Paralysis

Chapter Sixteen

  Olive took out the keys Franky had given her and unlocked the door to the restaurant. Olive had gotten up earlier than usual on the weekends in order to arrive at the restaurant before Dean, Daniel and Isaiah. Olive pushed the door open, walking inside to set up. She switched on the main lights on the wall off to the side of the front door and grabbed her apron from the rack. Olive removed her backpack from her shoulders and slid it across the counter of the food bar. She released a stressful sigh, knowing that it was going to be a long day. Olive pulled her books out of her backpack, along with her notebooks in order to study.
  "Mornin'." Dean greeted as he walked into the restaurant, spotting Olive behind the counter. Olive looked up with a tired smile on her face.
  "Wow, you really don't get much sleep do you?" Dean questioned, concerned. Olive couldn't contain her laughter.
  "Yeah, but don't worry about it. I woke up really early. I got about three hours in, I think." Olive explained to Dean.
  "Ever heard of chamomile tea?" Dean asked, grinning. He walked up to the counter, seating himself at one of the swivel chairs.
  "The only tea I can drink is black tea and that's for the caffeine. But I don't think I'll be needing that today unless I'm falling over from exhaustion." Olive affirmed, shrugging her shoulders lightly. She sighed, setting her elbow on the counter and resting her chin on her open palm.
  "What time did you get up?" Dean asked, curious.
  "Around five-twenty. So, thirty minutes ago." Olive answered, still smiling, amused with how concerned Dean was over her sleep schedule. Before Dean could speak, Daniel and Isaiah walked inside the restaurant together.
  "Sorry we're late, I had to carpool with Daniel. My car took a shit on me this morning." Isaiah stated after he walked in. Olive shook her head.
  "Don't sweat it. Shit happens." Olive shrugged it off, understanding that inconvenient situations can happen all the time.
  "What happened to it this time? I told you not to buy a car from that shady lot." Dean mentioned, giving Isaiah a bit of hard time.
  "It was almost two grand to drive off the glot. It probably just needs an oil change. I'll take care of it later when we get off work." Isaiah defended, explaining his situation further. Dean chuckled softly.
  "I'll drive you back to your place after work and I'll see what I can do, too. God knows what else can be wrong with a ten year old Dodge Durango worth less than twenty thousand bucks." Daniel insisted in helping Isaiah. Isaiah was flattered, yet offended at the same time.
  "Thanks, I guess. But that damn car has been so good to me up until recently." Isaiah mentioned as he and Daniel headed to the back of the restaurant, toward the grills.
  "That's usually what happens when you buy a shit car." Daniel continued to poke fun at Isaiah, making Dean and Olive laugh.
  "Call us if you need any help." Dean commented to Olive, crossing his arms on the counter. Olive gave a delighted expression.
  "I will, thank you. You guys take it easy back there. I expect it will be fairly dead all day, like always." Olive stated, not sounding enthused over the long shift they would all be sharing.
  "Yeah, something needs to be done about that." Dean commented, not thinking much of it. Olive grinned, excitedly waiting to tell Dean about her and Franky's plans.
  "Franky and I are already doing something about it." Olive stated confidently. Dean tilted his head up with surprise.
  "On Monday I'm gonna to go to the library to print out papers for events and other things to help get the restaurant popular." Olive happily mentioned to Dean. He pursed his lips, interested in what Olive had disclosed with him.
  "I like that. Well, you will definitely have an extra set of helping hands if you ask me or the other two back there. Just give us a holler." Dean volunteered excitedly. Olive was grinning from ear to ear.
  "Good luck, boss." Dean commented teasingly towards Olive. She rolled her eyes, chuckling.
  "Thanks, you too." Olive replied. Dean smiled at Olive, then walked to the back with Daniel and Isaiah by the grills. Olive returned to her studies before her phone began to ring in her pocket. Olive fished it out of her pocket and answered it once she knew who was calling her.
  "Good morning, Jill." Olive happily greeted.
  "Good morning. How is everything so far? Are the boys there yet?" Jill asked, curiously.
  "Yeah, they're all in the back. They got here not too long after I did." Olive answered.
