EPIC LOVE

Chapter 1

Melody arched her back before she entered the small diner in Hopesville, a small country town in the middle of nowhere, yet this is her home. It was small enough that most people knew most people, yet still large enough that there were faces not too familiar.

She sighed as she hung her coat on the wall, the sounds of the morning rush and cooked food grounding her.

It was one of those people she was dragged into a blind date with last night, the reason for her tiredness.

She grabbed her apron from her locker, washed her hands and headed out to the floor, grabbing her pen and notepad from the spot she always left it. She let out another yawn as she made her way to a table where a family just sat, her smile in place.

Samantha and Jessie shared glances, both of her coworkers' eyes lit with curiosity and their hungry faces let Melody know that before lunch they would want to know every juicy detail, but there was nothing to tell.

Melody sighed again, this time in disappointment with a tinge of frustration. How many times does she have to tell her well-meaning friends and family that she is fine on her own? Okay, so she could be a widow, and yes, she does live like a single mom, but at the end of the day, Melody is a married woman, and that isn't going to change, not in her mind and definitely not in her heart.

She busied herself with the routine of taking orders, yelling for Joe to hurry up and not burn the toast, as he is always busy ogling Jessie, whom Melody knows hemmed her skirt an inch shorter just to distract Joe. She doesn't know why those two should just date and leave her out of it.

She grabbed one of her orders and balancing the four plates with skill and efficiency, headed out to table three, placing the hot meal in front of the four workers stopping in before hitting the road to the construction site some miles down the road.

Mr Peters was building another storehouse for his corn, as he was able to buy out Mrs Winters' property. Those two and their families have lived next to each other for years. But when Mr Winters passed three years ago, running the farm became hard, and with her big-shot lawyer son who lives in the city five hours away, he couldn't make that drive every weekend; besides, everybody knew he always hated it here in Hopesville and said he would leave as soon as he finished high school, and he did.

The town is proud of him, but usually, family would come back and help out, thus keeping the business going. Now more and more of the younger ones want to leave. So Mr Peters bought the land at a fair price and promised that if her son or grandchildren wanted to come live here, he would be able to at least give them back the farmhouse with a few lots of land.

It was a generous agreement, and Mrs Winters now lives in a quiet nursing home three hours away. Someone from the town always goes to visit her, and her home is rented out to a lovely family of six, filling the rooms with children that she wasn't able to.

Melody was jolted out of her thoughts when she was pulled into the back by Jessie, with Samantha crowding her. The door to the small changing room closed, and both women looked at her with a hopeful scowl.

Melody sighed. She's been doing that a lot since last night. "All three of us shouldn't be in the back here?" She made a move to open the door, but Samantha shifted, blocking her.

"You ain't leaving until you tell us what happened last night?" Jessie nodded, "Yeah, you came in looking a bit tired this morning. So, tell us". Melody rolled her eyes, praying for the strength to deal with this again.

"For your information, and surely a disappointment to your dirty mind. Nothing happened." She paused. "Actually, less than nothing happened on that date that YOU," she pointed a finger into Jessie's face. "You made Miss Sarah arrange with her incredibly boring nephew." She spun around, her hands hugging herself.

"Boring? I doubt that. Did you see the watch he wears?" Samantha looked at her. "What happened?" Melody threw her hands up in the air. "Nothing, unless you count him trying to feel me up all throughout dinner. When I told him that I was married, he smirked at me, saying, and I quote, 'I'm sure that boy just got scared and ran away, or maybe he really is dead'."

Samantha covered her mouth in disbelief. "He didn't." Melody shot her a look that spoke volumes. "Oh, he did. I got up and dumped my glass of water all over him. I almost wished that I had taken the wine he kept insisting I should order, and that his 'friend' who works there would have made it 'just right'."

Jessie slumped, her legs giving out at what Meody was describing as a possible date rape set-up, and she was the one to give the push.

She looked up at her friend. "Oh, Mel, I am so sorry. I swear I had no idea that he was like that. He seemed so nice and sweet to his aunt whenever he came around, or the few times I ran into him in the city."

Melody nodded, accepting her friend's innocence in the matter, but she kept her arms around her.

"Listen, guys. I know you mean well. I know you want me to move on, but I'm fine." Just then her phone vibrated in her pocket, and it was a text from her someone special.

She turned it to her friends. There was a picture of a boy, covered in flour, holding a rolling pin in a very messy kitchen. "Hey, Mom. Mrs Clover is teaching me how to make pies."

Melody smiled. "Besides, the reason I'm tired is because Harmony was sick last night."The two girls looked at each other, defeat in their shoulders as they thought about what she barely escaped from.

Samantha spoke up. "We are sorry for pushing you. From now on, we are going to respect your decision, and let everybody know that."

Melody smiled before the tender moment was disturbed by Joe knocking on the door, informing the women that their orders were piling up.

The woman left the room, heading back to their hungry customers. Melody sighed, her heart hurting from the comments made by the man from last night. She was a married, single mom who didn't know if her husband was dead.

She shook her head as she made her way outside. As much as other people felt sad for her, she would live like this her whole life if it meant dying with the hope that her husband was still alive.