Shadows of Yesterday

Chapter 14: Making a Deal with the Devil's BFF

I drummed my fingers on the table I'd been sitting at for what felt like an eternity, staring around idly at the other customers chatting and laughing, wolfing down sandwiches and fries like it was their last day on Earth. Most of them had company. 

Must be nice.

A bored sigh escaped me as I leaned forward to rest my head on the cool surface in front of me. My mind wandered back to the phone call that brought me here in the first place:

"Hey, Liam. Are you free?"

He hummed, and when he spoke, his voice sounded more stressed than he probably wanted it to. "Not currently, unfortunately. I'm at the diner. Why, what's up?"

My stomach sank. I hastily moved to hang up the call with a rushed, "Oh, okay then, sorry to bother you. It's nothing, really."

"No, no, tell me what's wrong! Please, I've been waiting to hear from you," I heard his quiet voice say as I pulled the phone away from my ear. 

He was lucky he'd said that so quickly. My finger had been just about to hit the End Call button. 

I hesitantly put the phone back up to my ear, taking a deep breath to try and calm my racing heart. "Okay, well, um..." I had to sit on my hands to prevent myself from fidgeting. Why was this so hard?

"I don't want to take up too much of your time," I started, "I just wanted to... talk. To you. About... About your letter. I guess." My words came out more stilted than I meant them too, and I internally brained myself with a brick. Why couldn't I just talk like a normal person?

I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, "You do? Really? Great! Well, as I said, I'm working right now, but if you're free, I would love to talk when I'm able to get a free moment. We're kinda slammed right now."

My leg started bouncing nervously, despite all my efforts to stop fidgeting. "Okay. Call you later, then?" 

He hummed again. "Actually, I would prefer to talk in person, if you don't mind. I feel like those kinds of conversations should be had face to face. Plus, I'm standing in a freezer right now, and it's really freaking cold. Not really a great place to talk seriously." He chuckled.

That was an hour ago. I'd decided it was a good idea to just head over and wait for him to get off, since it felt like we both wanted to get this conversation over with as soon as possible. I hadn't ordered anything, either, since I didn't have a job in Mirton yet, wasn't allowed to have one in Spokane and was therefore utterly destitute, to put it melodramatically. Little did I know that sitting here with a dead phone and no food--waiting for someone I didn't even really know to have free time--would be akin to Chinese water torture. 

Liam kept emerging from the back of the diner. Sometimes, he was carrying food. Other times, he was carrying supplies. There was even one instance where he was carrying nothing and got whipped on the butt with a towel by one of the male employees as he passed by into the office. No matter what he was doing, I would always see him coming closer, feel myself fill with anticipation and dread, and then immediately deflate when he inevitably returned to the kitchen.

Because of the rush, he'd only found out about my arrival from one of the other employees. Ever since then, he made sure that any waiters delivering food knew to tell me that he was very sorry and still planned to talk to me. I didn't find it very reassuring.

 I knew Mirton's Marvels got busy, but this was ridiculous. 

Several shredded napkins and stacked sugar packets later, he finally plopped down in front of me with a tired groan. "Sorry for the wait," he mumbled. Then, he chuckled quietly and stretched. "Can't tell you how many times I've said that today."