Help!

III. Granny Annie

Granny Annie had founded her restaurant over forty years ago and even if she wasn't standing in the kitchen herself anymore, she would still mingle in the front and take orders.

Her favourites were Sunday mornings.

Not straight at the start, with the eager early risers but rather the time between breakfast and lunch, this weird semi-zone of being too late for the one and too early for the other, only for people who liked to follow a different schedule.

She liked those times because they were quiet but full of pleasant people, people who didn't stress and came because they enjoyed coming and weren't in a hurry to get anywhere any time soon.

It was also a time that most of her regulars would use, so she would always spent those hours chatting away.

One of her favourite guests were these two boys, who had recently started to show up.

They weren't really boys any more but they weren't really grown up either. Just like the in-between-stage in the restaurant, they were just transitioning from one period in their life to another, fitting straight in with the interior.

Annie remembered the first time they popped around, just around 10am on a Sunday, after the usual morning people had left.

The taller one was there first, nervously glancing around, sitting down on one table but immediately jumping up, looking for another.

She witnessed him trying four different tables and he was just about to get up once again when someone else was entering the restaurant. An equally young man, glasses on his nose nearly gliding down, looking stressed and tired.

He looked around and helpfully, Granny Annie pointed at the other young one in the corner, that couldn't be seen from the door and she received a grateful smile in return.

For the next hour, they buried themselves in books, deeply in discussion, drinking three cups of coffee each and sharing a cupcake.

She couldn't take it much longer and brought them both a bowl of porridge. They looked like they needed a bit of energy and nutrition.

The kids these days just didn't knew how to take care of themselves anymore.

Both of them were absolute sweethearts about it, chatting with her and thanking her profoundly.

Brett and Eddy were their names, so she learned.

They left shortly after, coming up to the counter, thanking her.

Eddy was so kind to open the door for the other and Annie could see Brett smiling softly at that.

How endearing.

/

The two boys showed up every couple of weeks.

At the beginning, they were only ever looking at books but the more weeks passed, the more the books got ignored and they were just talking, for hours at times.

The smaller always looked a bit tired on some Sundays and Granny Annie had started to be concerned about it until one day, Brett came in wearing scrubs and oh, that would make sense.

She was curious and asked him about it when she brought over some oven warm scones and with a proud smile, Brett told her that he was a nurse in the making and Eddy a med student and was helping him with a class.

The whole time, the Eddy lad was just starring fondly at Brett, who was talking to Annie, looking absolutely smitten.

The following week, Annie came over to bring more coffee but saw that Brett had fallen asleep, his head leaning back. It wasn't resting on the top of the booth though but rather on Eddy's arm, who had kindly put it there. This way, Brett's head didn't had to lay on the hard wood.