  "Great, that's great. If you need me to come by for anything or just need to call and ask me something, I'll be available all day." Jill asserted to Olive, letting her know that she didn't have to hold back on anything she may be anxious about.
  "I'm sure I won't need to do that unless the restaurant is on fire." Olive joked.
  "Oh god, call the fire department before you call me if that's the case." Jill commented, making Olive laugh unexpectedly.
  "Sure thing. Thank you for trusting me with the restaurant. I promise I won't cause too much damage." Olive continued, tittering throughout her explanation. Jill chuckled.
  "Don't mention it, I trust all of you very much, so I'm not worried about it." Jill mentioned, confident in her choice to allow Olive to work on her own.
  "Oh, by the way, did Franky mention to you that her and I will be making and putting up papers around town for events we'll be holding for the restaurant?" Olive asked, curious.
  "She did, I think it's a great idea, Olive. Thank you for suggesting that. I look forward to seeing your ideas." Jill praised Olive, leaving her far too excited to contain her adrenaline. Olive silently jumped up and down over her own enrapture.
  "Thank you, I really hope it works out for this place. I'd hate to see it end up closing down." Olive persisted, making Jill smile.
  "I appreciate how much you care about my restaurant. Don't push yourself too hard, dear." Jill responded, titillated to hear how intent Olive is to keep Jill's Grub up and running successfully.
  "I wouldn't dream of it, Jill." Olive replied, smiling from ear to ear once again. Four customers walked into the restaurant together while Olive was standing behind the counter. Olive internally panicked.
  "Oh, hang on Jill, a few customers just walked. I'm gonna set my phone down for a minute." Olive mentioned, setting her phone down before she could hear Jill's response.
  "Good morning, a group of four?" Olive asked. The group nodded as Olive grabbed four menu's from under the counter.
  "Booth or table?" Olive asked, approaching the four customers. Their group consisted of two men and two women. They all looked to be in their mid to late twenties. Olive considered that it was a double date, but wasn't too sure due to seeing that only one set of the group were behaving intimately with each other. Both of the women had similar brown hair and were of average height. The two men had an exponential difference in height and hair color, however. They seemed like a nice group of people to Olive.
  "A table, please." One of the females stated. Her topaz brown eyes gazing at Olive's warm jade eyes as she smiled. Olive nodded in response. Olive lead the group to a vacant table and they seated themselves not long after approaching the far side of the front of the restaurant. The two women sat side by side to each other, as did the two men.
  "What can I get you all to drink?" Olive asked, pulling out her notepad.
  "I'll take a root beer, please." The taller, foggy grey eyed male stated as he stared up at Olive. Olive wrote down his order, nodding. The other three scanned the menu while Olive stood there, waiting patiently for them.
  "I'll take the same, actually." The shorter male spoke, content with his decision once he looked up from the menu and over at Olive. His dark brown eyes, darted, then focused on the brown eyed girl across from him. He smiled at her as Olive wrote down his drink order as well.
  "A Coke is fine for me." The topaz brown eyed female conveyed, then grabbing the other woman's hand. Olive watched as the two women did this. She didn't react, but was still a bit shocked. Olive didn't expect it, but was delighted by the surprise. They were a cute couple.
  "Do you guys serve alcohol?" The other woman looked up at Olive, smiling with her glinted blue eyes. The other three were taken aback. Olive laughed loudly, not being capable of containing it. She quickly covered her mouth, shaking her head.
  "I'm so sorry, I wasn't expecting you to say that, is all. We do not serve alcohol, miss." Olive answered, smashing her lips together to hide her laughter.
  "Damn, I guess I'll get a Sprite, if you have it." The blue eyed woman mentioned. Olive smiled.
  "We do have it. Alright, I have two root beer's, a Coke and a Sprite." Olive read over her notepad, confirming their order of drinks. The group of four all nodded, gracefully.
  "Yep." The steel eyed man answered.
  "I'll get those for you all while you look over the menu for your meals." Olive added, turning to grab their drinks and to continue her phone call with Jill. Olive hurried with her pace to get behind the counter and retrieve her phone. She picked it up from the counter to see that the phone call was still on-going. Olive turned, her back facing the four customers.
