The Aftermath

Chapter 12

Riley's POV

Mondays are always the hardest days of the week.

I have to leave my weekend and go back to work, dealing with picky, rude customers and leaving my daughter.

"Mommy, I don't feel well." Addison tells me. I feel her forehead.

"You don't have a fever, and you look perfectly fine. So stop faking and finish getting ready." I sigh.

"I'm sick! I know I'm sick! I feel like I'm dying!" She exclaims, flopping onto the couch.

"Addison, I don't have time for this! I'm going to be late and so are you if you don't get ready." I warn her. She pouts but gets off of the couch and continues to get ready.

I had spent the majority of last night crying when I got home from James's.

I guess I had to finally come to reality that James never loved me. Even if I hate him, I still liked to think that there was someone that actually did love me.

~~~~

I buffed off one of the tables as the work day was coming to an end. I only have to work another half hour, and then I'm free to go home.

I hear the door open and I glance up and see him.

He comes to the restaurant almost every afternoon and order a coffee. He always sits at the same seat at the long diner counter. He is cute...But I don't even know his name.

I stop in front of one of the decorative mirrors to check my hair before serving him. But just as I'm about to walk over to him, James walks in.

"Riley, I'll serve that young man there, and you take the one that just walked in. Okay?" My co worker Deanne says sweetly. I fake my sweetest smile and nod.

"Sure." I reply through gritted teeth. I try my best to look the least agitated as I was and walk over to James.

"What can I get you?" I sigh. He looks up, a huge grin on his face.

"Hey Riley. How are you?" He asks.

"What can I get you?" I ask again.

"Um, just a regular coffee, thanks." He replies. I scurried to the back, poured up his cup and walked back.

"Here." I mutter, laying the mug down in front of him.

"Thanks." He replies. "Do I pay now or after?"

"Doesn't matter." I reply.

"Well, here." He says, laying a fifty dollar bill down. "That includes the tip."

"James, this is almost a forty five dollar tip. I'm not taking it." I tell him.

"Well I'm not taking it back either, so figure out what you're going to do with it." He replies.