One Summer

Chapter 2

    "How could you do that?" Patricia whispered loudly over the chaos of the restaurant. "How could you hire him?"

    Piper Williamson flipped a pancake that she was making for another customer. "Who? Eddie?"

    "No, Harry Potter." Patricia huffed. "Yes, Eddie!"

    "He needed somewhere to work. He's cute, too. That might have had something to do with it."

    Patricia groaned. "Do Mom and Dad know about this?"

    "Of course. Dad approved him." Piper put the pancakes on a plate. "By the way, I told him you'd show him the ropes."

    Patricia laughed, then saw Piper wasn't laughing. "You're kidding, right?"

    "No, Patricia, I'm not." She grabbed some bread and threw it in the toaster. "You need to make more friends, anyway, Patricia. Especially guy friends."

     "Why is everyone trying to set me up? I just got out of a bad relationship. I don't need another."

    "So you're not even going to give him a chance?" Piper put the toast with the pancakes. She began searching the cupboard for the syrup.

    "I just met him 10 minutes ago!"

    "He still needs more friends while he's here. Be nice to him." Patricia's mom said as she entered the room. "Go show him how to do the work."

    "Look on the bright side, Patricia. With another worker, you won't have to do as much work." Piper pointed out.

    "Something tells me I'm going to be working even harder." Patricia grumbled, slamming the door to the kitchen behind her. She spotted Eddie wiping an empty table down. "Okay, Slimeball, listen because I'm only going to tell you once. You go to the front, where people are waiting to be seated. Then, you find them a seat, preferably an empty one, and sit the in it with the menus they need. Then come back and take their orders, be sure to write them down. Then you deliver the food and the check. You may or may not get help, it depends on how busy it is and my mood. Any questions?"

    "Uh, yeah. Do I get free food?"

    "One meal. One." Patricia folded her arms.

    "What if I want ice cream?" Eddie asked.

    "There's your meal." Patricia rolled her eyes. A family of six entered the diner. Patricia motioned toward them. "Help them. I'll supervise."

    "How helpful of you." Eddie rolled his eyes, but went up to the front table. Patricia sat close by to watch and listen.

    "Hey, I'm Eddie, and I'll be your sever, I guess. How many?"

    "Seven. Our oldest daughter is outside finding a parking spot." The father answered.

    "Four kids menus and three adult menus then?" The mother nodded. Eddie pulled out the coloring menus for the kids and the regular ones for the adults. He found them a large, empty, corner booth and seated them.

    "What are we supposed to color with?" one of the younger kids asked.

    Eddie looked confused. "What?"

    Another sighed. "You forgot to give us the crayons. Duh."

    "The crayons?" The kids stared at him. "Oh! The crayons! Let me just go get those!" Eddie hurried over to where Patricia was watching. "You didn't say anything about crayons!" he said.

    She laughed. "I assumed you knew. They're in the box by the menus." She watched as Eddie hurried over to the stand and grabbed a handful of crayons.

    Eddie gave the kids the crayons, slightly embarrassed. "So, do you guys know what you want just yet?"

    "Excuse me." A pretty blonde girl said. She sat down in the booth. Eddie couldn't believe how gorgeous she was. She had light blonde hair, blue eyes, a thin body, and a pretty face. The girl, catching him staring, introduced herself. "Hi," she looked at his name tag. "Hi, Eddie. I'm Ava." She gave him a wide, pink lipstick smile.

    "Hi." He managed. Eddie tried to shake it off, but couldn't.

    "Anyway," the father said. "We'll take a large pizza with pepperoni and sausage on one half and green peppers and olives on the other half." Eddie reached into his pockets, finding his little notebook, but not a pen.

    "Ah, come on!" He grumbled to himself. "One moment, please." Eddie rushed back over to Patricia. "I need a pen."

    She reached into her pocket and revealed a plain black pen. Eddie began to grab it, but she pulled it back. "On one condition."

    Eddie sighed. "Come on, Patricia! I need that!"

     "Stop drooling over that girl and concentrate on your work." Patricia looked him straight in the eye.

     "Oh, are we getting jealous?" Eddie teased.

     "No!" Patricia felt a blush creep up. "Of course not!"

    "It's okay." Eddie put one hand on her shoulder, using the other to take the pen from her. "It's hard not to, isn't it?" He went back over to the table. Patricia nervously drank her cold water, trying to shake whatever just happened off.