  "Jill?" Olive spoke out. She heard shuffling around before Jill had answered.
  "I'm still here, I've had you on speaker while I cook breakfast." Jill uttered, a short distance from her phone.
  "Sweet. Well, I'm glad to hear that you're on board for my idea." Olive recollected their previous conversation before Olive's customers had walked in.
  "Of course, dear." Jill confirmed with Olive.
  "I hope you have a great day, Jill." Olive spoke, happily.
  "You as well, Olive. I appreciate you, thanks." Jill replied, making Olive show a small simper as she held her phone close to her ear.
  "I will, and it's really no problem at all." Olive continued, sounding gleeful.
  "Bye-bye." Jill spoke up.
  "Bye." Olive muttered, ending the phone call. Olive placed her phone back in her pants pocket, grabbing four cups for her customers. Olive could faintly hear their conversation due to how quiet it was.
  "That's beside the point, Nicki. She looks like she's still in high school." Olive could hear the brown eyed male's voice.
  "It was a joke that made the kid laugh, big deal. I wasn't actually expecting her to get me a drink." The blue eyed woman who asked Olive for an alcoholic beverage spoke up, defending herself. Olive agreed whole-heatedly with what she had said. Olive lined up three of the four cups underneath the desired beverages of her customers.
  "You know it wasn't completely a joke, you damn alcoholic. At six in the morning, no less." The female seated next to Nicki mumbled softly to her. Nicki scoffed, then nodding.
  "Okay, so maybe I wasn't kidding, but the damn comment isn't gonna kill the girl. Besides, having a mimosa this early isn't a crime, I might add." Nicki continued with her defense. The other three shook their heads, laughing with each other over Nicki's annoyance.
  "Thanks for having my back, Edgar." Nicki stated, glaring playfully at the espresso eyed male.
  "What the fuck did I do?" Edgar shouted loudly, startling Olive. She held in her laughter as the group openly guffawed; greatly amused.
  "It's fine babe, she'll get over it." The grey eyed male added to the conversation.
  "Fuck off, babe." Nicki responded, laughing slightly, saying 'babe' in a mocking tone. Olive was enlivened by their cheery attitudes so early in the morning.
  "At least I know Jackie has my back." Nicki commented, leaning against the whiskey brown eyed female, nuzzling her playfully. Olive laughed, switching one of the cups that was under the root beer fountain nozzle; then switching it with the fourth cup that needed the be filled.
  "That's fine by me." Edgar responded, scoffing at Nicki. Olive proceeded to take their drinks to their table after placing them on a black tray.
  "Here we go. Two root beer's, a Coke and a Sprite. Do you all need some more time with the menu?" Olive asked after setting down the group of fours' drinks.
  "I think we all know what we want?" The grey eyed male stated, looking up at Olive, then gazing around at the rest of the group. The two women nodded, while Edgar was still looking over the menu.
  "What about you, Edgar?" The grey eyed male asked. Edgar hummed while making his final decisions.
  "Yeah, I got it." Edgar responded, bringing his head up to relay his order when he got the chance.
  "Ladies first." The green eyed male stated, looking at both of the women. They grinned.
  "I'll get the Americana breakfast with hash-browns, and can I get my eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese?" Nicki asked. Olive nodded gracefully.
  "Of course, sure thing." Olive answered sweetly. Nicki nodded, a smile growing on her face.
  "Would you like bacon or sausage?" Olive asked, remembering the choices of that meal. Nicki pursed her lips, thinking of the choices.
  "Can I get both?" Nicki asked, making the other three roll their eyes and laugh. Olive giggled.
  "Of course." Olive stated, smiling.
  "I'll have the biscuits and gravy." Jackie stated. Olive jotted her order down in her notepad.
  "Awesome, sounds good." Olive spoke, then picked her head up at the two male customers.
  "Could I get the banana chocolate chip pancakes?" Edgar stated, making the other three in the group look at him with confusion.
