Long Live the King

Fourteen

"Marshmallow!" There was no mistaking that voice, even if she hadn't used her personal nickname for him. Rosie came out of the kitchen beaming and headed right over to their table. She wrapped one arm over his shoulder and squeezed. "Where have you been?"

"Hey Rosie," he said with a smile. "Been awhile, hasn't it?"

"That's an understatement," she said. "You used to be in this diner er'y day and now we haven't seen you in almost a month. It's madness is what it is. Did you move?"

"Just helping out a friend," he said.

"And you can't do that in your own town?" She looked over at the other side of the booth. Her gaze passed over Regina and settled on the familiar face. She gasped. "My word... Addy, girl, is that you?"

"Hi, Rosie." She smiled politely.

"Well you two just let me guess. Two chicken melts and a coupla waters, one light on the ice? And what will your friend have?"

"Gina," Regina introduced herself. "What would you recommend?"

"Get the melt," Marshall said.

"Melt," Adrienne echoed.

"Sounds fine, I guess."

"Three melts, three waters, comin' right up!"

Rosie didn't even bother to write the order down. She walked back to the kitchen, on the way nudging one of her waiters and gesturing back toward their table.

"This is a cute place," Regina said, looking around. "We didn't have small places like this growing up. It was all big commercial chains or really fine dining, ya know?"

"That's sad," Marshall said. "The food may not be fancy here but it's home cooked and there's nothing like it. You can taste the difference. I promise."

"I believe you." She paused. "So after we eat, then what?"

"I don't know." Adrienne said. "Maybe you should take a walk through town or something."

"Addy," Marshall said in an undertone, kicking her gently under the table.

"What?" She held up both hands, palms out in front of her. "Okay, I hear how that sounded but I didn't mean it an 'eff off' sort of way. I just meant that the three of us don't need to be attached at the hip while we're here and Gina," --she scraped out the word as if it physically pained her-- "has never been here before. She might like to take a tour where as we have seen it all before."

"That might be nice actually," Regina jumped in, "and you know I don't really need a tour guide or anything. There aren't that many places to go. She's right, you guys have seen at all before. You said you were planning to check out Addy's old house though and I wanted to be in on that... so what if right after lunch we do that and then I'll break off and do my own thing for awhile. Does that sound fine to everyone?"

"If you're sure you don't mind being on your own..." Marshall said.

"Yeah," Adrienne added. "I really wasn't trying to get rid of you or anything."

"No, no, I know," Regina said emphatically, touching Adrienne's shoulder. "Don't even worry about it."

"Three famous chicken melts," a waitress said brightly, sliding the plates to the table in quick succession.

"Famous?" Regina questioned, poking at the oily french fries on the side.

"Locally famous." The waitress grinned then looked down at the table and frowned. "No one brought your waters?"