Nearly Broken (3 page)

Before I could even
finish clearing the first table, Nick came out with a bucket and
began busing the one two tables over. “You don’t have to
do that,” I said. “We’re just responsible for our
own areas.”

“Yeah, I know.
But I try to clean as I cook, so my area’s already done.”

“Oh, okay.
Thanks.”

“So…”
he dragged out, thick ceramic plates clanging as he stacked them in
his container. “Have you always lived around here?”

“Uh, no. I’m
from L.A. actually. You?”

“Washington,
originally. So how’d you end up here? I can’t imagine you
saw a listing for a waitress in a small town and thought
that’s
just
perfect
.”

I playfully rolled my
eyes for him, grabbing the dishrag I used for wiping tables. “I
was on my way to Portland, but I guess I got a little sidetracked.”

“Portland, huh?”
He carried his bucket to the counter, where two more place settings
were dirty. “What’s in Portland?”

I shrugged my
shoulders. “Hell if I know. When I hit the bus station and
scanned the boards, it was the only place that called to me.” I
grabbed my bucket and followed him to the counter.

“You just up and
left for the hell of it? By yourself?”

“My parents
passed away.” I focused on my cleaning, but I could feel his
stare on the side of my face. Before he could inquire, I added, “Car
accident,” and left it at that. “I didn’t really
have anything left, so I had nothing to lose.”

“I’m
sorry.” And as softly as he said that, I believed he meant it.
“My dad died a few years back, too.”

“I’m
sorry,” I said, parroting his sentiment.

With only a stool
separating us, we stood there silently for a moment, just gazing,
feeling one another’s pain behind our eyes. Was his loss as
detrimental to his life as well? Newcomers in small towns were
usually running away from something.

I would know...

The longer I took him
in, the more I realized Nick didn’t belong here. He was a good
looking guy, really fit, maybe a couple of years older. An amazing
cook – probably a chef even. He could easily be working at a
nice restaurant in any major city, or even making a lot of money
bartending with those looks. So why wasn’t he?

It wasn’t until
a pair of headlights from an old, white truck flashed and drew our
attention to the front windows that we moved. I sighed, and said,
“It’s Joe. He’s probably going to want the burger
deluxe medium-well. And you’d be doing me a huge favor getting
it out ASAP.”

His posture stiffened.
“Is he a problem for you?”

“No,” I
said, tossing the last of the dishes into the bucket. With a forced
smile, I added, “He’s harmless.” Just relentless…

“Here,” he
said, taking my bucket and stacking it atop his, “I’ll
take care of this and get his food started.”

As he passed me on the
way to the back, I whispered my thanks. I stepped around the counter
and pulled a beer from the cooler just as Joe came through the front.
I met him at the corner table, where he always sat when it was
available.

“Hey, Joe,”
I said sweetly, setting his beer on the table. “How are you
doing tonight?”

“Fine.”
But his eyes were focused on the pass-through. “Who’s
that?” he asked curiously.

I didn’t bother
turning to look. “Nick. New cook. You want your usual?”

“Yeah, thanks,”
he muttered.

Something seemed off
about him. Normally, Joe was all smiles and ready to talk my ear off,
but tonight he was uncharacteristically aloof, seemingly more
interested in what Nick was doing than bother with me.
Hallelujah
.

Nick had Joe’s
food ready within minutes, and Joe too, seemed surprised by the plate
before him. Of all days for Joe to be quiet on his own, because
Nick’s food was so good they all hushed up long enough to
devour it. I gave him a few minutes, all the while cleaning the area
behind the counter. I could hear Nick running some dishes through the
wash, and when he finished, he came up front to quietly ask me if
everything was alright.

“Yeah, fine.”
His body blocked my view of Joe, and he was close enough for me smell
the fresh rosemary lingering on his hands. “I told you, he’s
harmless.”

I wrote up Joe’s
total from memory, then walked his ticket over to him and cleared his
plate. He sat there, drumming his fingers on the table, eyes staring
across the restaurant at nothing.

“Joe? You okay?”

He shifted in his seat
a bit, then drank the last of his beer. “So are ya’
finally gonna be ready to date now that pretty boy’s working in
the kitchen?”

Pretty boy?
Hardly.

“No,” I
stated firmly. “I’m not interested in dating right now.
Any
one. Especially not someone I have to work with every
night.”

“Yeah, right,”
he muttered rudely. He pulled a ten from his wallet and I stepped
aside as he jerked out of the booth and stormed out the front door.
Okay then… Guess I wasn’t getting a tip tonight.

The rest of my shift
went by quickly enough, as I spent a lot of my time between customers
cleaning the floors and restocking the shelves underneath the
counter. With an hour to go, Nick stood beside me as I stacked clean
glasses onto the shelves. “Do you want me to make you something
to eat?”

Looking up from my
spot on the floor, I replied, “I’m not hungry, but
thanks.”

“It’s a
ten hour shift and you haven’t even taken a break yet.”

“That’s
because the moment I stop, I’ll crash.”

He squatted, bringing
our heads closer to eye level. “You should still eat
something.”

There was something
beautiful about his eyes, like translucent sea glass tinted vivid
green. And the way they gazed openly at me was a little distracting.
Quite honestly, I’m not sure how I formed the words, “I’ll
make myself something when I get home.”

“Liar,” he
accused calmly.

Surprised that he saw
through my fib, I blabbered, “How would
you
know?”

“Because if you
knew how to cook, you’d be back there making yourself something
to eat.”

“I told you, I’m
not hungry,” I repeated firmly, but my stomach took that very
moment to rat me out.
Traitor
.

His head tilted. He
knew I was lying again. “Megan.”

I silently sighed my
defeat. “Okay, fine,” I stammered. “I’m
hungry. It’s just…Look, don’t tell Paul, but I
lost interest in the food here a long time ago.”