  "What? They sound good. Can a guy not have some damn pancakes?" Edgar jabbed, causing the other three to laugh along with him.
  "No, it's just that you never order sweet things." Jackie mustered.
  "Well, I like to try new things." Edgar continued.
  "And I'll get the spinach omelet plate." The grey eyed male told Olive his order once she finished writing down Edgar's.
  "Hell yeah, that's a great choice." Olive exclaimed. The group of four looked at her, surprised, but also amused by her sudden outburst. Olive immediately covered her mouth with her pen still in her hand.
  "Sorry, that's just my favorite one on the breakfast menu." Olive defended. The grey eyed man shook his head as the other three chuckled.
  "It's alright, hon. You don't need to apologize." The grey eyed man reassured Olive. She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to speak once more.
  "That comes with a choice of bacon or sausage as well." Olive explained, looking at the grey eyed man. He then looked over at Jackie, gleefully smirking.
  "I'll have both too if that's alright." The grey eyed man answered, making Jackie shake her head with a smile.
  "Nice." Jackie stated with a forced deep voice. Olive smiled with teeth and all over their comedic attitudes.
  "Of course, I'll send this off to the cooks and they should all be ready momentarily. I will be behind the counter if any of you need anything from me." Olive stated, the group of four nodded and smiled up at Olive. Olive walked behind the counter and into the back, towards the grills. She wanted to greet her three coworkers instead of shouting from the delivery window.
  "Hey, I got four breakfast orders." Olive proclaimed, ripping the paper from her notepad and handing it to Daniel as he was the closest one to her.
  "Damn, that quick?" Isaiah spoke, slightly complaining. Olive laughed, shrugging one shoulder.
  "They came in earlier than I thought they would." Dean mentioned, looking over the orders on the paper as Daniel still held it in front of him.
  "Who wakes up this early for breakfast?" Isaiah complained slightly. Dean side-eyed Isaiah in a teasing way.
  "Lots of people." Dean answered, rolling his eyes, making Olive bust up with sudden laughter.
  "You're all laughs today, huh?" Daniel asked, smiling over Olive's good mood.
  "Yeah, the customers out there kind of perked me up." Olive replied, explaining where her energized aura had come from.
  "We heard all of them laughing pretty loud." Isaiah brought up, chuckling to himself.
  "Alright, we should have this all cooked up soon." Dean stated towards Olive, lifting his gaze from the paper to Olive. Olive nodded, then walked away to head back out behind the counter. Olive exhaled deeply before opening up her AP Biology book. She pulled aside her notebook, jotting down notes for her incoming exam within the following week of school. She looked up, watching as her four customers continued to act friendly with each other.
  Olive didn't want to assume incorrectly, but she still deduced that they were a four-person couple. Olive tilted her head, thinking about the possibility. While she relayed to herself that she would never be capable of doing something as high maintenance as that, she still congratulated the group. Olive looked back over at them again, smiling to herself. She figured that they seemed to be a healthy and happy group. Olive returned her vision to her book, groaning at her task.
  "God dammit, Mr. Green. The year just started and you're already killing us with this exam." Olive complained, whispering to herself over the knowledge that her AP Biology teacher was having his students read over and study three of the beginning sections for their first exam of the year. She ran her fingers through her parted hair, some of the strands breaking away; doing the opposite of what Olive wanted them to do. Olive then tucked hair behind her right ear out of annoyance with the rebellious loosely spiraled obsidian locks.
  Olive read over the first two sections fairly quickly—the first having to do with Hydrogen bonding, and the second regarding elements of life. Olive felt that both sections were simple to memorize and understand. However, she had a harder time comprehending the third section; which had to do with Biological macro-molecules.
  "Dude, what the fuck, this is so damn confusing for no reason." Olive whispered to herself once again, squinting her eyes at the text in the book. She then pulled out her phone to find a better explanation for the section. She clicked on and read through a sizable website forum to understand the topic.
  "Okay, that's a better explanation." Olive muttered, scanning her eyes through the site on her phone screen.
