stray there, because I had put the kibosh on any and all potential crushes for my own wellbeing. I couldn’t be trusted with something as unwieldy as a crush, and the sooner I realized that, the better.
"Might get lost, though, this late in the day," he added, pointing past the large windows, where the orange rays of the setting sun were just beginning to come through the glass. "Could use a guide."
His blue eyes locked with mine, and, for just a moment, all the certainty that I had been hanging on to slipped from my head in a matter of seconds. His cornflower-blue eyes had something to them, a softness, a warmth, that made it hard to think straight, and I had to rush to push down the urge to offer up my help right then and there, before I could stop myself.
"I already run around enough here," I joked, trying to keep my voice light, so the rejection wouldn’t feel too mean. "I don’t think I need to be dragging my butt up mountains after a long shift."
"Point taken," he chuckled, and, just as he replied, Pam mercifully broke the quiet between us and waved me over.
"Here you go," she told me, pushing his plate towards me. "I’ll take care of the last couple orders. You should head off."
"No, it’s okay, I’m meant to be on till nine tonight…"
"I’ll be fine," she assured me, waving a hand. "I’m not totally decrepit yet, you know. Go on, get yourself an early night for a change, you’ve been working every day this week..."
I thought about arguing further, but I could tell she had already made her mind up about how this was going to go. And besides, it would give me time to call Danny before he did whatever it was college students did at nine on a Saturday evening.
"Thanks, Pam," I told her, and I glanced back towards the man I had just been serving, wanting to make sure that he had everything before I took off. "You need anything else?"
"All good," he replied, and I could have sworn that the way his gaze rested on me was a little more weighty than I would have cared to admit to. I knew that look, I recognized it at once; the look of a man who had hit the road looking for an adventure, and felt like he might have found one in the form of the woman standing on the other side of the counter from him. But I wasn’t about to be another game someone like him could play, another fantasy they could tease out while they were adventuring. No, I had a life of my own, and I wasn’t about to put it on hold for a man.
Well. Not again.
"You have a good night," I told the man, and I waved at Pam as I grabbed my coat, stepping out of the diner and drawing in a deep breath of fresh air. See, even after being cooped up all day, there was a part of me that would never get over how good it felt to be here in the stillness and quiet of the town.
These were my favorite parts of the day, when I got a few minutes to myself, outside the demands of customers at the diner and before I had to face up to the mess I had no doubt left behind in my studio apartment when I had left that morning. Sometimes, it felt like my life was nothing more than getting to work and then getting out, but when I could take a second tobreathe deeply and bring myself back down to earth, everything seemed to run a little more smoothly.
I wandered towards the road, glad for the walk home; during the colder months, I would speed back or even call a taxi if I was feeling particularly flush, but right now, I just wanted to check in with Danny. As I walked home through Whisper Falls, I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed up Danny’s number, lifting it to my ear and listening to it ring a couple of times. I wasn’t sure if he would answer, if he would have been too busy with studies or his social life, but-
"Hello?"
"Danny," I greeted him, a grin spreading across my face at the sound of his voice. When I heard him talk like that, it took me back to when we had all been living under the same roof together, before he had left for college three years ago. The way he had studied late into the night in his room, when I would sneak past the door coming back in from work and see light spilling from underneath it, the thrill when he opened the acceptance letter from Auburn University and found out that he had been officially accepted. And the bittersweetness of hugging him goodbye at the door on the day he climbed into his beat-up old car and left, holding Mom’s hand as we watched him drive off to the future he deserved so dearly.
