Hers

Chapter One

Chapter One

Damn.  Damn.  Damn.  Damn.  Damn.  That one word seemed to be all I could hear as I made my way into the small diner.  Had I not tossed and turned all night then I would have heard my alarm clock, then maybe I would get to work on time.  I made my way quickly behind the counter, trying not to attract the attention of my boss, which only proved to be a massive fail on my part.  Harold’s brown eyes squinted in distaste as I slinked by him.

Don't follow me.  Don't follow me.  I repeated in my mind.  Once again, the odds seemed to be against me.

"You're late again Miss Owens,” he chided me.  I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes at him as I tied my apron around my waist.  "Lilly," he said angrily.  I continued to ignore him as I collected my pad and pen.  "Lilly!"  He yelled at me.  I brushed past him as I made my way to the main floor.  I walked to an elderly couple who had just walked in.

"Hi there, my name is Lilly.  Can I start you two off with something to drink?"  I asked them in my ‘I'm-going-to-polite-to-you-so-that-you give-me-your-money’ voice.

"Just two coffee's please," the elderly man answered for him and, who I assumed to be, his wife.

"Lilly!"  Harold’s voice blared from behind me.  "Get out!  You're fired!"  He yelled, no doubt turning bright red.

"I'll be right back with your coffees," I promised the couple, who looked at me with worried gazes.

I turned and made my way to the coffee maker.  My boss’s heated gaze followed me the entire way.  I had been fired countless times in the past, Harold just didn’t seem to get the fact that I was in this diner before him and I’ll be here long after him.  Just because his mother handed the small diner down to him after his father died did not mean my respect was inherited as well.  I had been coming here for as long as I could remember.  This was the last place my mom had ever taken me before she died and the place I went to after I left the hospital the night my dad died.  I had been working here three years and coming here for nineteen.  There was literally nothing he could do to get rid of me.

His narrowed brown eyes followed me as I poured the older couples coffees and took their orders.  I pinned the ticket up for Jeff, our chef, and began wiping down the counters.

Stop staring at me.  Stop staring at me.  I willed him.  I could see him walking towards me.

“Why are you still working, Lilly?  You’re fired,” he said with a small smirk.  I wanted nothing more than to choke him with the tie he was wearing.

Why the hell was he wearing a tie, anyway?  This is a diner in the middle of nowhere, not some fancy restaurant in the city.  He probably did it to attract some local high school girl.  He was all of seventeen and already owned a convertible and a restaurant.  This guy was born with a silver spoon sticking out of his mouth.

I dropped my rag on the table and pressed my palms against the table, leaning forward I looked straight into his eyes.  I could register the look of interest he passed me, but ignored it.

“You and I both know I’m not going anywhere so why don’t you cut the crap and quit disrupting my customers?”  I asked, raising one of my black eyebrows at him.

His eyes dropped to my lips and then continued even further down.  I looked off to the right and sucked my teeth.  What would my mother say if she could see me now?  She’d probably asked me why I wasn’t applying to colleges or why I hadn’t left this hell hole yet.  Dad would probably ask why I still came to this old diner just to put up with this douchebag, that is after he kicked Harold’s ass for looking at me the way he was.