  "Amino acids, fatty acids, carbohydrates, and nucleobases. That leading to proteins, that leading to phospholipids, then that leading to glycerol, monosaccharides which turn into saccharides. Blah, blah, blah." Olive stated, drawing a diagram of the four major classes to her third section. Olive heard Dean call out for her in a muffled tone due to her trance while studying. She shifted, turning her head to look towards the wide window where Dean had set down the plates of food.
  "Order's up." Dean stated once again, but it was Olive's first time hearing it clearly.
  "Hey, sorry, I've been preoccupied." Olive apologized.
  "This job is perfect to catch up on school work. I'm not worried about you not doing your job, trust me. We slack off plenty back here." Dean joked. Olive's chest and shoulders jolted as she giggled.
  "I appreciate it." Olive mentioned further, grabbing the plates.
  "Don't sweat it." Dean replied, smiling on at Olive before heading to the back again. After Olive had brought over the meals to her four customers. Soon enough, she found herself wracked with boredom. Olive mentally smacked herself for getting through most of her studying well before her shift was even half over. Olive headed out the front door to take a break. The fresh breeze after a night of heavy rain attacked Olive's face, rushing against the thickness of her hair.
  She hummed, closing her eyes while she leaned on the brick wall. The neighborhood was as quiet as it always was, calming her. Olive pulled out her phone, nervously hovering her finger over the call button on Georgia's contact. She sighed, not understanding why she would hesitate when it came to Georgia. Olive knew the reason she hesitated was justifiable, but she still felt like a terrible friend for it. Yet, Olive took a chance and decided to call her anyway. A few trills rolled through the speaker of her phone as she held it against her ear. Olive had almost ended the phone call, assuming Georgia wouldn't answer, but she was greeted before succeeding.
"Hey, I was just thinking about you." Georgia spoke. Olive was silent, not sure what to talk about. Olive never had to worry about how to talk to Georgia up until recently. Olive thought to herself that she knew Georgia only meant well and wanted to help her, but she still felt like Georgia broke a deep trust with her.
"Are you there?" Georgia questioned, worried that Olive hung up before she could answer. Olive cleared her throat.
"Yeah, sorry. I was sidetracked for a second." Olive responded. They were both silent again.
"Are you doing okay?" Georgia asked, sounding worried. Olive inhaled nervously.
"Yeah, I guess. I'm just bored as fuck over here and I still feel like shit over the last couple of days." Olive responded honestly. Georgia hummed on the other end of the phone call.
"Do you want to get your mind off of it?" Georgia considered, willing to help Olive with whatever she needed.
"I guess, I just wanted to talk for a little bit. I came out to get some fresh air during my break and was thinking about you too." Olive admitted, looking around at all the rustling trees. Georgia didn't respond right away, leaving Olive to ask her a question.
"By the way, you said you were thinking about me, what for?" Olive asked. Her tone wasn't menacing, but genuinely curious.
"My mom asked how you and your mom were doing earlier and I just started thinking about you most of the day. How have you been since our last talk?" Georgia mentioned. Olive clicked her tongue nervously.
"Kind of on the fence. Worried too." Olive informed Georgia, refusing to lie. Georgia let out a light groan.
"I don't blame you. I understand that you don't like that I've been talking to Damian, but it's not to hurt you or to make you angry. I just want to genuinely understand him. I also think it's good for me to keep an eye on him so I can make sure he really isn't going to harm you in any way. I got your back, Olive. I hope you know that." Georgia expressed wholeheartedly, not wanting to leave anything out of her explanation.
"I know, it just won't ever sit right with me in regards to the possibility of you getting hurt as well. If anything happened to you I would never forgive myself for being stupid enough in allowing him to even approach you." Olive mentally cursed at herself.
"Olive, don't say that about yourself. Damian meeting me wasn't your fault and don't blame yourself for that." Georgia spoke, inhaling before continuing.
"And just like I always tell you, I can take care of myself as well. I don't need a bodyguard and you know that too." Georgia explained further, making Olive chuckle a bit with agreement.
"How's work been?" Georgia asked. Olive sighed with obvious vexation.
"I'm here alone, so it's far more boring than it normally is." Olive replied in a tired tone. She yawned while awaiting for Georgia to respond.
