The Night

It's a Small Town After All

I’m sitting on the edge of the curb right outside of motel door. I was wearing my new sweatpants and my sweatshirt. I was fairly cold outside. I don’t really know what it is about it, but I just love fall. I think it’s just the way it smells. It’s like waking up at a campsite. You can smell the smoking coals of the fire from the night before. You can smell the leaves dying and falling down to the ground. Then, you can’t take a step without feeling the crunch of crisp fall leaves under your feet. You barley touch the leaves and they snap in half like someone’s been baking them in the oven all summer. I also love how it’s just the perfect amount of cold. You can feel the chill prick all along your skin, leaving little bumps behind.

            I jumped up and gasped as Zac put something at the side of my face from behind me. I turned my head slightly to the left to see a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing. And it’s not the size cupcake you see at home. This is like the monster size cupcake.

“Happy Birthday,” Zac whispered behind me.                

I had completely forgotten about my birthday. October 18th. With everything that has gone on, I’ve just kind-of spaced on the subject, pathetic huh? I took the cupcake and Zac sat down next to me on the curb.

“How did you know?” I ask

“You’re surprised?” he laughs. He’s right. He apparently knows everything about me.

“When did you get this?” I say while holding up the cupcake.

“I got it this morning while you were asleep.”

“Yum, cupcake for breakfast!” I mumble as I take a huge bite of my cupcake.

The cupcake was chocolate with chocolate icing, my favorite. It was all topped with round rainbow sprinkles. It was delicious.

“Look, I was thinking that we could go out for dinner tonight for your birthday. I don’t feel like having sandwiches again,” Zac says.

“Sure. I’m tired of sandwiches, too,” I say while taking another huge bite.

The rest of the day kind-of just passes by. It has been a pretty uneventful birthday, which I don’t mind. In fact, with this crazy week, uneventful is exactly what I need. We spent the day watching TV and walking the cold streets outside. No, we did not buy anything else; we have spent plenty of money.

I check the clock to see that it is about 6:30PM. I step into the bathroom and change into the new dress that I bought the day before. It lay perfectly on my body. I brushed my hair and applied my make-up. I was too lazy this morning to do it then. I walk out of the bathroom and announce that it’s time to leave for dinner.

“Where are we going?” Zac asks.

“I have a place in mind,” I say with a smirk on my face.

We walk down the freezing cold streets. It’s about 7:00 when we reach the restaurant. As I open the doors I feel a heat wave warm me. I strip off my jacket as a young 20-something year old blonde takes us to a seat.

The place had the classic black and white checkered tile. It also contained the classic red and white chairs and booths. Across from us were some bar stools and a counter. There was a jukebox in the corner, too. Finally, the walls were lined with old records.  

I opened up my menu that read ‘Maggie’s Diner’ and begin to look at the options. As I read my menu, the waitress appears. I continue to read my menu as she speaks. She doesn’t sound as young as the hostess, in fact she sounds much older. I hid my face behind my menu until I finally decided on what I want to eat. I placed my menu down.

“What would you like?” the waitress asks as she faces Zac.

My mouth fell open into an O-shape. The waitress in front of me was the woman from the clothing store from yesterday.

“I just have water and a double cheese-burger,” Zac ordered. My mouth was about to speak when Zac talked again, “And she’ll have a plain burger with only ketchup and an orange soda. Also we’ll take a chocolate milkshake.”

Correct again! That’s exactly what I was going to order. The lady from the cloths store turned to me.

“How would you like your burger cooked?” She asks, “Oh, hi sweetheart! How are you?” She says obviously recognizing me.

“I’ll have it medium rare and I’m great,” I answer her.

“Well, that’s good. You know what; I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

With that, she left. Just as quickly as she left she came back with our water and orange soda. She placed both of our glasses down gently on top of a napkin on top of the table. He gives me a slightly confused look. I suppose its regarding the face that she obviously has seen me before. We both sat in silence, only a few words escaped our mouths between the time we got our drinks and the time that we got our food.

The cook had placed our food in front of us and I was starving, so we both dug right in. We didn’t even want to come up for air and when we did, we would be sad that we had to take a moment away from eating. We would laugh when we had to stop for a second to breath.

“So, how do you know her?” Zac asks as he leans back in his chair and points to the woman who is waiting on the only other people here.

“The day you weren’t here, I meet her at a store,” I answer.

He tilts his head back and gives me a simple “Ah.”

We talk a little bit, not a lot, but we talk. I feel like I’m finally learning something about him, but yet nothing at all. I don’t know anything else about what’s been going on in the past week, but it just seems like we’re closer somehow. We talked for so long, but had such a fun time that the time just flew by and we were startled when the waitress came back.  

“I see you enjoyed your food,” She says as she smiles at us.

“I would definitely agree with that,” I barely laugh out.

“Yeah, the food was great,” Zac adds as he laughs.

“Well, I’m glad!” She responds.

As Zac and the woman from the clothing store continue on a small conversation about the food, I saw a familiar face walk into the restaurant. He walked around and the workers here obviously knew him. He is also looking around like he was trying to find something. Then he spots it. He starts walking over to our table, and then stops behind the waitress.

“Oh, hey Gus!” Zac says as a huge grin crawls on his face.

“Hey honey,” Says the waitress as she turns her head back to see him.

“Hi Maggie,” He says as he leans in to kiss the waitress, who I guess is Maggie.

My chin drops down to the floor. WTF.

“So, you’re Gus,” I point to Gus and he laughs and nods, “and you’re Maggie, as in Maggie’s Diner? This is your restaurant?”

“Sure is,” she laughs.

“And you two are…” I start to say.

“Married,” They laugh again together.

“Wow, didn’t see that coming,” Zac says still leaning back in his chair.

“This really is a small town,” I say as I join in laughing.

We all talk for a few minutes and I finally tell Maggie my name, we never got the chance to tell each other our names at the store, obviously.  

“Well, I think that it’s about time for us to go,” Zac says looking at his watch.

I look up at the clock at the wall and agree. Maggie grabs the check and we pay leaving a generous tip. We give our hugs and say our goodbyes. Maggie walks over to me and says Happy Birthday as she opens up her arms.

I lean in and give her a hug as I say, “Well, It’s really been a good one.”

She puts her head near my ear and says, “It’s not over yet,” I step back for a second as I was befuddled by her has statement. We all smile and continue on our way down the street back to the motel.