Pancakes at The Diner (on pause)

04: In Which Monique Cleans Up

It's hard for Monique to focus after Milo leaves her table. She has her laptop open to her newest project, the sounds of The Diner at the perfect pitch, and a brand new cup of steaming hot coffee, courtesy of the chef. But she finds herself watching Milo instead, how he moves around the room, how he interacts with the customers.

She's been watching him for months, but now she has a name, something to call him other than simply "waiter". Monique is proud of herself, proud that she didn't act like a complete fool during their first ever conversation.

He catches her eye, and she snaps her head down so fast she feels it might break. It all feels so very middle school, hanging around an unattainable crush in the hopes that they'll strike up a conversation, but too scared to begin one. Truthfully, Monique is kind of glad Milo knocked over her mug. She'd never have gotten the courage to talk to him otherwise.

She returns her attention to the task in front of her. Monique has been employed with a freelance graphic design agency all of six months, and they're finally starting to give her interesting projects. This one is from a restaurant somewhere in New York, fairly simple. She has to revamp their old logo and make it compatible with both the menu and the cheese they apparently sell.

Adobe Illustrator is by far her favorite program. She loves them all, truthfully, but feels Illustrator allows her more freedom. Every click, line, color adjustment calms her nerves. The more she gets into it, the easier it is to ignore the fact that Milo is still walking around the restaurant, being his usual adorable self. Turn the green one shade bluer, widen the border, it becomes a rhythm. Her coffee decreases by the minute, and soon, it's dark outside.

When she finally returns her attention to the room, she realizes she's the only customer left. No, that's not quite true. There's a boy, taller than her, but that's not unusual. Everyone's taller than her. He looks about high school age, and Monique frowns, unsure why he looks so familiar.

The chef, a large, intimidating sort of woman steps out of the kitchen with Milo by her side. "It's closing time," she says, words slurring together. "You either have to leave, or help us close up."

The boy stands, his thin legs knocking together. "I can help."

The chef looks him up and down. "Don't you have somewhere to be on a Saturday night? Some wild high school party?"

The boy shrugs. "Not really."

"I'll help too!" Monique hears herself saying, cursing the fact that she'd do anything to spend more time with Milo, even close up a restaurant. Monique hates cleaning, so much so that her roommate has often threatened her with an ultimatum: "clean your side of the apartment or so help me god I'll find someone else to live with."

"Why, at this rate we'll close up in half the usual time!" the chef beams. "Wonderful. You there, party boy, go pull up the chairs with Milo."

The other customer looks startled. "Is that me?"

"It will be, until you give her a name," Milo says. "For weeks she called me 'Waiter Number Three'."

"It's Gregory," the boy says softly, but the chef has already walked back into the kitchen.

Monique holds out her hand. "I'm Monique. Nice to meet you."

Gregory gives a slight smile and takes her hand. "Yeah."

"Now that we're all acquainted, let's get to work," Milo says, glancing at his watch. "I'd love to be done by 10:30, but that's optimistic."

"What should we do?" Monique asks.

Milo's eyebrows furrow as he pushes his glasses back up on his nose. "Gregory, you and Monique start putting up the chairs. I'll go get the mop, and the kitchen's being taken care of by Martha and Alice."

Monique raises a hand. "Um, who are they?"

Milo looks at her strangely. "The chef and the other waiter?"

Right. Monique often forgets there's a girl waiter as well, one who's taken her order more than a few times. She feels herself blush. "Right. I guess I didn't know their names."

Milo nods, and the three of them stand in silence for a few seconds. "Right. Okay. Let's start," he finally says.

Monique and Gregory turned chairs in silence, leaving Monique with nothing but her own thoughts, thoughts that centered heavily on Milo.

"So where do you go to school?" she asks Gregory finally, unable to bear the silence anymore.

He pauses, a chair sideways in his arms. "Just Midland High."

"Oh, that's where I went," Monique beams. "Of course, I was far before your time."

"Oh, come on," Gregory says. "You can't be much older than I am. We probably had some of the same teachers, at least."

Monique smiles again, despite the fact that she's had to overturn five chairs in the past three minutes. "Probably. Is Mr. Mulligan still teaching?"

"No, but I had him freshman year," Gregory says, a ghost of a smile on his face. "He gave us all donuts before every test."

"That's right!" Monique laughs. "I loved him. What about Mrs. Carter?"

Instantly, the barely-there smile drops off Gregory's face. "No," is all he says.

"I loved her," Monique says, oblivious to Gregory's obvious discomfort. "I didn't even want to take woodshop, but she made it so much fun..."

Her voice trails off as Gregory sets his chair down and walks out of the restaurant. "Hey!" she calls. "We're not done! Come back!"

The door swings shut, the little bells ringing. Milo walks out at that exact moment, a mop and bucket in his hands. "What was that about?" he asks.

Monique shrugs, an uncomfortable pit in her stomach growing. "I honestly have no idea. We were talking about high school and he just left." She notices the jacket and take-home box sitting abandoned on the table Gregory was inhabiting not an hour before. "He left something behind, too."

Milo walks over and gathers both the jacket and the box in his arms. "He'll be back tomorrow afternoon, or Monday night at least," he says. "I'll keep them until then."

"What do you think happened?" Monique asks anxiously, trailing Milo around the restaurant. "He seemed fine and then he was just gone."

Milo turns around to face her. "I don't know, alright? He's an odd one. Probably realized he had curfew or something. You could ask him next time you're here."

"How do you know he'll be here as well?" Monique asks, compulsively peeling the polish off her nails.

Milo shrugs, and waves a hand. "Oh, he always is. Let's just get the room cleaned up, okay?"

----

woww ok this is actually growing now and i've introduced everyone yay so these are the four main characters i hope you got that.

(image at the top is monique. isn't she pretty?)

if you have any questions about how the characters relate to each other and who's who, just let me know! i love talking to you guys. as always, i'd appreciate any feedback or if you just want to chat that's good too!

i'm thinking of changing milo from nat wolff to colin morgan? idk tell me your thoughts. if no one's against it, i'll probably do it. i think he suits the role better.

also!! i'm thinking of maybe starting a new story as well, jumping on the superhero trend. i've got an idea that i like... let me know if you'd like to see something like that. i think that's all? have a good day!!