"It's busy as shit at work today for me. I'm on my break too, so I'm glad you called when you did because I wouldn't have been able to answer." Georgia added. Olive heard the bell to the restaurant door ring. The sound startled her, causing her to turn and face who had exited behind her. She exhaled, realizing it was the grey eyed man from the group of four. He placed on of his hands up, not trying to scare Olive as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
"Hey, call me on your next break, okay? I gotta go." Olive spoke, realizing that her four customers would likely want their check fairly soon.
"Okay, I love you." Georgia stated. Olive forced a smile.
"I love you too." Olive replied, then ended the phone call. Olive put her phone back in her pocket and turned back around to face the grey eyed man.
"I hope I don't sound rude, but can I have one of those?" Olive asked. The grey eyed man tilted his head to the side, hesitant to give her a cigarette.
"How old are you?" The grey eyed man asked, curiously.
"Almost seventeen." Olive wasn't going to attempt to lie to him, granted that she had no reason to. If he told her no, Olive would find no issue with it. She figured that smoking a cigarette would help her to decompress, even if it were just for a few minutes.
"I would usually say no, but you seem like a decent kid." The grey eyed man stated before placing his own cigarette between his teeth to grab one for Olive out of his pack.
"Besides, you're almost of legal smoking age and I can't really attempt to set an example since I started smoking at fourteen." The grey eyed man continued, chuckling to himself.
"Yeah, I don't smoke, but I'm just so stressed out today that I could really use a cigarette to help me out." Olive explained herself, desperately not wanting to sound like a frequent smoker.
"So this is your first time smoking?" The grey eyed man asked. Olive shot her head up at him as he held out the cigarette and lighter in the palm of his left hand.
"Yeah." Olive answered truthfully. She began to laugh nervously, taking the cigarette and lighter. She put the cigarette between her lips and sucked in as the fire enveloped the encased tobacco. She immediately began to cough uncontrollably. The grey eyed man stifled his laughter, blowing smoke out of his mouth and nose.
"Yeah, I probably should've warned you about how bad the first couple inhales are." The grey eyed man confessed, tittering at Olive.
"It's okay, I had to learn for myself. Thank you for this by the way." Olive spoke, handing the light back to the grey eyed man.
"Don't mention it. You seemed really anxious so I hope that helps." The grey eyed man conveyed. Olive averted her eyes as she inhaled the tobacco some more. She strained a bit, trying to hold back her coughs. The grey eyed man let out a breathy laugh.
"My name's Olive." She greeted herself formally. The grey eyed man blew the cigarette smoke to his left before he responded.
"Nat." He extended his left arm in order to shake Olive's hand. She extended her arm as well, gripping his in her's.
"Nice to meet you. How has everyone's meal been?" Olive asked, curiously.
"It was great, I'll have to come by more often." Nat expressed.
"I've never seen you guys around here before. Just passing through?" Olive continued. Nat shook his head.
"Nah, we came from Rockford." Nat explained, causing Olive to nod her head with understanding.
"We're here for family. The four of us grew up here." Nat added to the conversation Olive never thought she'd have with a practical stranger.
"That's nice. Do you miss it?" Olive mentioned. Nat released somewhat of a half scoff, half chuckle.
"A bit. It's nice to reminisce, but the town is still so damn small. No one can really create a life here without having to travel two or more hours just for a decent paying job." Nat was honest, not holding back. Olive liked that.
"I agree." Olive answered.
"Are you planning on going to college or something?" Nat questioned, wanting to carry on the conversation.
"Yeah, very much so. I'm thinking of either going to school in Germany or Miami. They have really good art and music programs." Olive explained happily, then mulling over a reminder of what Franky stated regarding the university in Chicago.
"Studying abroad sounds interesting. I graduated from an art institute in Chicago. I studied in film and animation. Now I have a job at Hughes Media Corp. I really recommend going there if travel is something that becomes troublesome." Nat expressed, seeming pleased with his choices and his current job. Olive mulled over the idea.
