meet you there // l.h (on hold)

II: stop trying so hard

 "Stop trying so hard is what you said to me

What you said to me."

Lex

Luke was a really nice guy. He kept up with all of my craziness and we had just met, and that said quiet a lot about him. We had to take another taxi cab to get to the diner, and luckily it was only a few blocks away from my house.

We got there and I sat Luke at a table.

"Wait, here," I told him and turned around and headed to the kitchen.

The moment I stepped in, the hollering started.

"Lexi baby brought a boy. Mi niña ya creció," Ramona, the diner owner, said. "Sunday morning dates. Una cosa beautiful."

"Can I get my apron?" I asked kind of embarrassed. "And...I only just met him. At a bar."

"You were at s bar? Cristo santo," she said doing the cross sign over her chest.

"She grew up in like two seconds. We last saw her on her Friday," cried her husband, Manuel. "Crecen tan rápido."

"Can I get my apron?" I asked again trying to avoid the weird conversation. Ramona laughed and walked over to where all of them hung and the across the kitchen to me. "Thank you."

I waved and walked out. Luke was sitting backward from the kitchen so he couldn't see him. I went up and stood next to him. "Good morning, my name is Alexandra and I will be serving you today."

He turned his head towards me turning of his phone and smiled, and soon his smile became a laugh, and since the place was so quite it filled with his laughter –a warm laughter, and I smiled too. And then he started choking and it was turn to do the whole thing he had just done. And then I also chocked.

I saluted him and walked back to kitchen, I didn't even give him time to say anything.

"Two orders of pancakes with bacon and two chocolate milkshakes. I'll pay it."

Ramona hushed me and pushed me out. "It is on me, baby girl. Ve a robarle el corazón." She just told me to steal his heart.

Smiling I walked again to where Luke was sitting and sat in front of him. Once he again, he put his phone down, to give his whole attention to me.

"You work here?" he asked.

And then I launched into a whole story about the job. I got it during my first summer in California, after my freshman year. I stayed at Juliet's apartment so I didn't have to go back home because it was expensive, since she was giving me a place to stay I wanted to help with the food and the house supplies. So one day I went off the Mexican market to buy food for a meal I was making as a thank you to Juliet but I got lost and started crying and cursing in Spanish. Ramona found me and helped me out, and ended offering me a job at her diner, which was created and attended by Mexican people. And that was the story of my job.

"Every summer I come here, to earn a couple of bucks, since my scholarship obviously doesn't include summer in Los Angeles or plane tickets for your family to come to your graduation, which is like, in eleven months. I need to save enough for three plan tickets. Luckily Juliet said they could stay here at the apartment."

"You haven't seen them in three years?" he asked surprised and shook my head. "I can't imagine that. I spent most of my time out of the country but I get back to see them. I am sorry."

I shook my hand harder. Before I could speak Manuel came to place the order in front of us. I thanked him in Spanish and took a sip of the milkshake as he left. "Don't pity me, please. There are worse situations than mine. What I want to do is go back home for six months or so, and then move to Germany, get a nice job and make all of their debts disappear."