The Smell of Coffee and Paper: A Hamilton Au

Chapter Three

It seems there's holes in all my fairy tales

-               -               -

Despite my passion to preach them well

Alexander Hamilton II

4 a.m. to 12 p.m. I'm at the Jumping Bean, and then after that, I'm at the local Denny's from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. I get Saturdays and Sundays off from Denny's, but I work everyday day but Saturday at the Jumping Bean.

So, it was imperative to my schedule that everything that happened between me leaving the Jumping Bean and reaching Denny's went exactly right. Nobody can stop me on my way to my house. And if I'm out of premade lunches then I can wait until dinner. There are only two things I'll take time for. Making sure that mom is alright and taking her medicine. And two, making sure that everything is perfect for Aaron.

Today went well, no uniform mishaps. No medicine mishaps. No food mishaps. Like it did every day, the routine set in, and autopilot took over. Enter the metro station. Fight for a spot of said train. Be uncomfortably close to people who don't care about personal space. Get off, be a part of the herd of people. Get on the bus. Get off at the right spot after making absolutely sure that the bus driver didn't skip it or pass over it. Walk two blocks to the Denny's. Clock in. Start working. Avoid small talk unless the customers want it. Collect tips. Go home.

Except for today, the monotony was interrupted around the 'start working.' For one this middle aged man with curly red hair wanted to talk to me for far too long. So that slowed down my servicing of my tables and made the balance uneven so I had to talk back. A few spilled cups by clumsy children, with varying degrees of anger from the parents. Some just said to 'be more careful next time' while others went with a classic 'I told you to be careful and not but your drink so close to your elbows.' But no threats for accidentally spilling sprite onto their parents. No threats said in a low voice so that unless you were looking you'd see what was happening to tell the kids that they were going to pay for a new shirt, a better shirt. Anyways even if I did, what could I do about it? Lots of parents work off that sort of system. The whole 'you break it you buy it system.'

But after all of that went down it was a pretty slow stream of people from 3-5. After 5 o'clock the dinner rush came in at full force. But that was usual, people got off work and for some reason they thought to bring their families to Denny's. The thing that threw me off the most was the someone, or rather someones, who came in at around 7.

Because seeing perfection once a day obviously wasn't enough. It was the guy from the coffee shop this morning, the one who was outrageously beautiful and could find it in him to talk through any silence. The one who kept it so that I didn't have to try and find it in me (even though I usually can't) to talk.

That screwed up the balance of things so much. Why couldn't he have been like everyone else and just been rude back? Why couldn't he and his company chose a different restaurant? Why did the hostess put them in my section instead of Jackies?

But I can't just not service them, it doesn't work that way. I trudge over to their table, after collecting the check from a table near them.

I can't even find it in me to say my usual, and technically required, introduction. So I simply said, "What are you going to drink," pulling out my notepad.

The person on coffee shop guys right speaks up first, "I'll have Iced Tea." He says with a french accent that surprised me.

He has similar hair and eye shape to coffee shop guy so I just assumed that they'd be related. But I was probably making superficial connections that don't actually exist. I just really need them to not be dating.