"That's actually very tempting. I'll definitely look more into it." Olive replied, smiling up at Nat while she was finishing up her cigarette. Nat put out his cigarette by rubbing it against the asphalt and placing it in the trash can near the restaurant. Olive considered another thought she had.
"I don't mean to sound intrusive, but are the four of you a group couple?" Olive asked, unable to let her curiosity go. Nat grinned, releasing a breathy chuckle.
"Yes, we're a polyamorous couple." Nat furthered the statement Olive had made, confirming her assumption.
"That's cool. It's nice to see people getting along like you all in a relationship like that." Olive complimented, then immediately regretting the way she worded her response. Nat could see the panic in her face, making him shake his head.
"It's mainly just about communication, trust and honesty. If people don't have that, no relationship will work out." Nat informed Olive. She was in deep thought for a moment, almost stunned by the words Nat had uttered. Olive didn't realize she had developed such a despondent expression.
"You good?" Nat asked, sounding awkward over Olive's sudden mood change. She cleared her throat and shook her head slightly.
"It's nothing, you just reminded me of something." Olive assured, forcing a minuscule smile.d Nat didn't respond with words, but instead just nodded slowly.
"Would you all like your check?" Olive asked kindly, wanting to change the subject. Nat glanced inside the restaurant from the window before answering.
"Yeah, if it's not too much trouble. They look about finished." Nat replied, looking back at Olive as she put out her cigarette the same way he had. Nat chuckled silently.
"It's no trouble at all." Olive stated, straightening herself up before heading back inside the restaurant.
"Is there any way you'd like to split the check?" Olive asked Nat as he followed her to the counter.
"I'll pay." Nat spoke, pulling his wallet out of his front pocket. Olive watched as he did this, not realizing she had started smiling to herself. Nat noticed, but only smiled back in return. Olive was proud of herself how far she had come in an extremely short amount of time. There was still a matter of finding another part time job on the side to continue helping to pay bills. Nat pulled out his debit card and handed it to Olive.
"Alright, the total will be thirty-seven eigthy-three." Olive stated, swiping the card and waiting for the receipt to print out.
"I'm gonna go let them know." Nat spoke, catching Olive's attention, causing her to look up at him as he walked toward his group. Olive overheard the faint chatter going on between the four of them as she pulled the receipt from the machine to hand to Nat. Once the group had may their way towards Olive, she gave them all a smile.
"The food was delicious." Jackie spoke, holding Nicki's hand, while Edgar had his arms draped over both of their shoulders.
"I'm glad you liked it. I hope you'll come back soon." Olive responded with a sheepish grin, handing Nat his card and the receipt to sign. Nat stepped forward to sign in and retrieve his card.
"I wish we could come by more often but we live in Rockford." Nicki interjected. Edgar nodded.
"I'm sure the next time we visit, we'll stop by." Edgar added, making the other three nod enthusiastically.
"I hope I'm here if you all decide to come back." Olive mentioned tenderly. Jackie and Nicki awed at Olive.
"How sweet." Jackie spoke again. Jackie and Nicki's reactions made Edgar and Nat roll their eyes lightheartedly.
"Suck ups." Edgar commented, making Jackie playfully punch his arm. Nat slid the receipt back towards Olive before he and the other three were ready to leave.
"You all have a wonderful day." Olive stated as Jackie, Nicki and Edgar headed to the door.
"You as well." Edgar and Jackie exclaimed at the same time. Olive tittered.
"Thank you, Olive." Nat said, smiling at Olive before turning away to leave with the other three.
"No problem." Olive answered, waving at the group. Once they left, Olive walked over to clear their table. When Olive approached the table, there were dollar bills stuck underneath each of the plates. Olive smiled to herself with knitted eyebrows. Olive pulled the bills from under the plates and counted them all.
"Forty, nice." Olive mumbled to herself, shoving the money into her back pocket. Olive bussed their table and placed in on the counter near the sinks.
"How are you guys doin' back there?" Olive shouted a bit in order for all of them to hear as the air conditioner unit was rather loud.
"Bored." Olive heard Isaiah exclaim.
"Good." Dean followed after.
"Fine." Daniel added. Olive giggled to herself.