As You Wish (Complete)

Chapter 1

A/N: Here's a little thing I wrote. It's short and all done. It should be about 5 or 6 chapters total once it's all posted. 

The clouds parted slightly allowing for a slim sliver of moonlight to seep through, reflecting off the inky puddles in the mostly empty parking lot. Just in time for the end of her shift—closing time—at least she wouldn't get soaked on her way to the car, Cassie realized. The clatter in the kitchen drew her gaze back into the 50's style diner; the new cook was rattling pots, placing them back on the metal racks across from the fryers above the prep table. Cassie was nervous of the new cook, intrigued but nervous. He'd been working the evening shift over a month, not so new any more, but he wasn't friendly and aside from the calls for orders up, Cassie hadn't even really heard him speak. He was a gifted cook though, and when he was working the kitchen, tips were good.

As much as his aloof demeanour was off putting, his appearance was even worse. The close cropped hair, many piercings, the wiry form, his scarred face and arms, the prison type tattoos on his hands, everything about Luke made Cassie skittish; he'd obviously had a checkered past. Even though they were both around the same age, he seemed much older. Still, closing with him at night felt safe. No customers in the restaurant bothered her when she told them it was time to go when Luke was working. On nights when Sal worked the kitchen people might take an extra half hour to finish, lingering over their empty plates, getting free refills on their coffee. Sal would come out and start to tidy with her to help speed them along, but his smiles and idle chatter were more engaging than Luke's menacing grimace, so those nights were far longer than they should be. On Sal's nights it was more threatening in the parking lot, too, because it was closer to the time the bars let out, and drunks wandering home would often proposition Cassie. It was unusual that the restaurant wouldn't stay open for the hungry drunks, but after more than a few fights and incidents with unruly patrons, the owners decided an earlier closing time was easier than paying for damages incurred with less than sober customers. Located near the edge of campus meant a steady stream of students for the Starlight Diner anyway, no matter what the hour.

Luke liked to work with Cassie. She respected his space and his need for quiet more than a few of the other servers, and she never shorted him on tips. He appreciated how polite and patient she was with the customers, even those who were not always the most pleasant. She was easy on the eyes, too—not that she realized it. She often missed when male customers flirted with her and she seemed to be pretty without really trying. Cassie didn't wear makeup or any sort of cloying scent, unlike Pippa, the server who wouldn't leave him alone. Pippa always flirted with everyone, including Luke, to the point Luke was fairly certain she was trying to make him uncomfortable—brushing up against him unnecessarily, calling him pet names, making crass innuendos. All of it disgusted him. While he certainly liked the female form, Luke had learned from a young age to avoid romantic entanglements, and Pippa would probably be an entanglement of the worst kind—high maintenance disguised as carefree. In Luke's mind relationships always let you down and the only one on which you could truly count was yourself. So the fact that Cassie was oblivious to his admiration suited him just fine. He knew how he looked--it's not like Cassie could ever be attracted to someone like him anyway.

"Ready to go, Cassie?" The kitchen was closed, the patrons gone, and Cassie had restocked napkins and wiped down the tables.

"Yes, thanks Luke. Here's your cut." She handed him the envelope with the required 20% of her tips, and flipped the sign at the door to closed. She didn't begrudge him the money, he deserved it, even though Pippa and a few of the other waitstaff always shorted him.

Cassie liked that he trusted her, putting the envelope in his pocket, rather than counting it out, like Sal did. Cassie knew that Karen and Anna needed all the tips they could get because they were single moms, but Pippa took the job as a joke yet still cheated Luke out of tip money. Pippa's family was indulging her need to 'slum it' as a student, putting up with her dead end job and bohemian lifestyle while at university, as long as she outgrew it after graduation. Everything about Pippa screamed money, even in her thrift store style outfits—it was hard to hide the expensive cosmetics and newer model BMW that Pippa drove with careless ease, she obviously didn't need to concern herself with repair bills. Cassie was a student too, but did, in fact, need the money. Her scholarships only paid a portion of the bills and her family couldn't make up the difference. The shifts at the diner not only provided her with ready money, but also meals on the days she worked.