I Love it When You Call Me Senorita

El Hopper hated being late, and today, she was late. The time clock read 5:15pm when she arrived at Benny's Diner for her Sunday dinner shift; a shift that was supposed to have started fifteen minutes ago. She clocked in and ran into the bathroom to do a quick once over of herself before heading out into the dining room. She flattened out the skirt of her pale pink uniform dress and took a look at herself in the mirror. She left her house in a hurry with her hair still wet, but she was grateful now that she had taken the time to dab a bit of mascara on her eyelashes and a coat of gloss to her lips before running out the door. She stood in front of the mirror for a moment and used her fingers to pull her wild locks up into a cute messy bun, securing it with the blue hair-tye that had been wrapped around her wrist. Satisfied with her appearance, she washed her hands and set out to help Max with the dinner rush.

"Finally!" Max yelped in exasperation when she caught sight of El, tucking a loose strand of fiery red hair behind her ear.

"Sorry! I was up all night. I tried sleeping during the day but it was just shitty. Totally slept through my alarm. I should've just stayed up."

"Yeah, yeah, it's okay," Max was giving El's explanation a dismissive wave. "Order's up for table eight, can you get it? I need fresh coffee for table eleven."

"Yeah, no problem, Maxey," El replied with a timid smile and an embarrassed blush to her cheeks, still feeling absolutely terrible for being late. "Thanks again for covering me."

"Don't worry about it. Table eight! They're waiting. I already took them their milkshakes."

"Right. Thanks!"

El quickly headed over to grab the tray for table eight from the cook; two plates each with a famous Benny's burger and full of delicious greasy french fries.

El took the tray of hot food out to table eight where she was delighted to see two young women who were regular patrons to Benny's; Angela and Danielle. A couple of times a month, the two would get together for a girls night. They'd usually see a movie and then come to Benny's to splurge on burgers and milkshakes while their husbands got together at one of their houses to entertain their very young children. El and Max had decided long ago that these two ladies were absolute queens, and they aspired to be just like them someday when they had families of their own.

"Hello, ladies! Here's your food!"

"Hi, El! Oh that looks good, thank you!" said Angela.

"My pleasure! How is girls night going?"

"It's WONDERFUL!" exclaimed Danielle. "Riley is toilet training and Gus is teething. It's been the week from Hell and Mommy is taking the night off!"

To this, El giggled in response and only laughed harder when Angela not-so-quietly-whispered, "I think we need to spike her milkshake."

El was laughing with mirth now. "Oh, that can be arranged! You just let me know..." and as she turned her head away from the lovely ladies at table eight for just the briefest of moments, whatever else they were saying was completely lost to her, because that was when she saw him.

Mike.

There he was, with his disheveled mess of dark curls, the now wrinkled white t-shirt that he'd been wearing the night before, and his black leather jacket strewn about the booth beside him. He was sitting there all alone at table eleven where Max was serving him a fresh cup of coffee. And he was not at all hiding the fact that his deep dark eyes were staring a hole right through El's very soul.

Fuck.

Why is he here? What am I going to do?

El made like a bee-line back to the kitchen as quickly as her feet would carry her. Images of last night were dancing through her head. Images of him and her. The things he did to her. The things she did to him. The things he made her feel. All night long like a rollercoaster that only goes up and never comes down, until the first rays of daylight peered upon the bedsheets through the window.