Reverie - Michael Jackson Imagines

Love With A Proper Stranger✨

Dangerous Era

Requested by @michaelajackson22 .  Sorry it took so long! Hope you enjoy and is something like what you're looking for!

Your eyes swept over the clock with a sigh as you spin on the barstool. A Jackson Browne hit from a few years ago garbled out of the old jukebox that needed tuning, porcelain dishes clattered from the kitchen nearby and a sea of empty chairs stared back at you. There was still an hour and a half left of your shift and nothing to occupy your time.

With another sigh,you hop from the stool, pick up a broom and begin sweeping the tiled floor. You hum quietly to yourself as you imagine being somewhere far away.

It was just a typical night at your dead end job. You worked as a waitress in a hole-in-the-wall diner in downtown L.A. Four years ago, you'd moved to the city with the intention of escaping your boring hometown in hopes of leading an exciting, glamorous life. So far, it wasn't working out the way you'd planned. You were in your mid-twenties with no decided direction in life, you worked days and nights at the dinner just to make enough money in tips to make the rent for a rundown apartment and because you worked so much, you had no social or romantic life.

Everyday you wished things would change. That someone or something could save you from your life of boredom and isolation but nothing ever happened.

"Y/N," Josh, your co-worker calls from behind you. "You're locking up tonight, right?"

You stop your sweeping and spin around to face him, meeting his sparking green eyes.

"Yeah," you breathe, smoothing a hand over your ponytail. "Still an hour and a half left for me."

Josh was a few years younger than you and picked up tables to push himself through college. You often worked on shifts together and the two of you got a long well. You'd realized you'd developed a crush on Josh but you knew it would never go anywhere considering that he was happily in love with his high school sweetheart, Margaret. Still it was nice to have someone you liked around while enduring this boring job.

"Well, I'm headed out," he replies, taking off his apron and shrugging into his flannel. "Catch you later, Y/N."

You flash a small smile.

"See ya,"

With Josh gone and the kitchen staff loafing off, you knew you were in for a boring hour and thirty minutes if a customer didn't drop by. You decide to retreat behind the soda fountain and grab the novel stuffed in your bag. You engross yourself into the harlequin romance about a rich socialite who falls in love with a poor gardener. It was campy and predictable but a sweet escape from reality.

You were so involved in the progression of the story that you hardly heard the brass bell echoing through the dinner. As you peered up from your page, you noticed a man nestled into a back booth. With a sight you dogear your page and stuff the book in your apron pocket before getting out your pencil and pad. As much as you'd longed for entertainment, you couldn't admit that you were happy to actually have work to do.

As you approached the table, you couldn't help but notice the man's appearance. He wore a plain sweatshirt, a ball cap sat atop his head and a pair of dark sunglasses hid his eyes. It was very strange, considering that it was well after ten o'clock at night with not a trace of sun out. Thick sideburns and a heavy moustache, reminiscent of a distant uncle from the 1970s completed his suspicious appearance and an expensive, powdery smelling cologne lingered.

"Hi," you speak slowly. "What can I get for you tonight?"

The peculiar man folds his hands on the table top, angeling his body in your direction. His choice of large, dark shades make it impossible to tell where he's looking.