Never Again.

Chapter Fourteen

I walked around the counter and made fresh coffee bringing it around for the remaining customers. I emptied off one pot and two more tables emptied. I cleaned and wiped up their tables, and offered more coffee to the lonely man at the bar, who I caught staring at me. The uneasy feeling had finally left when I realized it must have been him watching me.

"Coffee?"

"Sure, thanks." 'Oh, no 'Dani', ' I thought.

"Pie?"

"That'd be great, thanks."

I went to get him a piece of cherry when I changed my mind.

I set his plate down and he chuckled when he noticed the three half pieces in front of him.

"I couldn't decide which two, so I brought all three."

"Thanks, Dani. This is perfect."

"Glad you like it." He was looking into my eyes and I looked away, sometimes I felt as if he could see my whole life in them, but I just smiled and turned.

"You seem happy today." He said with a happy/confused face.

"I am." 'Is it that obvious?'

"Good. You deserve to be." And I turned and took the order of the couple coming in for lunch.

At two in the afternoon, there were about five people in the diner, and at lunch there hadn't been many more. It was slow today, like most Mondays.

So I had a lot of time to think, 'What does he do for a living? Maybe I'll never know. What if he tells me and I never see him again? Why does it matter? He's just a friendly stranger.' I reminded myself.

It picked up at dinner, with quite a few tables full, it kept me on my toes. I didn't even realize it was seven o'clock when it came around. I had a mountain of dishes to do and more heading that way with two tables to clean off.

All of a sudden a crash sounded and I jumped. 'Not Charlie, not now.' But it wasn't, a kid had dropped a ketchup bottle, which shattered into smaller pieces as it hit the floor. All the eyes flew to the table as I brought the broom, dustpan and mop over. I was shaking pretty badly by the time I had cleaned it up a few minutes later. I brought the cleaning supplies to the back room and stood against the wall right outside it telling myself, 'Calm down, you're safe now. Lily wouldn't let anything happen to you.' Repeatedly. It was quite some time later when I had stopped shaking and began breathing normal again.

Grabbing a new ketchup bottle from the fridge I walked back around the counter.

"Here, this one is sturdier, I think." I winked at the boy who had dropped it. I think he was about three years old and he giggled apologizing to me.

"It's fine. Eat up," and I turned and walked away. Five minutes later they left the diner and I offered coffee to Kane again.

"Coffee, Kane?"

He immediately looked up and smiled, "Sure, thanks."

I poured it and asked, "Was the pie good?"

"Yes, thank you, Dani. I see why you can't choose a favourite."

"Yeah. They're all delicious."

"They are." He smiled and watched me as I walked around the counter. I picked up the plates from empty tables and wiped them down. I felt free today, as my hair hung down my back in a braid. And I didn't feel as weak today. 'Baby steps, Dani. Maybe one day it'll be down.'

"Dani! Was everything okay today?" Lily asked as she walked in, arms full of shopping bags.

"Of course. One ketchup bottle broke, so I put it in a small cardboard box in the garbage so you don't cut yourself. I see shopping was successful."