24 Hours

Hour Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten

“A morning coffee is my favorite way of starting the day, settling the nerves so that they don't later fray.”  Marcia Carrington 

Hour Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten

        “Ready?” Tristan stands up and then holds his hand out to help me up.

        “For what?” I ask, confused.

        “I think it’s about time we head back to the diner.” He tells me. “I could go for a cup of coffee since I’ll have to skip out on my beauty sleep.” I grab his hand and allow him to pull me to my feet. Once I’ve steadied myself he releases my hand and we both start towards the diner.

        “Don’t worry about that,” I say, walking a few steps ahead of him, “it wasn’t working anyway.” I send him a wink and then start running down the street. The streets are starting to fill with people. I have to dodge through people as I run and that makes it a little harder. I glance behind me to see Tristan running after me.

        “Yeah, you better run.” As I mentioned before I’m not a very fast runner and so Tristan catches up to me quickly. He lifts me off my feet and I let out a shriek.

        “Put me down,” I screech. He throws me over his shoulder and I feel all the blood rushing to my head.

        “Not until you admit that you think I’m pretty.”

        I snort, “In your dreams.” He slowly releases my leg and I began to slip off his shoulder. “Okay!”

        “Okay, what?” He asks and without even being able to see it, I know that there is a smirk on his face.

        People start to give us strange looks and for the first time in my life, I don’t care. “I think that you are pretty and I am soooooo sorry that you have to miss your beauty sleep.” I say as sarcastically as I can. He sets me down on my feet and I sigh in relief. “Please forgive me,” I say giving him my best puppy dog eyes.

        He sighs, “I suppose I could forgive you this one time, but don’t let it happen again.”

        We only have to pass a few more stores before we reach the diner. Tristan opens the door and bows while gesturing toward the entrance, “Ladies first.”

        I laugh and curtsey, “Thank you kind sir.” The diner is not half as empty as I remember. Tristan waves to Will, who is standing behind the counter, and ushers me to a booth in the back of the room.

        Almost as soon as we sit down we are approached by a waitress. She’s beautiful with natural red hair and a warm smile. She’s also a lot older than me probably in her late 30s. Her name tag reads Wanda.

        She gives Tristan a smile and leans down to hug him. “I haven’t seen you in here at this time in quite a while. You should come see me more often,” she scolds him.

        He smiles, “I’ll be sure to do that.”

        She glances over at me as if just noticing that I’m there. Her face is frozen in shock. She quickly masks it and looks back over at Tristan, “And who is your friend?”

        “This is Izzy.” He tells her gesturing towards me.

        I smile at her and she sticks her hand out for me to shake. I grab it and let go not too long afterward. “I’m Wanda and if you ever need anything just let me know. Also let me know if this one gets out of line.”