He was silent for a
moment, and I tried not to smile at the seriousness of his face,
because I think that’s what he was going for. Finally, he
replied, “Fair enough,” and returned to the back.

Ten minutes later, I
was on my knees trying to organize the to-go containers that always
seemed to be a mess. I swear they had invisible legs that sprouted
and moved about each day just to screw with me.

“Order up!”
Nick called.

Curious, I jumped to
my feet thinking I was completely oblivious to a customer, but there
was no one seated in the restaurant. “What’s this?”
I asked. Nick was standing opposite the pass-through, a plate of food
between us.

“Something
off
the menu. Fried chicken club sandwich with honey-mustard dipping
sauce.” When I didn’t take it right away, he encouraged,
“Try it. You’ll like it.”

Like everything else
he cooked, it looked incredibly delicious. I dipped a sandwich
triangle into the sauce and took a bite. “Oh, wow.”
Covering my mouth as I chewed, I added “This
is
good!”

A natural smile
crossed his face as I moaned in pleasure. “See? Always trust
your chef.” He whipped a towel over his shoulder and
disappeared from view, leaving me to devour the food on my own.

Not long after, we
shut down the restaurant and stepped out the back to head home. Nick
immediately asked, “Where’s your car?”

“I can walk,”
I said weakly, my legs suddenly locked with fear as I scanned the
dark alley. I didn’t like the darkness, or being alone while in
it. Every night, Paul had always driven me home. Why hadn’t I
thought of that yet? As much as I hated the night, I should’ve
realized that before now. And even though it took less than ten
minutes to walk home, I really didn’t want to walk it.

Nick flashed me a
disapproving look. “That’s not safe,” he said
slowly. “Hop in. I’ll give you a ride.”

Normally, I would
think twice about getting into a car with a guy I just met. But I
also knew Paul thought of me like a daughter in some ways, and I
believed him when he said Nick checked out. Still, my legs were a bit
shaky climbing inside, but in truth, they had done that the first
time Paul gave me a ride too. Nick drove me the half mile to my
apartment without incident and bid me goodnight. And I hated to admit
it, but his smile warmed my heart a little, despite the hardened
shell I kept around it for protection.

After a few days, Nick
and I fell into a routine at work. We talked about little things and
favorite things, but steered clear of the really personal topics.
Like parents. He didn’t seem too keen on discussing his or
mine, which was a relief, as it was still a painful subject on my
end. And after every shift, he was kind enough to drive me home. I
liked him. He was easy to be around, and it almost felt like we’d
known each other forever.

When I came in
Saturday night, Darla was all in a huff over something, cursing
phrases only a backwoods redneck could fully understand. Asking me to
cover her station for a few minutes, she disappeared into the office
with a disgruntled Paul. When she emerged once again, I asked her if
she was alright.

“Megan,
sometimes I just wanna throttle that man’s neck until he’s
as red as a freakin’ hot rod!”

I pinched my lips to
keep from laughing as her face reddened enough to compete with her
frizzy strawberry-blonde hair. Jokingly, I asked, “Is it time
for Paul to return to the night shift already?”

“Might be!”
she snapped, but she really meant no ill-will towards me.

Continuing the tease,
I said, “Well, you managed to share schedules for a whole six
days. You had a good run.” I even patted her shoulder
condescendingly.

She glared at me with
evil eyes, her heavy eyeliner really adding to the effect. “You
little bitch,” she replied slowly, humor smothering every word.
“You remember what it’s like to live in a house with
him!”

“I do.”

“You spent two
months in that guest room of ours.”

“I did. I
remember.” Being similar heights made it easy to wrap my arm
around her shoulders and pull her tight. “But Darla, you’ve
got a good man there. Not too many people would be kind to a girl
that showed up homeless and penniless. Not like Paul. He’s a
good man.”

Begrudgingly, she let
loose the growl rumbling in her throat. “He is, isn’t
he?” I nodded, and she reluctantly said, “Oh, all right.
I’ll be right back.
Again
.”

She disappeared behind
the office door, yelling, “Oh, hush up a minute, you old fart!”
before closing it behind her.

My chest vibrated with
quiet laughter, but stopped the moment I realized Nick was watching
me through the pass-through, grinning at my display. Then he simply
winked as if to say
good job
and disappeared from view.

The night went by as
any other, but a swarm of customers hit us after eight. Apparently,
word had gotten around that the diner had a new hottie of a cook and
the teenage crowd couldn’t resist coming in to check it out for
themselves. Every single table had questions for me. How old was he?
Was he single? Did he really have a tattoo of a serpent slithering
down his cock?
Uh…twenty-one, think so, and Ew!

I playfully gave him a
hard time for all the attention he’d drawn, but he shook off
its ridiculousness with an eye roll – right after cringing and
saying
ouch
over the tattoo part.

With only two tables
in the diner, and them already eating, I took a few minutes to clear
the counter of dirty dishes. When I came into the kitchen to dump the
bin beside the dishwasher, I caught Nick standing before our employee
bulletin board. Standing there with his legs spread apart and his
arms crossed around his chest, I noted that it wasn’t the
placard explaining his employee rights and responsibilities that he
was so focused in on. It was the flyer for that missing Claire girl.

“Weird, huh?”
I probed, bringing it up before he could.

“I’m
assuming this isn’t you, unless you’re hanging it as a
joke for some reason.”

“God, no!”
I blurted, disturbed at just the thought. “Her sister came in
not too long ago. Poor girl. I think seeing me really did a number on
her, you know? Thinking she’d finally found Claire, only to be
told otherwise.”

His eyes still hadn’t
pulled away from the flyer. “Sounds heartbreaking,” he
replied sadly.