|PARALLELS| ✔

18| | Near Experiences

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

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Bella

Max's Diner.

The blue, red and black exterior had lost its extravagant sense of hue as the colors seemed paler than what they were originally planned out to be. The flower arrangements laid symmetrically between the see-through glass door were to die for consisting of; yellow roses, daffodils, lavender and the most precious of all the forget-me-nots, my favorite. At each end, grapevines were beautifully kept on the wooden railing securing the diner in place.

The wording 'Welcome' on the door was cursively written with bold borders and little hearts and flowers on each side.

The loud chiming from the bell at the top of the door signaled our decision to try the place out. Slightly worn out classic furniture took up almost three-quarters of the diner, from the black and brown leather couches to the fitted long customer counter.

Black and white floor tilling that reminded me that I needed to get my chess game on check, was thoroughly polished and sparkling from the direct hit of sunlight that came through the open blinds.

Zoe nudged me gently on my ribs. "This place is sick!" She said in an orotund manner.

"I know right. How come we never noticed this place?" Liam questioned whilst scrutinizing the place from how everything looked from point A to B, by the glimmer in his eyes I could tell that he loved the place already, but the main question was, was the food going to pass the taste test?

There was only one way to find out whether the food was going to give all three of us foodgasms and make us beg for seconds, maybe even thirds.

"Let's sit by the counter." I offered to both of them as I waltzed towards the front, where the cashier was situated, beside her were diner menus practically screaming out to be ogled by interested buyers.

Her name tag read Olivia, she was too preoccupied with the ear sets in her ears blaring- God knows what- to even notice that she had customers.

"Olivia! What did I tell you about listening to music whilst on your shift, you're running on thin ice as it is." A middle-aged woman yanked the device from her ears and placed them in her own frilly yellow apron.

White specks of hair had been sprinkled atop her then black hair, a mole the size of a peanut had made its way along her nose bridge seeming to intensify her stern features, but from the warm green orbs with tiny swirls of blue seemed to tone down the harsh lines from her forehead.

"Sorry, Ma! It just got boring besides, I thought we already patched stuff up why'd you have to bring that up, whatever happened to let bygones be bygones." Olivia whined like a middle school kid who had just been told off by her mother. Her Southern accent was masked, probably because of her music preferences.

"My apologies for my daughter's rudeness. I'm Victoria but you can call me Tori, this is Olivia my daughter and Welcome to Max's diner, where your taste buds are refreshed and get what they need." Victoria said the tag line in a singsong voice, twirling around in a circle then curtsying. That's when I noticed she was on roller skates and pretty good at using them at that.

"It's no trouble at all. Thanks for that, we'll definitely hold you to our taste buds getting refreshed and all that." Zoe replied with a gentle smile and settled on the vast stools available for customer use.