Suddenly...Gone

Chapter 6

The rest of the week went by both slow and fast for Daryl. Work was busy, and he was happy that the days flew by. He took in as many jobs as he could, as he wanted to show Mack that he could handle the shop alone and do it well. Some nights he stayed late to finish a last minute repair, but each day he went home he felt like he accomplished something with his day. It was a good feeling that lasted until he got home. He hadn't seen Emma since Monday. She managed to come and go without him seeing her at all. He needed to talk to her, but he had no idea what to say.

Daryl gave himself a pep talk all the way home after work. It was early Thursday evening, so he hoped her car would be there when he got in. He had stayed late to finish up a radiator repair. That same nervousness came over him as he pulled into the complex and headed for home. He could feel his heart beating rapidly as he turned the corner, but when he saw the empty parking space at Emma's, it dropped instead. She wasn't home.

Emma knew it was childish the way she had been avoiding Daryl all week. He disappointed her. Just when she was starting to really like him and even though they were just neighbors, for now, his words to his brother hurt her. Emma had hoped they were moving towards something other than just living next door to each other. She was just glad that she figured him out before she let herself really fall for him. Once she stopped being mad, she would be civil to him, nothing more.

When she left to go to work at the bar that evening, his truck wasn't around. It was a relief that she could leave without the possibility of seeing him. She was not ready to talk to him yet. So now a couple hours later while she was waiting for her drink order to be filled by the bartender she was daydreaming about the guy she didn't want to daydream about. As mad as she was, she still thought about him all the time

Emma wasn't looking forward to tomorrow. Friday mornings were always tough. She worked at the bar until closing and then had the early shift at the diner. No matter how long she did this, she was always exhausted on Fridays.

Emma dragged herself home at twelve thirty in the morning, smelling of beer and stale cigarette smoke. When she was pulling into her parking spot, she noticed that Daryl's truck was back. There was a light on in the trailer, so she hurried inside., but no one emerged from it. She took a quick shower and was asleep the second her head hit the pillow. The alarm would be ringing all too soon.

Daryl woke up Friday morning knowing this was his last day of running the shop before Mack got back on Monday. He lay in bed for a few minutes running today's schedule through his head. He had a couple of easy jobs to do, plus a truck that needed a whole new set of brakes, so depending if anything last minute came in, he should be comfortably busy.

His stomach grumbled, and Daryl realized he was starving. When he looked in the refrigerator last night, it was completely empty of food and even beer. He would have to stop off and pick up something on his way in. Then he got an idea, but could he do it? Should he do it? Why he couldn't get breakfast at Emma's diner? It had to be better than anything he could grab from a drive thru, and he could see Emma. He had to talk to her, and while this wasn't the best place to catch her, she at least couldn't get away.

"Wow, "he thought. "Do I really want to do this?" He knew he had to, so before he could chicken out, she jumped in the shower, put on the cleanest work clothes he had left and headed off to the diner.

Daryl was able to park the truck in front before the nerves really kicked in. "Man up you pussy," he scolded himself. He got out of the truck quickly before he could change his mind and walked through the front door of the diner as a man with a purpose.

There was an older man at the cash register counter right where he walked in. "By yourself, son?" he asked.

"Yeah," Daryl answered looking around for Emma. She wasn't out front. At least she couldn't tell him to leave before he sat down.