Romance Briefs

Romance Briefs: The Waffle House Romances

Waffle House Romance #1 My daughter needs me

The new girl at the Waffle House had been using dating sites recently and had mentioned it to Rhea, one of the women who had been working there for some time now.

"That counter is my dating app" she told the new girl "you go ahead with Match.com or whatever, this is where I find men".

"That's a good one; when has that ever worked?"

"You'd be surprised; it just takes a bit more patience and, well, nerve."

The new girl looked at her with curious skepticism, "You mean like 'some nerve? I just came in here for an egg and I'm being eyed like a piece of meat?" she laughed.

"Yeah, something like that; You see, there are hash browns and then there are T Bone steaks; the hash browns come in 6 or 7 a day...the T Bones on the other hand..."

"What language are we speaking now? "The new girl smiled at Rhea, knowing full well that she was about to hear a story...it was between lunch and dinner and the place was pretty slow.

"You know that man who was flirting with you during lunch? That's a hash brown; a dime a dozen, no chance you'd actually be interested in him. The T Bones are another story."

"Now that you've got my interest, you'd better have a story to go with it" the new girl said, holding up a finger to wait while she attended to the one table she was serving.

"I have one, alright, the hash brown that became the T Bone" Rhea said just loud enough for the new girl to hear.

"They're done," the girl said returning "go on."

"It was about a year and a half ago; guy comes in, sits at the counter. I didn't think much of him then; he seemed such a sad sack."

"What's good here?" he asked

"This your first time at a Waffle House?" I say to him.

"I'm from Milwaukee; they don't have them up there." He says.

"It's called Waffle House, but most people seem to like the hash browns; they come thousands of ways."

"That sounds impressive; thousands of ways." He kind of murmured to himself, but I could tell that he really wanted to talk to someone. It was kinda slow, so I asked him what brought him down here.

"My daughter lives with her mom and step dad here; I'm trying to see her." He said it so sincerely, that I noticed something about him that made me question my original hash brown label for him. He was actually a nice looking guy, even though he seemed so anxious and nervous.

"What's keeping you from seeing her?" I asked him.

"Her mother, her step dad...he's a college professor; I know something is wrong..."

"What makes you say that?" I asked him.

"When my wife left me a couple of years ago, it got harder and harder for me to see my daughter; she was 13 at the time. Then last year she moved down here and I couldn't get any contact other than a phone call here and there. I sent plane tickets to her and they were returned; I came down here last month and was threatened to have a restraining order against me."

"Was there any grounds for that?" I said a little suspiciously.

"No...my daughter and I have never had a harsh word between us...I just don't know; something is wrong."

"Anyways, I see him a couple of more times that week and we really start to know each other. He's sweet; he always seeks me out and I can tell he really needs to talk to me each time he comes in."