It's Quite Complicated

Chapter 10

I walk around the counter with my apron tied around me. Linda was taking change that she collected from tips and put it into her pocket of her apron. "Hello," she says and smiles politely at me.

I greet her, "Morning, what do I start with?" I look around the diner and see a pair of elderly couple walking in and she points to them. I nod my head knowing that I was to attend to them and take a couple of menus from the counter with me. I walk away and approach them sitting at a booth table next to the window.

I smile at them and say in a cheerily voice, "Hi, welcome to Silver Gate Diner. Here are your menus," I hand them each a menu. "I'll be back in a few to take your orders." I walk away and back to the counter to see Linda giving me a thumbs up and a smile.

I practiced the greetings that Linda taught me to say in the car ride from the hotel to here. From Linda's positive reaction for how I did, I could say that I did well.

After a couple of minutes, I return to the elderly couple, "Are you ready to order?"

They nod and hand me back the menus, I take them and lay them in the fold of my arm and take out my receipt notepad and pencil. They tell me their order, "Alright, I'll be back with your order." I offer them a cheerily smile and walk back to the counter, I drop the menus off in their respective spots and walk around the counter to the kitchen window. I put the receipt from the notepad onto the receipt spike. I go to the counter and take a couple of mugs from the cupboards and walk to the coffee machine. I take the coffee pot that is freshly brewed with coffee, and pour it into the mugs, evenly. I walk back to their table booth and hand it to them. They thank me and I walk back to the counter and I smile at Gary, the cook as he takes the orders. He disappears into the kitchen and I wait patiently for him to return with them. After a few minutes, he slides a tray with plates of freshly cooked food across the ledge of the window and he places the receipts onto the empty space on it. He smiles at me and I take the tray and return to the elderly couple's table. I smile and place the tray in between them onto the table. They take their food and receipt and pay for their orders.

"Have a good day," I tell them before I walk back to the counter and put the money into the register with the spare key I was given by Linda when I arrived. Linda was the manager of the restaurant, but she was to give the few spare keys to the waiters and waitresses during their shifts, which were given back to her at the end of their shifts. Linda was a respectable woman that seemed to be only in her mid-twenties. She was nice and I knew that after the position is officially mine, I would most likely become close friends with her after I start working more here.

She had short blonde hair that she kept tied into a bun and had green eyes. She was athletically built, seeing as how she expertly picked up stacks of plates easily.

I wait at the counter beside her and look around the diner. My side of the diner was empty, besides the elderly couple who were chatting and sipping their coffee. Linda was busy with her side, which was filling tables quicker than the mall does on Black Friday. I hear the familiar ring of the bell at the doors and I look up to see a tall brunette guy walk in and sit at a table booth a few rows behind the elderly couple at the window. I pick up a menu and walk to it.

He keeps his head down and doesn't acknowledge my presence and keeps his attention strayed to his phone. I approach him and I say what I am to say, "Hi, welcome to Silver Gate Diner. Here is your menu," and I hand him the menu. He turns to me and takes the menu from me. I freeze at seeing his face and he grins at me. "Leilah."

"Alec?"

"You work here?"

I gulp and compose my self from the shock of seeing him, I must say I was wanting to see him again from meeting him last night, but I wasn't expecting to this soon. "Yeah," I say.